Stories To Tell In The Middle Of The Night podcast series released

A 9-episode series of short, strange tales. Small stories, odd, true, funny and familiar that reflect the night hours themselves. Episodes released weekly from Tuesday 22 May 2018.

A love letter to the sleepless, 2am Facebookers and shift workers, Francesca Millican-Slater DJs her own late night radio show, channelling the rambling raconteurs of presenters from the wee hours to spin a noir-ish stack of stories, odd, familiar, funny, true and stolen. Reflecting on the night hours, she crossfades bite-size stories of loneliness and lack of connection, of acts of kindness and cruelty and violence in fate, lost people, missed chances, words unsaid, horrors, narcissism and the creeping rage of the sleepless.

Francesca said, “It comes from waking up in the middle of the night, or not sleeping, of feeling, at first like you are the only one awake, you know this not to be true; the night allows a certain narcissism. You know of others awake, up and scrolling through blue screen news, looking for people, or contact or news of others dying or dieting. I wondered what stories I’d tell to them in the middle of the night. What stories I tell myself. Not lullabies to send you to sleep but small stories from the day in frustrations, losses, irritations, heartbreak and hope, magnified and made strange by lack of sleep, the night, the dark. I thought about radio shows, rambling raconteurs, DJ’s talking in the night, in the dark, telling tales though they are not sure who is listening. I thought about people just trying to get through the night, what might be heard.”

Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night started its life as a hit theatre show, which toured the UK nationally after a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

‘Quirky and melancholy in equal measure, they capture humanity at its most vulnerable.’ The Scotsman

Now it has embodied its audio routes by re-imagining itself as a podcast series. Some stories recycled from the show, some which never made it onto the stage, and others specially written for the podcast, they are grouped together by themes including; A Night Out; The Frustrations; The Lonely; The Losses and the Left Behinds; The Distractions; The Lovers; The Horrors; Change and Hope.

This podcast series is part of a suite of new incarnations of the show and sits alongside a set of BSL films and bookwork (see the website for more information on these formats).

All specially recorded by Francesca, with bespoke sound design from the show’s original sound designer Iain Armstrong.

‘It’s a smoke-ring sort of a voice that she puts to superb use in Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night.’ The Stage (on the theatre show)

Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night is for story-lovers and narrative fiends. For people who struggle to sleep, people who always sleep soundly and to those keeping themselves awake. For those who enjoy the darker side of hope and space for their own thoughts in the stories they hear. If you love Welcome to Night Vale, Radio 4’s Short Stories or Short Cuts this is likely to be up your street too.

Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night can be accessed and enjoyed at the listener’s convenience.

• Francesca Millican-Slater is a Birmingham based writer and performer. In Summer 2017 Francesca completed writing, curating and performing Confessions of the Sins for the ambitious Fair Field project created and commissioned by Penned in the Margins. During 2015 and 2016 Francesca was artist in residence at the National Waterways Museum, in Ellesmere Port, working across 10 months to create a performance based on retracing the steps of a historic 66 mile canal walk. In 2015 she was commissioned by The New Vic Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, to create a new piece: Gold! as part of their Staffordshire Hoard Festival. In 2014 Francesca premiered The Forensics of a Flat (and other stories) produced by Pippa Frith in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, followed by a national preview tour. Also in 2014, she created two brand new work’s My Dearest Girls: The Letters Book and My Dearest Girls: Helen’s Story based on the letters sent between a group of Shropshire women between 1917-1920. Francesca’s piece Me, Myself and Miss Gibbs toured nationally throughout 2012 - 2015 after its critical success at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011, with over 100 performances to date. Her next project An Island Nation will see her swim the channel and back in municipal swimming pools across UK, investigating who we are as an island nation of inland swimmers as we set sail to leave a union behind.

• Iain Armstrong is a composer and sound designer based in Birmingham, UK. He is particularly interested in exploring the creative potential of recordings of the sound environment and encouraging people to engage in the act of listening. His work is presented internationally and spans, electronic music, sound design for theatre, dance and film, site-specific soundwalks, multi-channel sound installation, phonography and live performance. Recent credits theatre sound design for Delightful by Olivia Winteringham, (sorry) by Susie Sillett, The Whip Hand by Douglas Maxwell (2017), Looking For John by Tony Timberlake (2016) all with Birmingham REP; Heather by Thomas Eccleshare (2017), The Bush and Tobacco Factory Theatres; Heartbeats & Algorithms by Jenny Lee (2016), Soho Theatre.

• Pippa Frith is an independent producer based in Birmingham who is passionate about working in the regions to showcase new voices and grow new audiences. She is the long-term producer for Francesca Millican-Slater and Festival Producer for leading international Live Art Festival; Fierce Festival. She is a regular lecturer at the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University. In spring 2018 show produced the sell-out tour of The Dancing Club (Caroline Jester), she Produced and toured The Road to Huntsville by Stephanie Ridings, commissioned by mac, Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate in 2016 – 2017. In 2014 she was awarded Peter Brook / Mark Marvin Award for her work with Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night has partnered with Podiant a UK-based provider of podcast hosting and production support.

Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night podcast series, BSL films and bookwork are funded by Arts Council England. The original theatre show was commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, supported by The Sir Barry Jackson Trust and China Plate, and was Produced by Pippa Frith.