The Waves

A Holy Mountain Production in association with Tamasha and supported by The Audio Content Fund

THE WAVES is a series of five explosive 25-minute audio dramas, exploring our age of so-called ‘culture war’ through the lens of the legacy of the British empire.

The five dramas tell local stories from Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Leamington Spa and Edinburgh. Taken together, they create a national picture of contemporary Britain, and how it has been shaped by its colonial past. From the terraces of a Hibs football match to a beauty pageant in Cardiff Bay, these stories take us inside modern British life with the authenticity of lived experience.

Each drama is by a writer whose family heritage was affected by British colonialism, and who lives in the place their story is set. Raising fundamental questions about how we live today, THE WAVES is a series of the finest original audio drama by a new generation of writers, directors and actors from the global majority.

WE SEE NO COLOUR by Danielle Fahiya (Cardiff) follows two non-identical twin sisters of dual/multiple heritage, and different skin tones, as they enter a beauty pageant.

GROSVENOR ROAD by Corinne Walker (Bristol) uses split time periods to look at the fate of a former slum building housing a cafe, which was a focus of Caribbean anti-racist organisation in the 1970’s and 80’s. Sixty years later, it has been regenerated into expensive flats attractive to a white London couple, who are being shown around by a young, black estate agent.

BABY MAMA by Stefanie Reynolds (Manchester) catches up with mixed middle class couple Renee and James, on the day they move into an expensive flat within a former cotton factory in Ancoats, Manchester. With Renee heavily pregnant with their first child, workaholic James hires the apartment block’s cleaner to help Renee unpack, starting off an unlikely friendship between two black women of very different backgrounds and life experience.

QUEENS by Erinn Dhesi (Leamington Spa) uses the imposing statue of Queen Victoria in the town centre as a magical realist portal into the past for grandmother Surinder and her recalcitrant granddaughter Simran. When Surinder is diagnosed with dementia, she seeks Simran’s help to recover some disturbing memories from her past, not quite sure what she’ll find there.

GLORY, GLORY AN EDINBURGH STORY by Kamala Santos (Edinburgh) locates its action at a Hibs football team match, where Eric, an elderly Honduran Scottish former lumberjack, spots his estranged granddaughter Jade taking part in racist behaviour towards black players. His ensuing intervention opens up a journey of discovery about Jade’s roots, telling a little-known story about a significant Caribbean presence in the Scotland Highlands during World War Two.

Subscribe to THE WAVES podcast and listen to all five audio dramas in full