It’s the cold Russian winter and two tricksters have missed the last train home and now need a roof over their heads for the night. They concoct an elaborate lie that involves one of them posing as the lost lost elder son of a local family. So far, so good. But what this ‘elder son’ fails to anticipate is that he will soon be unable to extricate himself from the lie.

The Elder Son (1967) by Alexander Vampilov is a classic of Russian theatre and has been adapted in two parts for BBC Radio.