The Old Tune is Samuel Beckett's free adaptation of La Manivelle/The Crank, a radio play by French writer, Robert Pinget. Two old acquaintances - Gorman and Cream - meet at a roadside bench, where one of them is a street hawker with a barrel organ. As they trade memories, it becomes clear that they can't agree on any of the facts of what happened in the past. It is a piece - as funny as it sad - about how time corrodes memory, how the old tune we have our in heads becomes fainter and fainter. This radio version is based on the stage production of the play, which premiered at the Enniskillen Happy Days Beckett Festival 2018.

The piece is introduced by Gerry Dukes, whose stage adaptation, with Barry McGovern, of Beckett's post-war trilogy of novels as I’ll Go On has played around the world. Gerry is also editor of Samuel Beckett: First Love and Other Novellas and the author of the biography Samuel Beckett from Penguin’s Illustrated Lives Series.

Starring Barry McGovern as Cream and Eamon Morrissey as Gorman.

Directed by Conall Morrison.

The programme was funded by the BroadcastingAuthority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

Sound Design and Sound Supervision: Damian Chennells and Michael Stapleton

Sound recording of Gerry Dukes by Tommy O'Sullivan

Producer: Kevin Brew

Series Producer: Kevin Reynolds.

Photo: Euan Gébler - Enniskillen Happy Days Beckett Festival 2018

The Beckett Season is made possible by the kind permission of the Estate of Samuel Beckett.