Fiona McAlpine has been directing and producing radio drama for twenty years, debuting with the fourteen-year-old Jane Austen’s ‘Love and Friendship’ which she directed for BBC Radio 4 in 2001, starring the young David Tennant
Fiona was brought up in a theatrical home in Clapham South, London, Her parents, Donald and Phyllida McAlpine met, while dancing in Festival Ballet. She studied at Royal Holloway College, London University and Central School of Speech and Drama, and worked as an actress (and waitress) before moving to Suffolk and establishing a career in producing and directing. As an actress she worked in theatre, playing lead roles with touring companies Red Shift Theatre and Great Eastern Stage, and in Repertory theatre at The Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster and the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Screen appearances include parts in Eastenders, Shoestring, Blake Seven, Angels, Tenko and the films: The Tree of Hands, Little Dorrit, and The Fool.
Fiona has been directing and producing audio and radio drama for over twenty years and has worked with many of Britain’s leading actors including Helen McCrory, Jeremy Irons, Tom Burke, Simon Russell-Beale, Jessica Raine, Rakie Ayola, David Tennant, Stephen Fry, Adjoa Andoh, Anton Lesser and many others. She and Robin Brooks set up Allegra Productions in 2001 and have been working in partnership ever since. She was nominated for Best Drama Producer (Audio Production awards) in 2016 and 2019.
She has worked as a Radio Drama director for other companies, including Brill Productions (formerly Pacificus) with Clive Brill, producing several afternoon dramas, (2001 to 2004), with Andrew Mark Sewell at B7 Productions, directing (The Boy From Aleppo Who Painted the War, (2014) and with Goldhawk Essential (A Kestrel for a Knave) (2019). During the Pandemic, she directed and produced a five hour epic drama series for Towton Audio, Kingmaker : Winter Pilgrims.
Fiona worked as an associate producer for Laurence Bowen (Dancing Ledge Productions), on a series of unmade movies for Radio 4 between 2013 and 2019, working with directors Richard Eyre, Mark Gatiss, Jamie Lloyd, Joanna Hogg, Bill Bryden, Adrian Noble, Hope Dickson Leach and John Amiel.
In 2020 she co-produced the recording the audio drama, Akhmatova, the Heart is not made of Stone starring Vanessa Redgrave, for ERC (Ensemble for the Romantic Century) a theatre and music company, based in New York.
She regularly produces and directs theatre, live events and rehearsed readings, including directing many plays for children and teenagers. She has directed theatre locally in Suffolk at the INK Festival, the Summer theatre in Aldeburgh and Southwold in 2022, and more recently No Sex in Southwold at the Southwold Arts Centre.
Between 2003 and 2006 Fiona produced nine short films for Norwich based, Screen East and the UK Film Council’s digital cinema scheme. Two of these - Billy’s Day Out and Other - won awards.
In 2018 she and Robin Brooks set up Script Lab East, to foster new writing, and hold regular play reading events upstairs at the cinema in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, UK.
Fiona has also abridged for radio works such as In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene, Seeds of Greatness by Jon Canter and many other Book of the Weeks and Book at Bedtimes for BBC Radio 4.
Programmes Directed for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3
Fiona McAlpine : Director / Producer
Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson, dramatised by Robin Brooks. Broadcast Dec 2023
The Venice Conundrum by Robin Brooks (based on the works of Jan Morris). July 2023. BBC
The Age of Anxiety by W.H. Auden Nov 2022
Heartstrings, by Imogen Lea Oct 2022
About a Dog, by Huw Brentnall. Oct 2022
Don Juan by Lord Byron, adapted by Robin Brooks. Dec 2022
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson, dramatised by Robin Brooks, Dec 2021
The King Must Die, by Mary Renault, dramatised by Robin Brooks August 2021
The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, dramatised by Robin Brooks April 2021
The Brummie Iliad, by Roderick Smith (based on Homer’s Iliad) January 2021
USA by John Dos Passos, with Tom Bateman, Tanya Reynolds, Sheila Atim. Oct/Nov 2020
The Talking Mongoose (Drama Doc) June 2020
The Garrick Year by Margaret Drabble, adapted by Robin Brooks, April 2020
Elizabeth and Essex by Robin Brooks, with Simon Russell Beale and the BBC concert Orchestra.
A Kestrel for a Knave, by Barry Hines, adapted by Robert Rigby for Goldhawk Essential. Sept 2019
The Christchurch Murder by Angela Carter, September 2018
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, adapted by Olivia Hetreed September 2018
Vampirella by Angela Carter, with Jessica Raine, Oliver Chris and Anton Lesser. September 2018
Byzantium by Robin Brooks, March 2018
Iris Murdoch: Dream Girl by Robin Brooks starring Helen McCrory, August 2015
I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General, by Simon Butteriss, December 2015
The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War for B7 Productions for BBC Radio 4, November 2014
Jill by Philip Larkin, adapted by Robin Brooks April 2013
A Girl in Winter, by Philip Larkin, adapted by Richard Stevens April 2013
Mr Wrong and Other Stories by Elizabeth Jane Howard, read by Matilda Ziegler - September 2012
I Love Stephen Fry by Jon Canter, with Stephen Fry as himself. August 2008
Left at Marrakech by Richard Stevens 2007
A Warning to the Furious by Robin Brooks 2006
Duce’s Bonce by Robin Brooks 2005
The Last Days of Gordon Springer by Richard Stevens. 2004
Stephen Spender - Book of the week 2004
The Smallest Man in Christendom by Robin Brooks 2003
A Quick Change by Robin Brooks. 2002
Love and Friendship by Jane Austen, adapted by Robin Brooks 2001
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Audio Drama
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, dramatised by Robin Brooks, for Audible Originals, October 2015
Starring David Tennant, Phoebe Fox and Rose Leslie
Frank by Craig Baxter (Podcast Drama for the Darwin Correspondence Project) Dec 2022 BBC
Emma by Craig Baxter (Podcast Drama for the Darwin Correspondence Project) Dec 2022
Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims ( 5 hour epic for Towton Audio) - March 2021
Theatre
No Sex in Southwold - Southwold Arts Centre - October 2023
I Ought to be in Pictures - Jubilee Hall and Southwold Arts Centre - August 2023
Death in Southwold - Southwold Arts Centre - September 2021
Elizabeth and Essex - Alexandra Palace, February 2020
The Beast in the Jungle - Snape Maltings , October 2018
The Dark Tower - Orford Church, Suffolk, (co-production with Snape Maltings) October 2017
It’s A Sperm’s Life by Lewis Wilding, INK Festival, 2017, Halesworth, Suffolk
Britten’s Got Talent by Robin Brooks, New Wolsey Theatre, November 2013
Film
Producer: Five shorts films for Screen East, Norwich, as part of UK Film Council’s ‘Digital Shorts’ 2003
Billy’s Day Out, Directed by Iain B. MacDonald, winner of Best Short Film Edinburgh Film Festival 2004
End of the Line, Directed by Max Pugh, shortlisted for Soho Shorts 2003 (with Miriam Margolyes & David Oyelowo)
Other, Directed by Martin Friend, Winner of RIMA award, 2005 (with Indra Ove)
Missing Pens, Directed by Simon Raven (with Stephen Mangan)
Director/ Producer /Co-writer : Plaything (shown at Festival Tres Courts, France)
Other films:
Producer: Soil Dances, Directed by Peter Anderson for DanceEast
Producer: (post-production) Playground Logic, directed by Matthew Sangster
Producer only.
Producer: Come Unto These Yellow Sands, September 2018 - (Drama on 3)
Producer: The Dark Tower by Louis MacNeice, October 2017 Live performance at Orford Church
Producer: Remorse, or the Sorrows of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, March 2016 (Drama on 3)
Producer: The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch, directed by Bill Alexander, starring Jeremy Irons, 2015
ScriptLab East
Rehearsed readings of new plays
Baba Yaga and Fertile Ground by Rosie Walker - March 2023
Hemmingway’s Rod by Richard Braine Feb 2023
Dead Dog by Henry Tydeman - January 2023
Looking for a New Blue Moon by. Petra Markham (2020)
The Censor by Kokil Sarah Isaac (2020)
Coco & Misia by Claude Harz (2019),
The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, adapted by Andrew Burton (2019),
What the Heart Wants by Bert Tyler-Moore (2019),
Willowdene by Chris Coates (2019).
Newcomer by Killian Burke (2019)
Payment Deferred by C. S. Forester adapted by Robin Brooks (2018)
Afternoon Dramas, Director/Producer, 2001-2009
I Love Stephen Fry by Jon Canter (2008),
Cast: Stephen Fry, Lesley Sharpe, Ron Cook, Phil Davis, Karl Theobald, Sinead Matthews.
Duce’s Bonce by Robin Brooks (2006)
Cast: Catherine McCormack, Adrian Rawlins, Nick Woodeson, Maureen Beattie
Left at Marrakech by Richard Stephens (2008)
Cast: Will Keen, Clare Corbett, Jonathan Cullen, Alan Cox, Nicholas Rowe, Ben Lewis.
The Last Days of Gordon Springer by Richard Stevens 2004
Cast: Karl Theobald, Stephen Mangan, Catherine Shepherd, Jasmine Hyde, David Horovitch
A Warning to the Furious by Robin Brooks (2007)
Cast: Catherine Shepherd, Lucy Robinson, Carl Prekopp, Andy Wincott, Gerald McDermott.
A Quick Change by Robin Brooks (2002)
Cast: David Tennant, Flora Montgomery, Alan Cox, Ashley Jenson, Barbara Dryhurst, Mark Spalding
The Smallest Man in Christendom by Robin Brooks
Cast: Lucy Robinson, Desmond Barritt, David Holt, Alan Cox, John McAndrew, Julie Cox (2003)
Love and Friendship by Jane Austen / by Robin Brooks
Cast: David Tennant, Victoria Hamilton, David Horovitch, Ruth Platt, Janet Jefferies, Sarah Eedle
Radio 4 Book of the Week ‘Stephen Spender’
the authorised biography by John Sutherland
Cast: Stephen Boxer