Posts Tagged ‘BBC Radio Four’
A Lost Generation of Young Italians and Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day via Harold Pinter’s screenplay
Why do Italy’s hard working idealistic and well educated young people have to flee abroad to pursue their hopes and dreams, and the chance to catch an audio screenplay dramatisation of Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day.
A half hour R4 documentary convincingly argued that ‘Italy is losing its young, talented professionals, driven out by a stagnant domestic economy and an entrenched employment market riddled with patronage and nepotism. As the Prime Minister advocates marrying someone wealthy as a means to get ahead, more and more young Italians are choosing to find work, recognition and respect abroad.’ Read the rest of this entry »
Voices from the Old Bailey, The Other Simenon and Positive by Tina Pepler, Afternoon Play- Radio and Audio Review 3rd August 2011
Riots and sexual subcultures in Voices From The Old Bailey, Maître lawyer falling in love with his client in The Other Simenon, and who would want to be a doctor dealing with the ethics of under-age teenagers getting pregnant and being tested positive for HIV and that’s not all Tina Pepler managed to electrify into an Afternoon Play. Read the rest of this entry »
The Purple Land, Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast, and The Day We Caught The Train. Audio and Radio Review 20th July 2011
Hunting, riding, herding, loving and killing through the Purple blaze, crumbling stone and ancient ritual, horses with lion tales, people called Sepulchrave, Prunesquallor and Steerpike and the shocking confrontation of your mother’s secret past.
A snapshot of BBC audio drama output at any time offers depth in dramatic literary output, entertainment and sophisticated production aesthetics. Read the rest of this entry »
Serious Money and the Art of Austerity, The Browning Version and Rattigan’s Versions, The Apple Tree and But If You Try Sometimes from the Afternoon Play, Richard the Second, Plantagenet, and the Day of the Jackal, Shalom Berlin and a Blind Date with Bloomsday. Radio and Audio Review 19th June 2011
BBC Radio Three has been providing poignant and sharply relevant drama and documentary programmes on the collapse of the domestic and global economy. This is public service broadcasting at its most anxious and perplexing.
As savings and assets evaporate in banking and property collapses, unemployment and inflation soars, and economic confidence implodes most people are helpless and powerless. Read the rest of this entry »
Plantagenets, Rattigan’s Flare Path and Letter to My Body: Radio and audio review 10th June 2011
The Second Series of Mike Walker’s Plantagenets in the Sunday Classic Serial (BBC Radio Four) starts with the sound of England pissing on Scotland followed by William Wallace replacing it with the sound of dripping blood. Read the rest of this entry »
Fact and Fiction in BBC Radio Drama- Radio and Audio Review 30th May 2011
In the riches offered up in BBC audio drama over the last week there are powerful and poignant dramatisations of factual history and reality.
They include Mike Walker’s Sunk, David Baddiel’s Superinjunctions and Julia Hollander’s The Kingsnorth Six. Read the rest of this entry »
Radio Play Download of the Week: Radio and Audio Review 12th April 2011
Libertarian Spirit has been focusing on an innovation by BBC Radio to establish and promote a weekly radio drama download of the week. The advantage of this development is that the dedicated audio drama listener can have more power and freedom to listen to dramatic output.
And it is easier to listen again and again to plays that pierced the heart, tickled the funny bone or changed thought, attitude and opinion. As with great poetry or prose, something new can be discovered in listening again. Read the rest of this entry »
The Carhullan Army: Radio and Audio Review 4th April 2011
BBC Radio Four schedulers have foolishly abandoned the ninety minute feature length film frame for radio drama, but the form is maintained with force and elegance by BBC Radio Three. The contemporary novelist Sarah Hall, ‘one of the most original and exciting voices in contemporary British fiction’ according to the BBC publicity machine, sustains this hype with a magnificent dramatisation of her third 2007 novel The Carhullan Army. Read the rest of this entry »