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Honorary Fellow: Association For Scottish Literary Studies

“If we investigate only by physical and chemical means, we can only get physical and chemical answers.”

Sir Alister Hardy, FRS

The Ecumenical Corpse

Commissioned by Gordon Emslie, BBC Radio Scotland.

Based on an actual incident in England when a young woman was found to be alive some time after her body had been deposited in the mortuary. The play is set in Glasgow to take advantage of the conflicts that could arise out of the city's then custom of giving Catholic last rites, just in case, to any unidentified cadaver.

After completion and acceptance, Gordon Emslie was instructed by 'superiors' to abandon the project. Despite long-lasting attempts to have that decision reversed, Gordon finally had to accept that the play had no future at BBC Radio Scotland and regretfully returned the script.

When Hamish Wilson of Radio Clyde heard of this he asked to read the script and almost immediately planned a production.

Broadcast Radio Clyde, 1980, director Hamish Wilson.

'one of the funniest Scottish plays in years' Glasgow Herald

'took on the Scylla of race and the Charybdis of religion .. raw, rumbustious satire' The Scotsman

Radio Clyde's production was joint runner-up that year in the Pye Radio Award for the best original play.