Some would say the Market is the last authentic part of the city centre. This northern city once textured by textiles has reinvented itself as a business and financial centre – it bristles with designer shops and bars. A cosmopolitan, twenty-four hour city. Yet slap bang in the centre is a shard of another city. And after countless makeovers, the Victorian City Market remains what it has always been; a place where you can get anything and see anything – a place teeming with life. A place bristling with stories. The market is the real face of the city – mucky, multicultural and magnificent.

‘Market’ is an umbrella series of six plays about people who work in and around its stalls. Each story is a self-contained quirky tale. Modern morality plays, with a whiff of the fantastical about them. The series was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2011.

Loco Parentis – Jim can’t sleep cos his daughter’s left for uni, his business is going belly up, and his father is going gaga. Oh, and to top it all he suspects his wife is having an affair with her boss. He needs to escape – but where to? A bitter sweet empty nester comedy.

Phonebreaker – Matt’s going off the rails. School was a washout and working on his dad’s market stall is a dead end job. But when he hears a call for help on a stolen mobile phone, it’s a call to action. The trail leads him to an apparently glamorous crowd, and he wades in way out of his depth. An arresting morality tale.

The Joey – Sean’s family own a fish stall down the market. Except Sean doesn’t want to join them. He’s become a ‘Joey’ for his best friend Darren who’s a highly paid footballer. A Joey is a sort of friendly factotum, a ‘Go to Guy’. No way is he dogsbody.

Castaway – Andrew is proud of his beard and his liberal attitudes. Then Akram Khan buys some computers off his stall. Khan is a successful businessman, he lives in a house Andrew admires. Andrew is sanguine about this – until he fits a wi-fi router in Mr Khan’s house.

Eclipse – Carrie runs a flower stall. She also has a birthmark on her face. Maybe that’s the reason she has never married. But Mrs Kaminsky knows she has an ardent admirer. A tender romantic comedy.

An Imam and a Rabbi – Imam Jawad and Rabbi Greenberg can’t stand the sight of each other. But then something strange and spooky occurs. Something that needs cross cultural co-operation. Can they do it? A wickedly funny supernatural comedy.