Short story 'The Bin Police' submitted to BBC Radio 4

I recently sent a short story called 'The Bin Police' to BBC Radio 4. It's about council inspector Keith Jackson, a man who sees himself as a cross between Rambo and Dirty Harry. His mission? Hunting down environmental criminals on the mean streets of a small English town - aka one Mrs Elaine Cranshawe, whose 10-year-old daughter has put a Jammy Dodgers packet in the garden waste recycling bin.

I can only hope the Beeb like the idea of a head-on collision between mindless authoritarianism and the chaos of ordinary family life. I've zero confidence about humour, though. Gritty, dark and edgy is my comfort zone, this type of story is a bit of a departure for me.

This year the window of opportunity for unsolicited submissions is Oct 29th to Nov 30th. They're considered for the Opening Lines series on the 3:30PM Afternoon Reading slot. I had some very positive feedback to a story I sent to Radio 4 a couple of years ago. That was when BBC Manchester would look at them as well as the London office.

For anyone else wanting to have a go, here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/submissions_other_readingsunit.shtml

Armistice Day In Asda

My local Asda was a quieter, gentler place for 2 minutes at 11AM today, Armistice Day. The clatter of trolleys fell silent. I was thinking about one of my grandfathers, who was gassed in World War 1. He worked on the Liverpool docks, but the combat injuries limited the work he could do and how much he could earn. He would've been working there during the Liverpool Blitz, when the family was bombed out of their house three times.