The Recall Man is a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 radio drama series by David Napthine. It grew from a single Afternoon Play

Afternoon Play

The Afternoon Play is a long-running drama programming strand, broadcast every weekday at 2.15pm on BBC Radio 4. Each play lasts for 45 minutes, and roughly 190 new Afternoon Plays are broadcast each year....

 Doctor Joe Aston Investigates broadcast on 7 December 2001. This plus three new episodes were originally broadcast in 2003, and three more in 2005. It is a crime drama revolving around Dr. Joe Aston, a forensic psychologist who specializes in memory. A native of Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...

, Aston returns to his home town for a six-month attachment to the local Police force. The series covers four cases he investigates.

Few if any television or radio dramas have been set in Middlesbrough. Episodes of this drama contain references to local streets and landmarks, such as Parliament Road, the Newport Bridge

Tees Newport Bridge

Opened to traffic on 28 February 1934 by the Duke of York, the Tees Newport Bridge spans the River Tees a short distance upriver from Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, linking Middlesbrough with the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, England....

 and "Over the Border", a local reference to the oldest part of the town which, for a time, was notorious for prostitution and crime. The "Border" is generally taken to be the railway tracks which are the southern boundary of the old town, the other boundary being the River Tees

River Tees

The River Tees is in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines, and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar.-Geography:...

.

Joe has several conversations with his father and friends in local pubs. The subtext to these conversations is another Middlesbrough truism, namely that the best thing a smart local lad can do is leave.

Episodes

1. Doctor Joe Aston Investigates — A laboratory researcher working in a clean room is suspected of strangling her boss. She has no memory of the death. Nobody else could possibly have been in the room.
2. Making Waves — A man returns to Middlesbrough and contacts the Police to tell them he remembers witnessing an old murder. Can his memory be trusted?
3. Over the Border — A taxi driver may have witnessed a gangland murder in the crime-ridden old part of town. Even if he can remember the killer's face, will he want to?
4. Stepping Out — Joe has to deal with a rival psychologist and a series of attacks on women.

Series 2:

1. Taken by Surprise — A financial adviser is abducted and only released when his employer pays the ransom. Joe resorts to unorthodox methods to secure a positive identification of the main suspect.
2. Can't See for Looking — A witness to an arson attack thinks she saw a rhinoceros throwing a petrol bomb, and Joe tries to discover what she really saw.
3. Best Forgotten (by Steven Chambers) — Joe uncovers some information about an unsolved robbery case in 1952 implicating Joe's elderly uncle Tom and his friend.

Cast

• Dr. Joe Aston - Jeremy Swift
  Jeremy Swift
  Jeremy Swift is an English actor. He studied drama at Guildford Drama school from 1978 to 1981 and worked almost exclusively in theatre throughout the 1980s, working with companies such as Deborah Warner's Kick Theatre company and comedy performance-art group The People Show...
  
  
• DC Jeff Patton - Paul Brennen
• DI Ann Reynolds - Janet Dibley
  Janet Dibley
  Janet Dibley is an English actress. She is best known for her role the 1980s sitcom The Two of Us. She currently appears as Dr...
  
  

External links

• Entry at radiolistings.co.uk.