West of Eden

BBC World Service; January 2000
Producers: Ros Ward and Gordon House
1h 02min

A lost suitcase. A small child. An anxious grandmother. The Salingers appear to be an ordinary English family as they arrive in the holiday resort of Grand Cayman to the accompaniment of the local steel band. But their intentions are anything but ordinary. And beneath the slightly frazzled exterior of Rob and Sinead Salinger lies the worst anxiety of all – fears for the health of their young daughter, Natalie. Far from the prying eyes of the western press, the Salingers have come to Grand Cayman for one reason only. To visit the clinic of an ambitious fertility specialist whose declared intention is to be the first scientist in the world to achieve human cloning.

Starring Suzanna Hamilton, Michael Maloney and Nigel Anthony, West of Eden was commissioned by the World Service as one of a series of plays for the millennium, exploring discoveries and dilemmas at the cutting edge of science.