Audio Plays and Radio Drama

[DanaC]

As some of you may be aware, I am hugely into Audioplays. Whilst I love audio books, I have a particular penchant for full-cast audio/radio productions. I've already mentioned Big Finish on a number of occasions (the people who make Doctor Who, Sapphire and Steel, Strontium Dog, 2000 AD and Stargate audio plays, amongst others). But I have recently discovered another production company: On Air - The Wireless Theatre Company.

Unlike Big Finish, the WTC downloads are free (though I am not sure if they can be downloaded outside of the UK: I haven't seen anything that says they can't and apparently they can also be downloaded via Globalradio1.com, so I suspect it's worldwide). There are some superb plays on there: if you want to check it out it's at
http://www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk/index.php/about


Are there any other audioplay fans in the Cellar? I know Sundae got into the Torchwood plays on BBC radio recently. Which by the way were very good.

Radioplays are a big thing over here. BBC Radio4 and BBC7 both rely very heavily on radio drama as a key element of their broadcasting. I know there are some Audiotheatre production companies operating in the States, but I am curious if Radio dramas/comedy plays are something you guys get on your radio stations? If so, can you recommend any that you've heard? I'd be interested in hearing how you guys do it

[dar512]

I don't think we have anything like that in the US, Dana. I wish we did.

What we do have (in our area) are replays of the 30s and 40s radio shows. One of the local stations plays them most of Saturday afternoons.

[DanaC]

Oh I bet they're pretty cool. BBC7 does that a lot too. They rerun old BBC dramas and comedy shows and so on. I sometimes go gorge myself on the old time stuff lol.

Radio comedy is also a big thing here. Most of the current crop of TV comedians got their first breaks on radio4 (the home of radio comedy). Lot of radio sketch shows which then get turned into TV sketch shows. Also a lot of sitcoms on radio. There's one that's just finished running called Elvenquest. Very funny.

I remember one really strange sitcom on radio4 wtf was it called *thinks* oh yeah At Home with the Snails. About this guy who starts out collecting snails to study but then realises he is more comfortable with snails than humans. So there's this Birdy type situation where he starts to live amongst his snails and stuff. Very peculiar but quite endearing.

I think my favourite radio play recently (well it's a series of plays actually) was the Complete Smiley: based on the John Le Carre spy novels. They've dramatised all the novels with Smiley the spymaster in. One of them was a three parter: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Wow. Just wow. Probably the classiest audio play I've heard in years. Beautifully directed and acted. I was a bit dubious about it working so well on radio, because I really loved the TV serialisation that was done in the 80s. But really, it was wonderful.

[Spexxvet]

Here's my favorite

[DanaC]

lol "relentlessly, ruthlessly"
"I wonder where Ruth is?"

hahahaah that's very good. Oh brilliant. I love it.

"Uncross those beautiful stems of yours baby"

I'm going to have to listen to this whole thing. *Runs off to Youtube to get the other parts*

[richlevy]

The Old Time Radio Archive has free downloads of old radio shows http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio.

BTW, it isn't all 'radio plays'.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheLesPaulShow

Also

http://www.radiolovers.com/ - More episodes of each show than Old Time Radio.

BTW, if you listen to the first episode of Buck Rogers, you can follow along on the script here:

http://www.genericradio.com/show.php...04fdd014a48482

HUER:
Hardly. The scientific research that led up to the development of this machine was started way back in the twentieth century.
WILMA:
Why, I always thought that the people back in the twentieth century weren't much better than savages! And what they knew about scientific things--
HUER:
Ohh, no, not at all, Wilma! You owe a great deal to the scientists of those days. Were it not for the great groundwork laid by men like Einstein, Fitzgerald, Compton, Milliken and the rest, why we'd be without a great many of the things we have today.
WILMA:
They never really got anywhere with rocketship development, or anything like that though, did they?
HUER:
Well...successful rocket flight depends on two things that have been brought into existence only recently.
WILMA:
One of them must be Inertron.
HUER:
Yes. Inertron. The material that defies gravity and makes it possible to lift a big spaceship off the earth and away from it's terrific gravitational pull, without too much wasted power.
WILMA:
And what's the other?
HUER:
Impervium. The only metal capable of withstanding the high temperature of rocket blast for any length of time.

Wow. Inerton and Impervium. Someone call NASA, quick.

[dar512]

Just last night I heard a radio presentation of The Moth on WBEZ Chicago. I gather it started as a local event, but has started recording the events.

Professionals and amateurs alike get up and tell a story from their life. Many of the stories are humorous. The story one guy told about his first day as a yankees bat boy was a riot. However there was a heartbreaker in there as well - a comedian just breaking into the big time -- as his baby daughter dies of cancer.

[wolf]

I think the last time that was tried in America was back in the 1970s. I loved listening to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

I also liked getting the classic radio shows out of the library on LP.

More recently I think the Sci Fi Channel had something called Seeing Ear Theater.

[DanaC]

Oh man, I love old Buck Rogers!

Dar: The Moth sounds awesome! What a fantastic idea.

@ Wolf: I just got hold of some audio Lovecraft. I think it probably has a very similar feel to the Mystery Theatre. May even have come from there originally.

[Sundae]

My parents still listen to plays on the radio. At least they did before they retired - thinking about it, they haven't done so since I've moved back in. Like everything else they enjoy, they don't seem to have time now. Both retired? Go figure

I've always been a bigger fan of radio comedy personally.
Blame MTV (even if I didn't see it until I was in my 20s!) for not committing to anything longer than half an hour.
Apart from The Goon Show and Round the Horne - childhood staples that should always be accompanied by the scraping of carrots and the smell of roasting chicken. My own favourite was Radio Active, which we used to tape off the radio and listen to again and again, and talk about at school, and do impressions. When I was about 15 it had the same popularity as The Young Ones and Spitting Image had a couple of years beforehand. Then again, we all had radio cassettes in our bedrooms rather than television, so it was our secret, teenage pleasure, which didn't have to be shared with our families (only my bro ever got to listen to my tapes).

Mum & Dad get the Radio Times every week (other listings magazines are available) so I'll really have to start checking them carefully. There's bound to be loads I like. And given that the 'rents are having a West Wing marathon or something these days, I'm back in the teenager-in-the-bedroom situation again!

[irish]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I think my favourite radio play recently (well it's a series of plays actually) was the Complete Smiley: based on the John Le Carre spy novels. They've dramatised all the novels with Smiley the spymaster in. One of them was a three parter: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Wow. Just wow. Probably the classiest audio play I've heard in years. Beautifully directed and acted. I was a bit dubious about it working so well on radio, because I really loved the TV serialisation that was done in the 80s. But really, it was wonderful.

Hello from ireland. I agree with you on "spy" It was a terrific adaption.

[DanaC]

Hallo irish! Welcome to the Cellar

Wasn't it though? The sound direction alone was something to write home about. And the acting was fantastic. So atmospheric.

[Elspode]

Heh...Nick Danger...Firesign Theater. My favorite album of theirs is, "Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers".

I was always partial to radio plays as well. The BBC Radio version of "HHGTTG" is tons o' fun.

[Sundae]

Thanks for the Who info Dani, I will definitetly follow that up.
Slaughterhouse Five is on Radio 3 on Sunday 20 at 20.00
I think I just might listen, especially as I found out my Mercury Music nominated ex-friend's band is called Sweet Billy Pilgrim.

I'm by far a more fervent believer in coincidence than in fate, but I'm human enough to want to believe in meaning in random occurrences, even if I can't justify it.