Bournemouth Echo sub-editor Andrew Chappell has had his first play broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

The Fall and Rise of Danny Clark was broadcast on Friday as part of the station's Murder in the Afternoon series, marking the culmination of a project which began almost three years ago.

Andrew, (39), who has worked at the Echo for eight years, wrote the thriller while he was part of a writing group at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton.

Through contacts there it was sent to the BBC, which commissioned the play.

Andrew said: "I'm still quite excited by the whole thing.

"I was kept involved all the way through, and was there for the recordings and heard the rough cut without the sound effects and music.

"I don't think I really believed it was going to be on air until I heard the announcer say my name."

Andrew wrote the original piece in 2004, but it did not end up at the BBC until late 2005 and it was not until last year that he found out it had been commissioned.

The play was then recorded during two sessions, at the BBC's Maida Vale studios and Bush House, the offices of BBC World Service in London.

It was then edited into a 45-minute production in February, ready for broadcast last Friday.

Andrew, who has also worked for the Wilts & Glos Standard and the Stroud News & Journal, said: "I sat in on the two recording sessions and was able to make comments and work with the producer.

"If they had put together everything I wrote it would have been twice as long.

"I finally got a CD of the whole thing about two weeks before it went out on air."

He added: "I must confess that I took the day off (when it aired), partly out of embarassment because I knew everybody at work would be listening.

"But I didn't listen to the whole thing. I wanted to reassure myself that it had been broadcast and I didn't imagine it, but I switched it off after about ten minutes.

"I'd been with the play for so long that by the time it appeared I was more than bored with it. I must have heard it more than 50 times.

"It's probably a shameful admission, but I know the characters and there was no suspense!"