In the last millennium, Matthew Hurst and Peter Thornhill started writing together, and got some of it recorded.
These are some of the audio recordings.
The Shows
The Soviet Block
The Soviet Block is set against the lies and double truths of the Communist system of the mid sixties. Revolving around three central characters (party chairman Dimitri, hapless assistant Boris and idiotic general... The General) banished to the outback to supposedly govern a small Siberian town, the three manage as best they can laregly ignored by the crumbling Empire around them.
Plots are fun, full of the absurdities of an absurd world, a world where truth is a lie, where the system is apparently all yet nothing. In this world Sputniks fall from the sky and the small baby in the pram could be the next head of the KGB.
Produced and directed by Hurst and Thornhill at BBC Pebble Mill.
Log Cabin - When their Zil limousine breaks down in the freezing backwoods of Siberia, Dimitri, Boris and the General have to escape the clutches of an insane cross dressing Slav still grieving for his wife.
Theatre - Dimitri's old flame, prima donna actress Pavolova turns up, keen to rekindle their relationship despite her jealous husband. Dimitri's only chance is to fake his own death...
Leech Hill
In 18th century Edinburgh, an overbearing surgeon, messianic junior doctor, and a cretinously naive nurse, try to hold back the tide of illness and thuggish body snatchers at Leech Hill Hospital.
Originally commissioned by The Comedy Unit as one of six radio pilots paid for by BBC Scotland with a view to TV, and apparently well received.
May Pox (pilot) - Faced with the annual outbreak of May Pox, the medics come up with a masterplan to keep patients out of their hospital: invent June Pox.
About Hurst and Thornhill
Peter Thornhill and Matthew Hurst wrote and directed comedy and children’s television in the late 90s and early 2000s, both together as The Thornhill and Hurst Partnership and individually as freelancers. Together through the Partnership, and separately in roles as writers, directors, producers and journalists, they have worked for ITV, Channel 4, BBC radio and television, and numerous independent production companies as well as in PR and print journalism.
Joint broadcast credits and current development work includes: The 11 O’Clock Show (C4), Haywire (BBC Radio), Meeow! (Siriol Productions for CITV), Leech Hill (Comedy Unit for BBC Radio), Velvet Cabaret (BBC Radio), Juniper Tree (BBC Pilot), Soviet Block (Comedy Unit and Scottish Television Pilot), Albert (Siriol Productions for CITV), as well as a tranche of sadly unproduced projects including Lord Daring, Negative Equity, Hadrienne’s Wall, and Enclave.