Comedian/writer Sara Pascoe has directed a new musical for BBC Radio 4. NANNY, written and performed by Alana Ramsey (The Crown) and Lizzie Stables (Inbetweeners), alongside composer Matthew Floyd (Frisky and Mannish, Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder!), will air 21st May at 2.15pm.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re on the right path, or what happened to the person you thought you’d be bynow, NANNY might feel very familiar. It’s about friendship, the kind that carries you through the decades, ambition, insecurity and the invisible emotional labour of caring for other people’s children whilst struggling with your own dreams of motherhood.
Set at a ‘stay and play’ toddler group, NANNY follows actor-nannies Amy and Lea as they juggle demanding bosses - big and small - money worries, dwindling auditions and the creeping feeling that time might be running out. Between snack time and story time, they’re plotting their rise to fame as a comedy double act.
When Stay and Play leader, the much maligned Kim (Floyd- Jones) takes to the piano for nursery rhyme time, Amy and Lea seize the opportunity to perform in any capacity, and together they enter an imagined world where babies’ gurgles become roaring applause and everyday frustrations burst into bold, funny, heartfelt musical numbers such as “The Perfect Mum” and “Everything You Do Fails”. For a moment, they are centre stage – admired, celebrated, finally seen. But then the music fades and the lights go down, they’re right back where they started: nearly forty and changing someone else’s child’s nappy.
NANNY captures the humour and heartbreak of the job – being responsible for small humans who can dismantle your confidence before 9am while you’re still trying to believe your big dreams matter.
This is the radio version of the debut play by actor/writers Alana Ramsey (The Crown, House of the Dragon) and Lizzie Stables (The Inbetweeners, Miranda), with Jenny Rainsford (Fleabag). It features original songs by Matthew Floyd Jones, co-creator of Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! and one half of Frisky & Mannish.
It is produced by David Morley for Perfectly Normal Productions.
