Industry Insights

When asked to teach a course on radio drama at University College Falmouth, radio producer, Lucy Frears, bit her lip because she's got a guilty secret. She loves and hates radio drama. On the BBC - the biggest outlet for new writing in the world - there are always a few dramas that she turns off as soon as she hears the first line.

There's a certain tone of voice in many a drama that lacks feeling or a smug script but luckily, there are also many that grab me enough to keep me waiting in the car to catch the last words of the afternoon play. So if you see a steamed up car, it may not be an open invite for dogging fans, but just l'il ol' me listening to the end of a gripping story.

Is radio drama sexy?

Radio lacks glamour and big budgets. It's fighting for scraps on ritzy media courses. Film and TV offer money and fame and more obvious, cool kit. Am I the only person who still thinks radio's sexy? Radio drama can whisk me off to the most dangerous and unusual places - real or unreal. Action can be intense, the locations exotic and I can get inside anyone's or anything's head! I can free my imagination. It's an emotional ride where anything, yes anything, can happen. It not only moves me, it moves with me. I can hear it in the car, on the bus, abroad, from the net and on an MP3 player.

Is it worth writing for radio?

Although our culture seems obsessed by the visual, in reality, radio audiences are growing rather than shrinking. New work is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 every day and there are regular slots on BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service and BBC 7. Even BBC Radio 1 is commissioning new work! A radio drama writer enjoys a higher status than film or TV writers; there's less back room butchering, more discussion.

Are young people interested or even aware of radio drama?

BBC Radio 4 is still the main home of radio drama in the UK but as young people are liberated by their portable MP3 players do they ever listen to what their parents insist on hearing? Do young people listen to Radio 4 now? I gave a group of first year BA English with Media students a questionnaire to gauge their interest levels. Without any introductory sell about how radio drama could be (and often is) the first step in a successful writing career I collected their thoughts and comments. A positive response - they wanted to know more - phew!

How can young people be introduced to radio drama?

Not only had few students on my course actually listened to radio drama, some didn't even listen to the radio at all, only CDs. I had to make sure I didn't put them off.

University College Falmouth is based in Cornwall, an area rich with writers. I decided to play them some pieces based on the characters and landscape around them as well as work by the BBC’s experimental new writers. I played "interludes" from rap albums - these are "dramatised scenes" rather than music tracks. Snoop Doggs' rude interludes are amusing and Alan Beck (writer of "Radio Acting" A&C Black, London) recommends Eminem.

Break convention and write something you'd want to hear on the radio rather than what you think's expected. I encouraged the students not to feel the weight of radio history or the BBC Radio 4 audience but to use this module to experiment - to really write what they wanted however odd, deep or dirty! How they rewarded me! Would a brace of bed-bound aged murderers and the inner thoughts of a polar bear have worked on TV?

Writing a radio drama

Developing the idea for a script can cause numb panic. Cornish writer Paul Farmer advises students to carry a small notebook (his fit in his shirt pocket). Random thoughts and ideas could be jotted down throughout the day or real conversations overheard in the pub. In your own notebook there's no need for inhibition, censorship, logic or even legibility! Paul says that some of his ideas come from trying to re-read and translate his scrawl!

Anna Murphy, another Cornish dramatist and writer, prepares for writing by flicking through scrapbooks of pictures, postcards and articles that might reveal the face of a character to her or the bar where someone met. She makes boxes of collected objects connected with the story she's writing. Then when she starts she writes again and again until she can continue. It conquers the fear of the blank page.

What works with radio drama?

A play must have a strong opening. There has to be a reason to stay tuned in - a question that needs answering. Radio's great strength is the ability to take us inside someone else's mind. Don't necessarily take on the 'Big Picture' - the Battle of the Somme is best done through one person talking intimately into a microphone explaining their feelings and experiences, rather than a small cast in a broom cupboard trying to sound like a whole battle raging.

Sound and silence

And for those not used to radio, allowing sound to tell the story is a challenge. On a simple level, the squawk of a seagull shows that we're near the sea. An actor's voice can tell us what's going on - awkward shuffling or the effect on the voice when a man is doing up a tie or his shoelaces. Silence is powerful, as is the change of pace - highs and lows rather than a frantic race to the end.

Relevant Links:

Lucy Frears: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

Charlie Barnecut, actor: www.kneehigh.co.uk

FlickerNow: www.flickernow.org

Cornwall Film: www.cornwallfilm.com

BBC Writers' Room: www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

University College Falmouth: www.falmouth.ac.uk

BBC Script Archive: www.bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 Drama: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4

BBC Radio 3 Drama: www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

BBC 7 Drama: www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7

BBC World Service Drama: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice

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