User Reviews

The TV drama "Burn Your Phone" was based on Andrew Wallace's original Radio 4 play, in which Alan Cumming originally played the role of Andy. Cumming was so impressed by Wallace's script that he pushed hard for it to be produced as a TV drama.

The screenplay shows its radio basis in focusing heavily on the main character and his reactions to the calls he receives. It's unusual for a TV audience to be asked to imagine off-screen scenarios, but Wallace's script and Cumming's well-judged performance make "Burn Your Phone" a half-hour of very watchable TV drama.

Andrew Wallace appears as an extra in the opening tracking shot, showing rows of telephone operators at work. He is now a successful stand-up comedian on the London comedy club circuit.

This is an incredible piece of work by Alan, he stars in and directed this tale of a BT Operator receiving malicious calls directed at him personally - a real horror flick based on an everyday job which has you sitting on the edge of your seat until the last minute. I am an operator and his facts are spot on, the calls incredibly life-like and his reactions to them almost unremovable from the real thing. Well done alan. I'd love to see the re'runs of this.

The other reviewer states the screenplay was written by the actor who starred in it. It was actually written by Andrew Wallace.

It's an utterly brilliant piece which was originally an award winning radio play (also starring Alan Cumming).

Andy, a telephone operator, is about to have a very bad day. He is a likable, funny guy, and is clearly very clever. He speaks to a wide cross section of callers who between them give a rich idea of events happening around the Hastings area - rather like the beginning of Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders.

Suddenly, one of the calls frighteningly impinges on his own uneventful life; he is alone, isolated by the anonymity of the telephone, and he begins to fear for his life...

It's atmospheric, painfully funny and, at times, heartbreakingly sad. Three cheers for a great writer, who, sadly, doesn't seem to have made it into the limelight again.