All Very Hush Hush

A security breach at the foreign office means Henry sees spies everywhere at Sizzlinghurst. His paranoia is fuelled by Vera's procession of clandestine visitors.

When Henry decides to work from home, his wife - the novelist and gardener Vera Sackcloth-Vest - is forced to rearrange her secret liaison with Venus Traduces lest Henry should discover her betrayal.

But Henry has more pressing matters to attend to. His boss from the foreign office is coming down for a secret meeting to discuss a breach of security at Sizzlinghurst and, as a result, Henry can't stop seeing spies round every corner. His paranoia is fuelled by the arrival of a journalist and a photographer from that hotbed of Bolshevism, the Observer newspaper, who have come to interview Vera, and by the unexpected visit of Ginny Fox and her Socialist husband, Lionel, who have come to do research for Ginny's new novel on the Foreign Office.

Everyone appears to be asking intrusive questions and Henry becomes very, very twitchy - especially when he discovers that the interviewer is the working class genius DH Lollipop and the photographer his occasional squeeze, Venus Traduces.

Now Henry feels properly betrayed and only Vera denouncing Venus in public can assuage his jealous rage.

MIRIAM MARGOLYES AS VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST
ALISON STEADMAN AS GINNY FOX/MRS GOSLING
NIGEL PLANER AS GOSLING/LIONEL FOX
MORWENNA BANKS AS VENUS TRADUCES
JONATHAN COY AS HENRY MICKLETON
JOHN SESSIONS AS DH LOLLIPOP

Producer: Jamie Rix
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4