Episode 6

Tom's girlfriend Poppy has left him for Stevie - once a friendless snotball but now fit and much-fancied - but Tom is channelling Einstein to get his girl back, because Albert proved that linear time is a delusion and that everything that happens is still happening. And if that's true, Tom has no reason to move on.

So Tom is keeping early morning vigil outside Poppy's house holding up placards relating to quantum theory. His parents, Mimi and Joe, are worried. Is their son a little genius with a post-Newtonian grasp on the nature of time or a nutjob?

On different days, Tom pretends to be different ages to escape the tyranny of time - it's all part of his quantum theory girlfriend retrieval strategy. As Lucy's boyfriend Chris says, Tom is not clever in any way that helps. Meanwhile Chris is causing Lucy problems. He says he empathizes with Tom because he knows the trauma of a broken heart. He tells her he once wrote heartbroken love songs to his ex-girlfriend Erica - the very same Erica that is currently rehearsing Titania to his Bottom. Lucy feels romantically demoted and asks her mother what she should do. Mimi advises doing nothing but Lucy figures Tom did nothing about Poppy's roving eye and now her brother is riding on his mind rocket to quantum town.

Cast:
Joe...................Mark Bonnar
Mimi.................Sarah Alexander
Tom..................Finlay Christie
Lucy.................Phoebe Abbott
Chris and Older Tom........Daniel Boyd

Writer: Marcella Evaristi
Director: Marilyn Imrie

Producer: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.