The afternoon play on BBC radio 4 yesterday (wed 30/3/11) was a superb true story about my friends Dave and Jenny Pope, and will be on the BBC Iplayer for a week. Music content: Dave's a great singer, guitar and fiddle player from Mossley, Manchester, who wrote and performed the lovely song that opens the play.

Ray

Details from the BBC website:

The Disappearance of Jennifer Pope
by Mike Harris in collaboration with Dave and Stefan Pope
The extraordinary true story of the disappearance of an English nurse in Ecuador, and how her husband and son tracked down her abductor. Dave and Stefan Pope spend a year in a country fraught with poverty and corruption, where they barely speak the language, with next to no money. But with heaps of determination and good will from a few key characters they eventually reap the rewards of justice.

Dave Pope ...... Reece Dinsdale
Stefan Pope ..... Matthew McNulty
Jennifer Pope ..... Kate Layden
Marco Chaves .... Oliver Miceli
Clifford Craig/Hostel Owner ...... David Fleeshman
Fiscal of Banos ...... Javiar Marzan
Produced/Directed by Pauline Harris

Further info
In September 2005 Jenny Pope takes a year off to go back packing alone in South America because she believes her marriage is over. Dave has been living in the shed prior to this for the last 18 months. But they keep in touch by e-mail and, gradually, separation brings them back together again - their love is reignited. By the time Jennifer reaches Ecuador she's brought her flight forward as she's missing husband and son. But in January 2006, suddenly her e-mails stop and her credit cards are emptied. Dave and Jenny's 20 year old son Stefan go to Banyos in Ecuador, to find out what happened. They soon realise that the prime suspect is the security guard at the last hostel Jenny stayed; a man with a violent past who carries a gun and a machette in his car, who's bank account deposits match exactly those of Jennifers withdrawals. A poignant and life affirming story of how a father and son's loss and confusion is channelled into energy and determination to find justice for their beloved wife and mother.