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Jan 27, 2020•58 sec•Season 3Ep. 10
One of the wonderful secrets of the London Underground is that the trains and tunnels of the Waterloo & City line are often used in films. In this story by Joe Mungo Reed, the final in our podcast series, a daughter visits her film director father on set, to bring a family situation to his attention. In between takes, Laura contemplates their relationship, her childhood and her father’s character: his control, his absorption, his self-belief. Joe Mungo Reed was born in London and curr...
May 23, 2018•26 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Northern Line is set during the Second World War. Grace, who works in the box office at a London theatre, finds herself caught at Hampstead tube station during an air-raid shelter. The action unfolds in the claustrophobic platform setting and the story explores equality and social responsibility. Kat Gordon read English at Somerville College, Oxford and worked at Time Out briefly after graduating. She has travelled extensively in East Africa where she also worked as a teacher and an HIV c...
May 16, 2018•25 min•Season 1Ep. 9
This episode is a piece of memoir, in which bestselling author Louisa strings moments from her life like beads along the pink ribbon of the Hammersmith & City Line, hooking a memory to each station, from a childhood spent in Paddington to sitting vigil by her beloved’s hospital bed in Euston. Louisa Young was born in London and read history at Cambridge. She is the award-winning author of fourteen books, including My Dear I Wanted to Tell You , The Heroes' Welcome &nb...
May 09, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 9
A beautiful, magical story about one woman’s commute from Brixton to Highbury along the Victoria Line each day, to her job as an assistant in an artist’s studio. One day a new platform appears at Green Park station, and Elsa is transported to the metro in Delhi. Janice Pariat is a well-known and well-respected writer in India, and is published for the first time in the UK in 2018 with her novella The Nine-Chambered Heart. Her debut collection of short stories, Boats on Land (2012), won he...
May 02, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 8
This is a story based on real events. In January 1862, Frederick Leyland, director of the National Telephone Company and one of the wealthiest men in England, mysteriously died on the platform at Blackfriars… Matthew Plampin read English and History of Art at the University of Birmingham and then completed a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He now lectures on nineteenth-century art and architecture. Plampin is the author of four previous novels, The Street Philosopher, The Devil’s A...
Apr 25, 2018•26 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Margaret, the recently widowed narrator of this story, spots her husband Cyril, on the Circle Line, one week after the funeral. It turns out that the underground is: “‘where you go when you die,’ he said. ‘The underground. It’s the perfect opportunity to reflect. To think about what comes next. To wait for God to make a decision about why you’re there, I suppose.’” In Joanna’s story we hear a grieving woman coming to terms with her loss, and finding hope in her future, whilst traversing the city...
Apr 18, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 6
My Beautiful Millennial is a story about a lonely yet predatory man and a vulnerable young woman who is trying to end their acquaintance. Trekking out across the Metropolitan Line from Aldgate to Amersham, Dido rehearses how she will leave Paul, the man who has taken her for dinner, to watch films, held her unwilling hand, back given her money, grabbed her jaw… The eldest of five sisters, Tamsin Grey spent her early childhood in England, Scotland and Zambia. Her family settled in south Lo...
Apr 11, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In June 2007, a Kuwaiti tourist rides the Jubilee line, reflecting upon a great betrayal of his teenage daughter, Dahlia. He remembers the stories he would tell Dahlia as a child, tales of a parallel world inhabited by jinn . A world which perfectly overlaps our own, just as the underground mirrors the world sitting above it. As he passes each station, he considers his role as a father, and wonders if there is another world, brushing against this one, in which he was able to protect his daughter...
Apr 04, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Set on 18th November 1987, this short story features one of the most tragic moments in the history of the Tube. Bakerloo opens at Kilburn station and is narrated by William, an old man, and Anjoum, a young student. Over the course of a day we see their lives intersect and overlap, until they finally meet at the now immortalised time of 7.40pm, on the escalator at Kings Cross station. Katy Mahood was born in 1978 and studied at Edinburgh and Oxford Universities. After a brief career in pub...
Mar 28, 2018•20 min•Season 1Ep. 3
The second episode of 'Underground: Tales for London' is a funny, wince-inducing family caper along the central line. A careless father walks his toddler into a pillar while rushing for a train, then faces embarrassment and desperation as they try valiantly to find a hospital. Tyler Keevil is the award-winning author of three novels and lectures in creative writing at Cardiff University. His latest novel, No Good Brother, is available now. Underground: Tales for London features original short st...
Mar 21, 2018•31 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Mandibles, is the first author to feature in our new series, Tales for London. Her story, The Piccadilly Predicament , is about a young woman who has a spot of bother on her way to Heathrow airport. Underground: Tales for London features original short stories by London-loving authors from across the world. Each story, written by a Borough Press author, will be available to Evening Standard readers as a free podcast, from standa...
Mar 13, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 1
