RADIO plays about Oxford’s famous canal that dazzled an audience in Jericho last year have been given the professional treatment.

The four 10-minute performances were produced as part of a competition held by Oxford Canal Heritage, which aims to promote interest in the canal among residents.

They were performed in St Barnabas Church, Canal Street, last June after being whittled down from 36 entries that were all inspired by the historic city waterway.

Now they have been recorded by Oxford-based Tom Dick and Debbie Studio and uploaded to the Oxford Canal Heritage Project’s website. Heather Dunmore, 63, whose play Revisiting the Trap Grounds was one of the winners, said it was the first play she had written for radio.

The story revolves around Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, who attended St Edward’s School in North Oxford as a boy and is buried in Holywell Cemetery.

During his time in the city he was able to observe wildlife around the Oxford Canal, as the school playing field run down to its banks. The play goes further and suggests he drew on the memories in his writing.

In the performance an older Grahame is walking with his cousin, Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, who wrote The Prisoner of Zenda, through the Trap Grounds in Oxford. Ms Dunmore, who is a playwright and lives in Maidcroft Road, said: “I was really pleased with how it came out.

“I had written for theatre before but this is my first radio play.”

Author and Cumnor resident Philip Pullman chose the overall winner of the competition, Breaking The Ice by St Anne’s College English undergraduate David McShane.

It followed two men as they reminisced about their memories of the canal and former lovers. Other finalists included a story by Kelvin Fawdry about the mule who pulled the country’s last horse-drawn narrow boat along the Oxford Canal and another about the long history of travellers stopping at Oxford’s mooring sites, by Lara Fairy Love.

Oxford Canal Heritage project manager Maria Parsons said: “It’s really good to see the plays finished and I’m really pleased with how they turned out.

“Each of the writers was inspired by the canal but all in wonderfully different ways. I hope people will now visit our website and enjoy listening to them.”

For more information and to listen go to oxfordcanalheritage.org/radio-plays