meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Drama of the Week

Astronomers

Drama of the Week

BBC

Drama, Fiction

3.91.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Drama by Faebian Averies, winner of The Imison Award 2022, starring Gabrielle Creevy (The Guest, In My Skin)

Olive is a space-obsessed care home survivor and prison lifer. Emily is the toughest woman in the jail. Together they break out and go on the run – they're not friends but they do need each other. Olive wants to go to Anglesey to the centenary celebrations of her hero, the Welsh aerospace engineer Tecwyn Roberts; Emily has her own reasons for wanting a last chance at freedom. Will they make it as far as Anglesey before the law catches up with them?

Our first broadcast coincides with the centenary of Tecwyn Roberts' birth.

CAST

Olive - Gabrielle Creevy

Emily - Brid Brennan

Beryl - Faebian Averies

Paul - Keiron Self

Simon - Dean Rehman

Pat - Lauren Morais

Tia - Sasha McCabe

Karl - Gwydion Rhys

Tom - Django Bevan

Production Coordinator: Eleri McAuliffe

Sound Design: Catherine Robinson

Producer: John Norton

A BBC Audio Wales Production

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:07.0

Afghanistan, January 2007.

0:11.0

We felt there were Taliban fighters coming through this complex called Jigramport.

0:16.0

A military operation that did not go to plan.

0:19.0

It was the most intense far far I've ever been in.

0:22.5

What we need to do is cut off the snake's head.

0:25.3

And a daring rescue attempt that defied belief,

0:28.6

told by the soldiers who were there.

0:30.6

Right. I'm about to sit on a helicopter and fly into a Taliban fort.

0:34.8

The fort. Listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:39.9

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:44.1

This is Drama of the Week.

0:47.1

I recently read about Jack the Ripper.

0:49.7

You know the bloke who murdered all those women down London town years ago?

0:53.0

Well, turns out the last woman he killed grew up in Wales. I know, bonkers. Mary Jane Kelly, your name was, and she was fully clever in school, but then go widowed a 16, and that's moved down London town to get some steady income on the go. But Mary got there and couldn't find a job, and without a job she couldn't pay a rent and it was just

1:11.1

proper mental back then if you couldn't pay rent.

1:13.4

Well, be the same as it is now.

1:16.1

But anyway, she ended up down the slums in Whitechapel.

1:19.9

Next thing you know, dead.

1:22.6

And it made me lose my mind a bit because I saw a lot of resemblances between her life and

1:26.9

mine, like we're both

1:28.0

Welsh she was clever and I'm addicted to knowledge don't laugh right but I like theatre too

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.