Sunderland writer's drama to be brought to life on BBC radio broadcast starring Coronation Street villain

Fiona Evans has a string of successful plays under her belt – and due to be broadcast on the radio is her adaptation of the novel Your Blue-Eyed Boy by Helen Dunmore; the first winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

The five-part drama will be broadcast in 15-minute programmes at 10.45am, then repeated at 7.45pm, between Monday, March 16 and Friday, March 20.

It stars Royal Shakespeare Company actress Pippa Nixon, alongside Graeme Hawley, best known for his role as serial-killer John Stape in Coronation Street.

Your Blue-Eyed Boy is described by the BBC as: “A tense mystery dramatisation of Helen Dunmore’s thriller about a female district judge.

“Simone is a district judge whose husband Donald is on the verge of bankruptcy and breakdown.

“She attends court, passes judgement on the lives of others, when out of the blue a letter arrives. Someone she has tried to forget has not forgotten her and Simone's private history is about to collide with her public world.”

Fiona, a former St Anthony’s student, said: “It is a real honour to be invited by the BBC to dramatise this novel.

“Helen’s work beautifully and poetically captures the ugly reality of how huge historical events, in this case the Vietnam War, can wreck the lives of individuals.

“Your Blue-Eyed Boy is a novel that explores memory, trauma and how the past haunts and shapes the present - personally and globally.

“It deals with how we reconcile the difference between our private and public selves. Given that the novel was written in the days of pre-social media, it goes to prove the brilliance and insightfulness of the late Helen Dunmore.”

Among Fiona’s other works are The Price of Everything, We Love You Arthur and Scarborough, which was adapted into a film in 2018 starring Peaky Blinders actor Jordan Bolger, with a cinema release.

She has also written for television, including Eastenders and Casualty.

Fiona’s plays have been produced in theatres including the Royal Court in London and the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh.