BBC Radio 4, December 6 and on BBC Sounds

A heist for the 21st century…

It used to be so simple if you wanted to rob a bank. You stuck on a mask, had a fast horse / getaway driver waiting (delete as appropriate for level of technology), and entered the bank loudly proclaiming words to the effect of “your money or your life”. At which point the teller would stuff the bag you provided with loads of money, and you went off to retire somewhere (or, more likely, get nicked by a Jack Regan-lookalike).

That’s not the case nowadays with so much money moving around in forms that would bemuse Bonnie and Clyde. And it’s the nature of that money that’s at the heart of Martin Jameson’s intriguing new drama. You do need to concentrate as that nature also drives the form of the play (the name of lead character Bit’s pet gives you something of a clue).

It’s a play about what things are worth – a small piece of cloth may be valueless to anyone else, but to a two-year-old, it’s the most precious thing on Earth. We ascribe value to everything around us, consciously or subconsciously, but how many of us actually know what the basis of the financial system is, so how much the “pound in our pocket”… or nowadays, on our debit card… is worth? Jameson digs deep into this, and the way that it’s changed with the advent of bitcoin and similar crypto currencies. Framing this discussion is a very different sort of heist, that uses some familiar tropes in unusual ways.

There’s more than enough material here for a 90 minute play and occasionally it does feel a little rushed, but Jameson will certainly make you question how much we take certain things for granted.

Verdict: A thought-provoking drama about something that affects us all. 8/10

Paul Simpson