Radio review: Great North Run

Just a few words about Tom Wells' likeable new contribution to Radio 4's stalwart Afternoon Play strand, Great North Run, which takes place in the buildup to the titular Newcastle half-marathon. It also takes place largely in the head of its narrator Will (Andrew Finnigan, who might have overtaken Andy Rush in the "regular Wells collaborator" stakes,) who tells the story in an imagined conversation with best friend Em (Amy Cameron.) Imagined because, as is often the case with these events, it's being run for charity in someone's memory - when she was ill with cancer, Em got Will to promise they'd run together in aid of Macmillan, and when she died, she left him instructions making it clear she expected him to stick to the plan (she also left him the tutu she expects him to wear.) Will's training coincides with his first year at university, in which he struggles to fit in, and provides a welcome nightly escape.

In fact he starts to low-key acknowledge that Em probably didn't really get him to do it in her memory, so much as because she knew this was something he'd likely enjoy but would never get into without a push. It would be a disappointing Wells play that didn't have at least a hint of a romance, and here we have the serious runner Sean (Joseph Ayre) Will fancies, while remaining typically unable to take the hint as to why Sean keeps trying to get his number. Great North Run leans more towards the heartwarming side of Wells' writing than the comedy, although there's a few laugh-out-loud gags in there as well (including one about dramaturgy that feels like it's for a very specific audience,) and it does a good job of making you care about its characters considering it's only 45 minutes long.

Great North Run by Tom Wells is available until the 3rd of October on the BBC website.

Running* time: 45 minutes.

*yes I know