They Shoot Horses, Don鈥檛 They?
Los Angeles, 1935. George MacKay stars as a young man who enters a brutal marathon dance on the Santa Monica pier, and finds himself drawn into a bond he cannot escape.
Los Angeles, 1935. With nowhere to go and nothing to lose, Robert and Gloria enter a marathon dance on the Santa Monica pier, one of hundreds of couples competing to stay on their feet for weeks at a time for a prize of a thousand dollars. As the days blur into nights and the competition grows merciless, their unlikely bond deepens into something neither of them can name, and a reckoning neither can avoid.
George MacKay (1917, Rose of Nevada) stars as Robert alongside Leah Brotherhead (Hullraisers, RSC's Wolf Hall) as Gloria.
Horace McCoy's 1935 novel is one of the founding texts of American noir, previously adapted as Sydney Pollack's acclaimed 1969 film with Jane Fonda. This is its first ever audio adaptation, brought to radio by adaptor Kerry Shale.
Story of America is a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.
Robert . . . . . George MacKay
Gloria . . . . . Leah Brotherhead
Rocky . . . . . Kerry Shale
Mrs Layden . . . . . Laurel Lefkow
Pedro . . . . . Joseph Balderama
Rollo . . . . . Ben Crowe
Jim . . . . . David Menkin
Ruby . . . . . Laura Dos Santos
Adapted by Kerry Shale.
Production co-ordinators: Sara Benaim, Jonathan Powell
Technical producers: Keith Graham, Neva Missirian, Kira Golightly
Sound design: Sharon Hughes
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
A 麻豆社 Studios production.
On radio
Broadcast
- Sun 19 Jul 2026 15:00麻豆社 Radio 4
Opening Lines
John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the stories in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.
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