The incident is soon to be dramatised by Alan Bleasdale for BBC television, but it’s unlikely to have half as much heart as this poignant production.

That day has finally come, and this Thursday the BBC is going to be showing the first part of Bleasdale’s drama about the sinking.

I’ll be watching, hoping that the reviewer’s prophesy comes true, and no doubt envying the budget, with which they’re presumably going to recreate the sinking of a liner as well as the surfacing of a U-Boat, while we were once quite content with “a fractured lifeboat on a shiny floor against a marine backcloth.”

“Just listen to the music in the order that I’ve recorded it. Get the records, sit down and dig.”

With that in mind I’ve created the following playlist on Spotify:

Thelonious Monk Chronologically

I am indebted to this excellent discography in making this list.

It’s reasonably complete, with all the studio albums in there, including the final sessions made in London on the Black Lion label. What’s missing sadly are a great deal of live recordings released on small labels made on tour in Europe and Japan throughout the 60s. Many have yet to be issued on CD, never mind digitally, I imagine.

Why did I do this? Well, I’m working on a rather secret (oops!) new theatre project involving Monk. Can’t reveal too many details just yet, but it’s going to be quite special, I hope.

Intrigued? Well, you may do the Facebook thing, or follow my RSS and you’ll be the first to know when I can announce more details.

Now go in peace.

I finished the first draft at the weekend, and emailed it off to the show’s original producer (and got paid instantly – thanks Peter). I had originally promised to get it to him in January.

The play now has two acts and a cast of 12 playing 20 speaking parts and a few more besides, and will run for about two and a half hours plus an interval.

The original version told the story of some of the people who found themselved marooned in a lifeboat following the sinking of the Laconia in 1942. The play began with the torpedo striking and the abandon ship, and ended when the few survivors sighted land. The new version keeps much of the original text, but adds a first act set mostly on board the Laconia while on its final voyage.

It’s a very neat separation (which wasn’t my idea), and means, in broad terms, that the audience will hopefully have a far greater emotional engagement in the lives of the characters whenever the second act comes and they are thrust into crisis.

It’s also meant that I’ve had to invent a lot more of the story: some very detailed accounts of the lifeboat journey have been written by the survivors; not much has been written about what happened on ship (other than eating, drinking, fighting and dysentery – all of which feature in the new script).

I don’t have enough distance from it yet to know how I feel about the new work, but I have a feeling that it’s a huge development on the original, which I have always been immensely satisfied with.

Once it’s been redrafted a few times and everyone’s happy with it, the next step will be to find a producer or production company and a theatre for it. It won’t necessarily be easy, as it’s not going to be a cheap production, but I’m confident.

Hopefully it will find a home somehow, and we will be able to have as many of the amazing original cast back together as possible.

Watch this space…