Val McDermid

Radio Dramas & Podcasts

The Blue Plaque Pod

02 April 2024

The Blue Plaque Pod is a new podcast brought to you by Kassia St. Clair, author, cultural historian and commemorative plaque fancier.

Blue Plaque Pod

Gyles Brandreth – Rosebud

8 March 2024

Val McDermid Tells Her Remarkable Story

Val McDermid tells Gyles her remarkable story. An only child from Kirkcaldy in Fife, the daughter of a welder and a shop assistant, Val became obsessed with books after being read to by her mother as a young child and, when the family moved opposite the town’s Central Library, she read every book on the shelves.

Gyles Brandreth - Rosebud


BBC Sounds – Free Thinking

20 July 2021

Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid; Reynard the Fox

Poet Daljit Nagra and crime writer Val McDermid discuss capturing different forms of speech, a sense of place, and politics – in a conversation organised with the Royal Society of Literature and Durham Book Festival, and hosted by presenter Shahidha Bari.

Release date: 14-10-2020

Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid

Plus, how the medieval fable of Reynard The Fox has lessons for us all today.
As a new translation and retelling by Anne Louise Avery is published, she joins Shahidha to discuss the book with Noreen Masud – a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker from Durham University. Based on William Caxton’s translation of the medieval Flemish folk tale, this is the story of a wily fox – a subversive, dashing and anarchic character – summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion. But is he the character you want to emulate, or does Bruin the Bear offer us a better template?


Val McDermid’s Dead Comedy Crime Dramas

10 July 2021

Deadheading (2014) Dead Clever (2015) Dead Pan (2017) Dead Weight (2018)

Dead Comedy Crime Dramas


15 Minute Drama – Deadheading

10 July 2021

Deadheading – Episodes 1 – 5  by Val McDermid

First Released On: Sun 21 Oct 2018

Deadheading - Val McDermid

4 Extra Debut. Comic capers amongst the carrots when a body is found on an allotment. Stars Julie Hesmondhalgh and Miriam Margolyes. From June 2014.

Directed and Produced by Justine Potter
A Savvy Production for BBC Radio 4.


15 Minute Drama – Dead Clever

10 July 2021

Dead Clever – Episodes 1 – 5

First Released On: Mon 6 Jul 2015

15 Minute Drama - Dead Clever

DS Jason Trotter thinks that a professor who is wearing some of his brains on the outside of his head might just be his chance to put DCI Alma Blair in her place.

Producer Beth O’Dea


A Good Read

23 June 2020 – 28 mins

Released On: 23 Jun 2020 – Available for over a year

A Good ReadCrime writer Val McDermid and business woman Martha Lane Fox talk to Harriett Gilbert about books they really love. Val’s choice is This Is Shakespeare: How to Read the World’s Greatest Playwright by Emma Smith, Martha’s is How to be Both by Ali Smith and Harriett’s is The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton.

Producer Beth O’Dea


BBC Radio 4 – Only Artists

6 February 2019 – 27 mins

Crime writer Val McDermid meets graphic artist Vin Deighan.Val McDermid: Scotland’s Queen of Crime

Only Artists Podcast


podcast link >>

BBC Sounds

6 August 2018

Dangerous Visions: Resistance
Val McDermid’s thriller examines what happens if antibiotics stop working. Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.

Note: For information only, this episode is not currently available.

Only Artists Podcast

BBC Sounds

14 April 2018

Dangerous Visions: The Kraken Wakes
John Wyndham’s science fiction novel adapted by Val McDermid. Performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a terrifying modern retelling of alien invasion and global flooding.

Note: For information only, this episode is not currently available.

Only Artists Podcast

BBC Radio 4 – One to One

28 August 2018 – 14 mins

Unexpected stories of education: The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the crime writer, Val McDermid, about an unusual educational experiment she was part of in the 1960s.

BBC podcast 2018


Podcast link >>