The Blackburn Files: The Complete Series 1-3: The BBC Radio 4 Crime Drama

Written by Ian McMillan, Dave Sheasby and Martyn Wiley

Narrated by Fine Time Fontayne, Judy Flynn and Full Cast

Fine Time Fontayne stars as pitman-turned-private eye Stephen J Blackburn in this whimsical detective series

When he’s made redundant from his job at a South Yorkshire pit, Stephen J Blackburn sets out to forge a new career as a private investigator. With his trainee assistant Tracey, he looks into a series of complicated cases ranging from plagiarism to missing persons.

In Series 1, the duo are confronted with Hungarian exiles, a philandering husband, a long-lost brother, a purloined TV script and a time-share cash con. Series 2 finds them faced with seven stolen sculptures, a ransomed Filofax, a husband who reappears after 30 years, and a routine marital case that starts to look like their final investigation. And in Series 3, Steven and Tracey get digging in the murky world of flowers, crack a pub quiz fraud scam, look into the theft of a ventriloquist’s dummy and track down an Irish labourer– a case which turns out to be far more complex than expected...

Starring Fine Time Fontayne (Coronation Street) as Stephen J Blackburn and Judy Flynn (The Brittas Empire) as Tracey Duggan.

Written by Ian McMillan, Martyn Wiley and Dave Sheasby
Directed by Dave Sheasby

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 18 July-15 August 1989 (Series 1), 20 June-11 July 1991 (Series 2), 18 March-8 April 1993 (Series 3)

Cast

Stephen J Blackburn……………………Fine Time Fontayne
Tracey Duggan……………………Judy Flynn
Mam……………………Rita May
Dad……………………John Branwell

• Language: English
• Publisher: BBC Digital Audio
• Release date: Dec 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787538207

Ian McMillan

Ian McMillan is a poet, journalist, playwright and broadcaster. He's written comedy for radio and plays for the stage, and worked extensively in radio and television. He currently presents The Verb on BBC Radio 3 and appears as a regular on Coast, BBC Breakfast, Countryfile, Pick of the Week, Last Word and The Arts Show. With the Times Education Supplement describing him as 'the Shirley Bassey of performance poetry' and Andy Kershaw saying 'he's inching towards the status of a National Treasure', he's been a castaway on Desert Island Discs, poet in residence for The Academy of Urbanism and Barnsley FC, resident poet at English National Opera and UK Trade & Investment poet, Yorkshire TV's Investigative Poet and Humberside Police's Beat poet.