The first radio play by acclaimed television writer Trevor Preston had distinct echoes of other works about manic depression. The central character Thom (Rory Kinnear) cannot lead a normal life, being plagued by thoughts over which he has no control. On one occasion he imagines himself to be Jesus Christ: his girlfriend Lizzie (Janice Acquah) stays with him as long as she can, but eventually gives up the unequal struggle to help Thom lead a calm existence. He is eventually placed in a hospital, doomed to live a life of splendid isolation with only his thoughts for company. Preston chronicles his futile efforts to deal with them – for example, by creating a fantasy modelled on Randle P.MacMurphy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, where he makes a spectacular attempt to escape, only to be punished with a frontal lobotomy.

 

Eventually Thom takes the only feasible way out by committing suicide, and thereby restoring himself into Lizzie’s good books. The play ends with another fantasy sequence – presumably imagined beyond the grave – where Thom and Lizzie hold hands and walk together on a gloriously sunny day.

 

Flaw in the Motor, Dust in the Blood deals with the subject of manic depression in a calm, detached manner. Like Robert McCrum’s My Year Off – broadcast the previous week in the Afternoon Theatre slot – Preston shows how an individual’s suffering can often ruin their partners’ lives. One felt that Lizzie had no other choice if she wanted to preserve her self-esteem. The play was directed by Toby Swift.