Mike Walker is a radio dramatist and feature and documentary writer. His radio work includes both original plays and adaptations of novels, classical and modern. He has won Sony Radio Awards for his play Alpha (2001) and for his script for Different States (1991), and a Silver Community Award for Oxford Road on BBC Radio Berkshire, as well the British Writers' Guild award for best dramatisation for his 1996 adaptation of The Tin Drum by Günter Grass. He was also part of the writing team for BBC Radio 4's The Dark House, which won a BAFTA Interactive Award.
He won the 2012 Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Drama with A Tale of Two Cities.Sony Radio Academy Awards 2012 – Best Drama
Works His plays include: for BBC World Service – Alpha, Omega, Tide Race for BBC Radio 3 – Babel's Tower, Darger and the Detective for BBC Radio 4 – D Day Project, The Dark House, Uncertainty, The Patrick Nicholls Story, Buried By Glass, Three Divided By Two, Silvertown, The Making of Napoleon, Act or Die, The Sound of Fury, Orphans, Something Happened, Texas and the Poppy Fields, Different States, Caesar! (three series of plays about the rulers of Rome [2003–2007]), Plantagenet (three series of plays about the Plantagenet kings of England [2010–2012]), Spitfire!,BBC – Saturday Drama – Spitfire! Tsar (three series of plays about the rulers of Russia from Ivan IV to Vladimir Putin), The Gun Goes to Hollywood, Landfall and The Stuarts (a series of plays about The House of Stuart, from Mary, Queen of Scots to Charlotte Stuart [2013–2015]).
His adaptations include: War and Peace (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, 1997) Nicholas Nickleby (BBC Radio 4, 1999) The Tin Drum (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, 2000) Crime and Punishment (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, 2000) The African Queen (BBC Radio 4, 2001) Neuromancer (BBC World Service Drama, 2002) The Old Curiosity Shop (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama, 2002) Who Goes There? (BBC Radio 4, 2002) I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (BBC Radio 4, 2002) The Old Curiosity Shop (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama, 2002) A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, 2003) The Woman in Black (BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play, 2004) The IPCRESS File (BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play, 2004) David Copperfield (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama, 2005) Dombey and Son (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama, 2007) The Veldt (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play, 2007) On The Beach (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, 2008) Rendezvous with Rama (BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial, 2009) The Gun (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play, 2011) Our Mutual Friend, (BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama, 2010) A Tale of Two Cities (BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play, 2011) Life and Fate (BBC Radio 4, 2011) The Man Who Would Be King (BBC Radio 4, 2018) Stalingrad (BBC Radio 4, 2019) The Mystery of Edwin Drood (BBC Radio 4, 2020) It Can't Happen Here (BBC Radio 4, 2024)
Radio plays written by Mike Walker Date first broadcast Play Director Cast SynopsisAwards StationSeries (Recorded on 17 May 1990) True Believers David Greenwood Dhirendra Kumar, Meera Syal and Elizabeth Mansfield 'Tony' has turned his back on his Sikh family and married an English girl. But his brother's activities threaten to destroy his happiness. BBC Radio 4 Saturday Night Theatre (recorded on 18 April 1990) Something Happened Jeremy Mortimer Ben Onwukwe, Diana Bishop, Jonathan Firth, Mmoloki Chrystie, Kelda Holmes, Lizzie McInnerny and Trevor Nicholls How does a family recover from the kidnapping of a child, and how does the child cope? BBC Radio 4 American Faith Ned Chaillet Alan Marriott, Colin Stinton, William Roberts, William Dufris, John Sharian, Kate Harper, Ed Bishop, Garrick Hagon, Bob Sherman, Tara Hugo, Morgan Deare, Steven Crossley, Norman Chancer and William Hootkins Richard Milhous Nixon's road to Watergate. BBC Radio 4 – 10 July 1998 What's Inside a Girl?Based on the original story by Michele Hanson Marilyn Imrie Paola Dionisotti, Edna Doré and Luisa Bradshaw-White Gillian and her friends tackle middle age head-on – with varying degrees of damage – as they wrestle with VPL and HRT. BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama J Edgar Hoover: Red Scare Ned Chaillet William Hootkins, Bob Sherman, Kate Harper and Patrick Allen The 24-year-old Hoover is assigned the task of overseeing America's first campaign against domestic communism. BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play J Edgar Hoover: Public Enemy Ned Chaillet William Hootkins, Michael Neill, John Guerrasio, William Roberts, Mac MacDonald, Adam Sims and Dave Brooks Hoover sheds his younger self and moves into the orbit of Walter Winchell, America's radio pundit, as they wage war against gangsters, creating and destroying heroes. BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play J Edgar Hoover: They Call Him Bobby Ned Chaillet William Hootkins and John Sharian A powerful duologue for US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and J Edgar Hoover.