Best Laid Plans Jon Frechette, Todd Luoto

Coming Friday, January 27th from BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds...

Sarah Larsen, a yoga instructor, and her friend Charlie Brill went in search of Ong’s Hat, a fabled gateway to another dimension. Now Sarah is missing. A new mystery from the makers of The Polybius Conspiracy and Passenger List.

Hrishikesh Hirway is best known as the creator and host of the popular podcast Song Exploder, a show that speaks to musicians about their unique process in bringing a song to life. What fewer may realize is that Hrishikesh is a musician himself, who has toured and released music under the name The One AM Radio since 1999, and composed music for film and television. But with the success of Song Exploder, instead of focusing on his craft, Hrishi was spending his days interviewing others about theirs, and he lost his way, creatively-speaking. But now Hrishi has overcome his self-doubt and is ready to invest in his own musical talent again.

​​When Tiffany accepted Will’s proposal, she wasn’t just marrying the charismatic frontman of an ascending alt-country band, but–as she was cautioned–the entire band, too. For Tiffany, this was hardly a problem…she believed in Will, his music, and most of all, their future together. But after a honeymoon in New Orleans, where Will’s mental health sent their world into a spiral, all of that was left was doubt. In the aftermath of their crisis, Tiffany and Will speak to the power of love, faith, and forgiveness; and their mission of learning from their own suffering to make a positive impact for their fellow community members in Nashville, TN.

A popular word of caution in writing MFAs is that it takes “ten years out in the cold” before anyone can expect success. For screenwriter and former film critic April Wolfe, that meant dozens of jobs, hundreds of cover letters, a dream opportunity as the head film critic of LA Weekly, an unexpected corporate takeover, a newfound creative collaboration, and an opportunity writing a greenlit movie for Universal/Blumhouse. Hers is a story forged by toughness, tenaciousness, and tears; illustrating what it takes for a writer from working-class roots to finally come out from the cold and be welcomed as a Hollywood insider.

Aaron Perrino is the frontman of The Sheila Divine, the Boston-based band that won awards, toured the globe with the likes of Morrissey and Weezer, and lit up college radio stations around the turn of the Century. Although successful in many ways, The Sheila Divine never reached the heights its frontman had hoped for, pushing Perrino to seek other, more stable pursuits as his personal world quickly changed during the summer of 2003; a moment that forced Perrino away from his rock star dreams, into a new career in branding and advertising.

Having made a name for himself on the independent film circuit with his 2009 Sundance feature Children of Invention and sophomore film Cold Comes the Night, starring Bryan Cranston, writer and director Tze Chun came into prominence during a time when the film industry was facing a seismic shift, forcing him to make some equally life-altering decisions about how to achieve both creative fulfillment and professional stability in the world of television.