Student activity

The Devil's Alliance

This issue's activity is based around a drama, 'The Devil's Alliance', which has been written by Radio 4 playwright Alastair Jessiman.

The play is in two parts - the first set in prison, the second in a hospital isolation ward. It is about one man's personal experience of TB and the emotional consequences of isolation.

Listen actively and make notes on what it is about the two men's lifestyles that make them particularly vulnerable to contracting TB in the first part. In the second part, list some of the ways in which Bounce's mental and emotional health is affected by his isolation.

Listen to 'The Devil's Alliance' High res [MP3 23MB] Low res [MP3 12MB]

Download the activity sheet [PDF 37KB]

And choose one of four options for homework [PDF 320KB].

Research info

Interview with the education officer of TB Alert [MP3 2.5MB]

Interview with the international office of TB Alert [MP3 2.9MB]

Interview with Paul Thorn about his personal experience of TB [MP3 2.5MB]

Credits
'The Devil's Alliance', written by Alastair Jessiman, features Steven Cree as Bounce, Finlay Welsh as Mickey, Stephanie Farrell as Siobhan and Frances Thorburn as Fran. Additional roles are played by Alastair Jessiman. The production was recorded and edited by Neil Gardner, produced by Neil Gardner and Karen Gilchrist, and directed by Hilary Durman. 'The Devil's Alliance' is a Resource Base production for the Wellcome Trust.

Intellectual property rights
The activities and the play have been made available under a Creative Commons licence, which allows users to copy and distribute content, provided the Wellcome Trust is fully attributed and it is used for non-commercial purposes.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Licence.