
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a
dramatised, purely acoustic
performance
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: "It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension." Radio drama includes plays specifically written for radio,
docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...
, dramatised works of
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
, as well as
plays originally written for the theatre, including
musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
, and
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
.
Radio drama achieved widespread popularity within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
in the 1950s, radio drama began losing its audience. However, it remains popular in much of the world.
Recordings of OTR (
old-time radio
The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...
) survive today in the audio archives of collectors, libraries and museums, as well as several online sites such as the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
.
By the 21st century, radio drama had a minimal presence on terrestrial radio in the United States, with much American radio drama being restricted to rebroadcasts of programmes from previous decades. However, other nations still have thriving traditions of radio drama. In the United Kingdom, for example, the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
produces and broadcasts hundreds of new radio plays each year on
Radio 3,
Radio 4, and
Radio 4 Extra
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital Radio broadcasting, radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It mostly broadcasts archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary program ...
. Like the US, Australia's network the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
has abandoned broadcasting drama but in New Zealand on
RNZ, continues to promote and broadcast a variety of drama over its airwaves.
Thanks to advances in digital recording and Internet distribution, radio drama experienced a revival around 2010.
Podcasting
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
offered the means of inexpensively creating new radio dramas, in addition to the distribution of vintage programs.
The terms ''audio drama'' or ''audio theatre'' are sometimes used synonymously with ''radio drama''; however, audio drama or audio theatre may not necessarily be intended specifically for broadcast on radio. Audio drama can also be found on
CDs,
cassette tape
The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...
s,
podcasts
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
,
webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, webca ...
s, or other digital downloads as well as
broadcast radio
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based ra ...
.
History
The Roman playwright
Seneca has claim as a forerunner of radio drama because "his plays were performed by readers as sound plays, not by actors as stage plays... In this respect Seneca had no significant successors until 20th-century technology made possible the widespread dissemination of sound plays."
1880–1930: early years
Radio drama traces its roots back to the 1880s: "In 1881 French engineer Clement Ader had filed a patent for 'improvements of Telephone Equipment in Theatres (
Théâtrophone
Théâtrophone (, "the theatre phone") was a telephony, telephonic distribution system available in portions of Europe that allowed the subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines. The théâtrophone evolved fr ...
). English-language radio drama seems to have started in the United States. ''A Rural Line on Education'', a brief sketch specifically written for radio, aired on
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
's
KDKA in 1921, according to historian Bill Jaker. Newspaper accounts of the era report on a number of other drama experiments by America's commercial radio stations:
KYW broadcast a season of complete operas from Chicago starting in November 1921. In February 1922, entire
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
musical comedies with the original casts aired from
WJZ's Newark studios. Actors
Grace George
Grace George (December 25, 1879 – May 19, 1961) was a prominent American stage actress, who had a long career on Broadway stage and also appeared in two films.
Biography
George was born on December 25, 1879. She married producer William A. ...
and
Herbert Hayes
Herbert Harrison Heyes (August 3, 1889 – May 31, 1958) was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1915 and 1956, including the famed 1947 film '' Miracle on 34th Street'', in which he played an ahistorical "Mr. Gimbel ...
performed an entire play from a San Francisco station in the summer of 1922.
An important turning point in radio drama came when
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...
's
WGY, after a successful tryout on 3 August 1922, began weekly studio broadcasts of full-length stage plays in September 1922, using music, sound effects and a regular troupe of actors, The WGY Players. Aware of this series, the director of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
's
WLW
WLW (700 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial news/talk radio station city of license, licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as "The Big One". Its studios ...
began regularly broadcasting one-acts (as well as excerpts from longer works) in November.
[Lawrence Lichty, "Radio Drama: The Early Years" in Lawrence Lichty and Malachi Topping (eds): ''American Broadcasting'' (New York, Hastings House, 1975).] The success of these projects led to imitators at other stations. By early 1923, original dramatic pieces written specially for radio were airing on stations in Cincinnati (''When Love Wakens'' by WLW's Fred Smith),
Philadelphia (''The Secret Wave'' by Clyde A. Criswell) and Los Angeles (''At Home'' over
KHJ). That same year, WLW (in May) and WGY (in September) sponsored scripting contests, inviting listeners to create original plays to be performed by those stations' dramatic troupes.
Listings in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and other sources for May 1923 reveal at least 20 dramatic offerings were scheduled (including one-acts, excerpts from longer dramas, complete three- and four-act plays, operettas and a
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
adaptation), either as in-studio productions or by remote broadcast from local theatres and opera houses. An early British drama broadcast was of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...
'' on
2LO on 25 July 1923.
Serious study of American radio drama of the 1920s and early 1930s is, at best, very limited. Unsung pioneers of the art include: WLW's Fred Smith;
Freeman Gosden
Freeman Fisher "Gozzie" Gosden (May 5, 1899 – December 10, 1982) was an American radio comedian, actor and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his work in the '' Amos 'n' Andy'' radio series.
Life and ...
and
Charles Correll
Charles James Correll (February 2, 1890 – September 26, 1972) was an American radio comedian, actor and writer who was best known for his work in the radio ''Amos 'n' Andy'' radio series with Freeman Gosden. Correll voiced the main character, ...
(who popularised the dramatic
serial); ''
The Eveready Hour'' creative team (which began with one-act plays but was soon experimenting with hour-long combinations of drama and music on its weekly variety program); the various acting troupes at stations like WLW, WGY,
KGO and a number of others, frequently run by women like Helen Schuster Martin and Wilda Wilson Church; early network continuity writers like Henry Fisk Carlton, William Ford Manley and Don Clark; producers and directors like Clarence Menser and Gerald Stopp; and a long list of others who were credited at the time with any number of innovations but who are largely forgotten or undiscussed today.
Elizabeth McLeod's 2005 book on Gosden and Correll's early work is a major exception, as is Richard J. Hand's 2006 study of horror radio, which examines some programs from the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Another notable early radio drama, one of the first specially written for the medium in the UK, was ''A Comedy of Danger'' by
Richard Hughes, broadcast by the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
on 15 January 1924, about a group of people trapped in a Welsh coal mine. One of the earliest and most influential French radio plays was the prize-winning ''Marémoto'' ('Seaquake'), by Gabriel Germinet and Pierre Cusy, which presents a realistic account of a sinking ship before revealing that the characters are actually actors rehearsing for a broadcast. Translated and broadcast in Germany and England by 1925, the play was originally scheduled by
Radio-Paris to air on 23 October 1924, but was instead banned from French radio until 1937 because the government feared that the dramatic
SOS
SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...
messages would be mistaken for genuine distress signals.
In 1951, American writer and producer
Arch Oboler suggested that
Wyllis Cooper's ''
Lights Out'' (1934–47) was the first true radio drama to make use of the unique qualities of radio:
Though the series is often remembered solely for its gruesome stories and sound effects, Cooper's scripts for ''Lights Out'' were later recognised as well written and offered innovations seldom heard in early radio dramas, including multiple first-person narrators,
stream of consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which ...
monologue
In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...
s and scripts that contrasted a duplicitous character's
internal monologue
Intrapersonal communication (also known as autocommunication or inner speech) is communication with oneself or self-to-self communication. Examples are thinking to oneself "I will do better next time" after having made a mistake or imagining a ...
and his spoken words.
The question of who was the first to write stream-of-consciousness drama for radio is a difficult one to answer. By 1930,
Tyrone Guthrie
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (2 July 1900 – 15 May 1971) was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at ...
had written plays for the BBC like ''Matrimonial News'' (which consists entirely of the thoughts of a shopgirl awaiting a blind date) and ''The Flowers Are Not for You to Pick'' (which takes place inside the mind of a drowning man). After they were published in 1931, Guthrie's plays aired on the American networks. Around the same time, Guthrie himself also worked for the
Canadian National Railway radio network, producing plays written by
Merrill Denison that used similar techniques. A 1940 article in ''Variety'' credited a 1932
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
play, ''Drink Deep'' by Don Johnson, as the first stream-of-consciousness play written for American radio. The climax of Lawrence Holcomb's 1931 NBC play ''Skyscraper'' also uses a variation of the technique (so that the listener can hear the final thoughts and relived memories of a man falling to his death from the title building).
There were probably earlier examples of stream-of-consciousness drama on the radio. For example, in December 1924, actor
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...
, then appearing in a revival of
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...
's ''
The Emperor Jones
''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed ...
'', performed a scene from the play over New York's
WGBS to critical acclaim. Some of the many storytellers and monologuists on early 1920s American radio might be able to claim even earlier dates.
1930–1960s: widespread popularity
Perhaps America's most famous radio drama broadcast is
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
' ''
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ...
'' (a 1938 version of
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
'
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
), which inspired stories of a mass panic that, though greatly exaggerated, signaled the power of the form.
By the late 1930s, radio drama was widely popular in the United States (and also in other parts of the world). There were dozens of programs in many different genres, from mysteries and thrillers, to
soap opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
s and comedies. Among American playwrights, screenwriters and novelists who got their start in radio drama are
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his Anthology series, anthology television series ''The Twilight Zone (1 ...
and
Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' (1 ...
.

In Britain, however, during the 1930s BBC programming, tended to be more high brow, including the works of Shakespeare, Classical Greek drama, as well as the works of major modern playwrights, such as
Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...
,
Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...
,
Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 play ...
, and so forth. Novels and short stories were also frequently dramatised. In addition the plays of contemporary writers and original plays were produced, with, for example, a broadcast of
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...
's famous verse play ''
Murder in the Cathedral
''Murder in the Cathedral'' is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935 (published the same year). The play portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. El ...
'' in 1936. By 1930, the BBC was producing "twice as many plays as London's
West End" and were producing over 400 plays a year by the mid-1940s.
Producers of radio drama soon became aware that adapting stage plays for radio did not always work, and that there was a need for plays specifically written for radio, which recognised its potential as a distinct and different medium from the theatre.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...
's plays, for example, were seen as readily adaptable. However, in a lead article in the BBC literary journal ''
The Listener'', of 14 August 1929, which discussed the broadcasting of 12 great plays, it was suggested that while the theatrical literature of the past should not be neglected the future lay mainly with plays written specifically for the microphone.
In 1939–40, the BBC founded its own
Drama Repertory Company which made a stock of actors readily available. After the war, the number was around 50. They performed in the great number of plays broadcast in the heyday of BBC radio drama of the 40s–60s.
Initially the BBC resisted American-style 'soap opera', but eventually highly popular serials, like ''
Dick Barton, Special Agent'' (1946–51), ''
Mrs Dale's Diary'' (1948–69) and ''
The Archers
''The Archers'' is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word Radio broadcasting, channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now pr ...
'' (1950–), were produced. ''The Archers'' is still running () and is the world's longest-running soap opera with a total of over 18,400 episodes. There had been some earlier serialised drama including, the six episode ''The Shadow of the Swastika'' (1939),
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.
Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somerv ...
's ''
The Man Born To Be King'', in twelve episodes (1941), and ''
Front Line Family'' (1941–48), which was broadcast to America as part of the effort to encourage the US to enter the war. The show's storylines depicted the trials and tribulations of a British family, the Robinsons, living through the war. This featured plots about rationing, family members missing in action and the Blitz. After the war in 1946 it was moved to the
BBC Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
.
The BBC continued producing various kinds of drama, including docu-drama, throughout
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
; amongst the writers they employed were the novelist
James Hanley and poet
Louis MacNeice
Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet, playwright and producer for the BBC. Known for its exploration of introspection, empiricism, and belonging, his poetic work is now ranked among the twentieth ...
, who in 1941 became an employee of the BBC's. MacNeice's work for the BBC initially involved writing and producing radio programmes intended to build support for the US, and later Russia, through cultural programmes emphasising links between the countries rather than outright propaganda. By the end of the war MacNeice had written well over 60 scripts for the BBC, including ''
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
'' (1942), which starred
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
, ''
The Dark Tower'' (1946), and a six-part radio adaptation of
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
's ''
Faust
Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...
'' (1949).
Following World War II the BBC reorganised its radio provision, introducing two new channels to supplement the
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4.
History
1922–1939: Interwar period
Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
(itself the result of the fusion in September 1939 of the pre-war
National
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
and
Regional Programmes). These were the BBC Light Programme (dating from 29 July 1945 and a direct successor to the wartime
General Forces Programme) and the
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...
(launched on 29 September 1946).
The BBC Light Programme, while principally devoted to light entertainment and music, carried a fair share of drama, both single plays (generally, as the name of the station indicated, of a lighter nature) and serials. In contrast, the BBC Third Programme, destined to become one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in post-war Britain, specialised in heavier drama (as well as the serious music, talks, and other features which made up its content): long-form productions of both classical and modern/experimental dramatic works sometimes occupied the major part of its output on any given evening. The Home Service, meanwhile, continued to broadcast more "middle-brow" drama (one-off plays and serialisations) daily.
The high-water mark for BBC radio drama was the 1950s and 1960s, and during this period many major British playwrights either effectively began their careers with the BBC, or had works adapted for radio. Most of playwright
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Lesley Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non- naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. 's early experiences with professional drama production were as a radio playwright and, starting in 1962 with ''The Ants'', she wrote nine productions with BBC radio drama up until 1973, when her stage work began to be recognised at the
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
.
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist.
His public career, from 1964 until his murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly i ...
's dramatic debut in 1963 was the radio play ''
The Ruffian on the Stair'', which was broadcast on 31 August 1964.
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
's "first professional production was in the 15-minute ''Just Before Midnight'' programme on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
, which showcased new dramatists".
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for short stories about a barrister named Horace Rumpole, adapted from episodes of the TV series '' R ...
made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955, with his adaptation of his own novel ''Like Men Betrayed'' for the
BBC Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
. However, he made his debut as an original playwright with ''
The Dock Brief
''The Dock Brief'' (US title ''Trial and Error''; also known as ''A Case for the Jury'') is a 1962 black-and-white UK, British legal satire directed by James Hill (British director), James Hill, starring Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough, a ...
'', starring
Michael Hordern
Sir Michael Murray Hordern (3 October 19112 May 1995) was an English actor. He is best known for his Shakespearean roles, especially King Lear. He often appeared in film, rising from a bit part actor to leading roles; by the time of his death ...
as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Third Programme, later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with ''What Shall We Tell Caroline?'' at the
Lyric Hammersmith
The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a nonprofit theatre on Lyric Square, off King Street, Hammersmith, London."About the Lyric" > "History" ''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved January 2024.
Background
The Lyric Theatre ...
in April 1958, before transferring to the
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ...
. Mortimer is most famous for ''
Rumpole of the Bailey
''Rumpole of the Bailey'' is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, a middle-aged London barrister who defended a broad variety of clients, ...
'', a
British television
Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transm ...
series which starred
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern (16 March 1920 – 23 July 2002) was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programmes and films, and in more than 200 stage roles. His notable roles include Clang in ...
as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients. It has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
Giles Cooper was a pioneer in writing for radio, becoming prolific in both radio and television drama. His early successes included radio dramatisations of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
's ''
Oliver Twist
''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, ...
'',
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel '' Lord of the Flies'' (1954), Golding published another 12 volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 19 ...
's ''
Lord of the Flies
''Lord of the Flies'' is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that led to ...
'', and
John Wyndham
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his name ...
's classic science fiction novel ''
Day of the Triffids''.
He was also successful in the theatre. The first of his radio plays to make his reputation was ''Mathry Beacon'' (1956), about a small detachment of men and women still guarding a Top Secret "missile deflector" somewhere in Wales, years after the war has ended.
Bill Naughton's radio play ''Alfie Elkins and his Little Life'' (1962) was first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 7 January 1962. In it Alfie, "
th sublime amorality... swaggers and philosophises his way through" life. The action spans about two decades, from the beginning of World War II to the late 1950s. In 1964, Bill Naughton turned it into a stage play which was put on at London's
Mermaid Theatre
The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre encompassing the site of Puddle Dock and Curriers' Alley at Blackfriars in the City of London, and the first built in the City since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new th ...
. Later, he wrote the screenplay for a film version, ''
Alfie'' (1966), starring
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...
.
Other notable radio dramatists included
Henry Reed,
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely ackno ...
,
Rhys Adrian,
Alan Plater
Alan Frederick Plater (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s. He is best known for the sitcom ''Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt'' and th ...
;
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He directed ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), ...
,
Alan Bleasdale
Alan George Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946) is an English screenwriter, best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people. A former teacher, he has written for radio, stage and screen, and has also written novels ...
, and novelist
Angela Carter
Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
. Novelist
Susan Hill
Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, Lady Wells (born 5 February 1942) is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include '' The Woman in Black'', which has been adapted for stage and screen, '' The Mist in the Mirror'', and '' ...
also wrote for BBC Radio, from the early 1970s.
Henry Reed was especially successful with the
Hilda Tablet
Hilda Tablet is a fictitious "twelve-tone composeress" created by Henry Reed in a series of radio comedy plays for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Third Programme. Hilda is the inventor of ''musique concrète renforcée'' (literally, "r ...
plays. Irish playwright Brendan Behan, author of ''
The Quare Fellow
''The Quare Fellow'' is Brendan Behan's first play, first produced in 1954. The title is taken from a Hiberno-English pronunciation of ''queer''.
Plot
The play is set in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The anti-hero of the play, The Quare Fellow, is n ...
'' (1954), was commissioned by the BBC to write a radio play ''The Big House'' (1956); prior to this he had written two plays for Irish radio: ''Moving Out'' and ''A Garden Party''.
Among the most famous works created for radio, are
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...
's ''
Under Milk Wood
''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh people, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The BBC commissioned the play, which was later adapted for the stage. The first public reading was in New York City in 1953.
A Under Milk Wood (1972 film), f ...
'' (1954),
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
's ''
All That Fall'' (1957),
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...
's ''
A Slight Ache'' (1959), and
Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt (15 August 1924 – 20 February 1995) was an English playwright and a screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for '' Lawrence of Arabia'', '' Doctor Zhivago'', and '' A Man for All Seasons'', the latter two of which w ...
's ''
A Man for All Seasons'' (1954). Beckett wrote a number of short radio plays in the 1950s and 1960s, and later for television; his radio play ''
Embers'' was first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959 and won the RAI prize at the
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...
awards later that year.
Robert Bolt's writing career began with scripts for ''
Children's Hour
''Children's Hour'', initially ''The Children's Hour'', was the BBC's principal recreational service for children (as distinct from "Broadcasts to Schools") which began during the period when radio was the only medium of broadcasting.
''Childre ...
''. ''
A Man for All Seasons'' was subsequently produced on television in 1957. Then in 1960, there was a highly successful stage production in London's West End and on New York's Broadway from late 1961. In addition there have been two film versions: in 1966 starring
Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was an English actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award for his work. Scofield ...
and 1988 for television, starring
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction f ...
.
While
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. As of 2025, he has written and produced 90 full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen ...
did not write for radio many of his stage plays were subsequently adapted for radio. Other significant adaptations included, dramatised readings of poet
David Jones's ''
In Parenthesis
''In Parenthesis'' is a work of literature by David Jones first published in England in 1937. Although Jones had been known solely as an engraver and painter prior to its publication, the book won the Hawthornden Prize and the admiration of wri ...
'' in 1946 and ''
The Anathemata'' in 1953, for the BBC Third Programme, and novelist
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists.
His ...
's ''The Human Age'' (1955). Among contemporary novels that were dramatised were the 1964 radio adaptation of
Stan Barstow
Stanley Barstow FRSL (28 June 1928 – 1 August 2011) was an English novelist.
Biography
Barstow was born in Horbury, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father was a coal miner and he attended Ossett Grammar School. He work ...
's ''
A Kind of Loving'' (1960); there had also been a 1962 film adaptation.
1960–2000: decline in the United States
After the advent of television, radio drama never recovered its popularity in the United States. Most remaining
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
and NBC radio dramas were cancelled in 1960. The last network radio dramas to originate during American radio's "
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...
", ''
Suspense
Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...
'' and ''
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar'' is a radio drama that aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962.
The first several seasons imagined protagonist Johnny Dollar as a private investigator drama, with Charles Russell, Edmond O ...
'', ended on 30 September 1962.
There have been some efforts at radio drama since then. In the 1960s,
Dick Orkin
Richard Alan Orkin (July 9, 1933 – December 24, 2017) was an American voice actor and commercial radio producer who created the '' Chickenman'' radio series and ''The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy''. His voice was used in many radi ...
created the popular syndicated comic adventure series ''
Chicken Man''.
ABC Radio aired a daily dramatic anthology program, ''
Theater Five'', in 1964–65. Inspired by ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September ...
'', "the four or five crazy guys" of the
Firesign Theatre
The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal humour, surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM broad ...
built a large following with their satirical plays on recordings exploring the dramatic possibilities inherent in stereo. A brief resurgence of production beginning in the early 1970s yielded
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his Anthology series, anthology television series ''The Twilight Zone (1 ...
's ''
The Zero Hour'' for
Mutual,
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
's ''
Earplay
''Earplay'' was the longest-running of the formal series of radio drama anthologies on National Public Radio, produced by WHA (AM), WHA in Madison, Wisconsin and heard from 1972 into the 1990s. It approached radio drama as an art form with scri ...
'', and veteran
's ''
CBS Radio Mystery Theater
''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (a.k.a. ''Radio Mystery Theater'' and ''Mystery Theater'', sometimes abbreviated as ''CBSRMT'') is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, ...
'' and ''
General Mills Radio Adventure Theater''. These productions were later followed by the ''
Sears/Mutual Radio Theater'', ''
The National Radio Theater of Chicago'', ''
NPR Playhouse
''NPR Playhouse'' was a series of radio dramas from National Public Radio. The series was a successor to the NPR series ''Earplay'' and was discontinued in September 2002.
Beginning on March 1, 1981, the ''Playhouse'' production of the first of ...
'', and a newly produced episode of the former 1950s series ''
X Minus One
''X Minus One'' is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, in various timeslots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American ...
''. Works by a new generation of dramatists also emerged at this time, notably
Yuri Rasovsky,
Thomas Lopez of
ZBS and the dramatic sketches heard on humourist
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (; born August 7, 1942) is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (called ''Garrison Keillor's Radio ...
's ''
A Prairie Home Companion
''A Prairie Home Companion'' was a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...
''.
Brian Daley
Brian Charles Daley (December 22, 1947 – February 11, 1996) was an American science fiction novelist. He also adapted for radio the ''Star Wars'' radio dramas and wrote all of its episodes.
Biography
Daley was born in Englewood, New Jersey a ...
's 1981 adaptation of the
blockbuster space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes Space warfare in science fiction, space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, i ...
film ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'' for ''NPR Playhouse'' was a notable success. Production costs on this serial were mitigated by the support of
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...
, which sold the rights to NPR for a nominal $1 fee, and by the participation of the BBC in an
international co-production
A co-production is a joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...
deal. ''Star Wars'' was credited with generating a 40% rise in NPR's ratings and quadrupling the network's youth audience overnight. Radio adaptations of the sequels followed with ''
The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...
'' in 1983 and ''
Return of the Jedi
''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas. The sequel to '' The Empire ...
'' in 1996.
Thanks in large part to the
National Endowments for the Arts and
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
, public radio continued to air a smattering of audio drama until the mid-1980s. From 1986 to 2002, NPR's most consistent producer of radio drama was the idiosyncratic
Joe Frank
Joe Frank ( Joseph Langermann; August 19, 1938 – January 15, 2018) was an American writer, teacher, and radio performer best known for his often philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas he recorde ...
, working out of
KCRW
KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...
in Santa Monica. The
Sci Fi Channel presented an audio drama series, ''
Seeing Ear Theatre'', on its website from 1997 to 2001. Also, the dramatic serial ''It's Your World'' aired twice daily on the nationally syndicated ''
Tom Joyner Morning Show
The ''Tom Joyner Morning Show'' was an American nationally syndicated radio program, hosted by veteran broadcaster Tom Joyner. The program, which aired on Urban contemporary- and Urban adult contemporary-formatted stations across the United Stat ...
'' from 1994 to 2008, continuing online through 2010.
2000–present: radio drama's "new media" revival
Radio drama remains popular in much of the world, though most material is now available through Internet download rather than heard over terrestrial or satellite radio.
Stations producing radio drama often commission a large number of scripts. The relatively low cost of producing a radio play enables them to take chances with works by unknown writers. Radio can be a good training ground for beginning drama writers as the words written form a much greater part of the finished product; bad lines cannot be obscured with stagecraft.
The BBC's sole surviving radio soap is ''
The Archers
''The Archers'' is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word Radio broadcasting, channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now pr ...
'' on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
: it is, with over 18,700 episodes to date, the world's longest-running such programme. Other radio soaps ("ongoing serials") produced by the BBC but no longer on air include:
* ''
Mrs Dale's Diary'' (1948–69)
* ''
Westway'' on the
World Service
The BBC World Service is a British public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcasts radio news, speec ...
(1997–2005)
* ''
Silver Street'' (2004–10) on the
Asian Network
In September, 2010
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classi ...
began airing its first ongoing soap opera, ''
You Me Now'', which won the Best New Drama Award in the 2011
New Zealand Radio Awards.
On
KDVS radio in
Davis, California
Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of ...
there are two radio theatre shows, ''Evening Shadows'', a horror/fantasy show paying tribute to classic old-time radio horror, and ''KDVS Radio Theater'' which commonly features dramas about social and political themes.
The audio drama format exists side by side with
books presented on radio, read by actors or by the author. In Britain and other countries there is also quite a bit of radio comedy (both stand-up and sitcom). Together, these programs provide entertainment where television is either not wanted or would be distracting (such as while driving or operating machinery). ''
Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts is an event at New York's Symphony Space on the Upper West Side, in which screen and stage actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience. The stage show began in 1985 and continues today at Symphony Space's Pete ...
'', a long-running NPR program broadcast in front of a live audience at
Symphony Space
Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theat ...
in New York, originated the ''driveway moment'' for over 300,000 people listeners each week during readings of contemporary and classic short stories by well-known professional actors.
The lack of visuals also enable fantastical settings and effects to be used in radio plays where the cost would be prohibitive for movies or television. ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...
'' was first produced as radio drama, and was not adapted for television until much later, when its popularity would ensure an appropriate return for the high cost of the futuristic setting.
On occasion television series can be revived as radio series. For example, a long-running but no longer popular television series can be continued as a radio series because the reduced production costs make it cost-effective with a much smaller audience. When an organisation owns both television and radio channels, such as the BBC, the fact that no royalties have to be paid makes this even more attractive. Radio revivals can also use actors reprising their television roles even after decades as they still sound roughly the same. Series that have had this treatment include ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'', ''
Dad's Army
''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
'', ''
Thunderbirds'' and ''
The Tomorrow People
''The Tomorrow People'' is a British children's science fiction on television, science fiction television series created by Roger Price (television producer), Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV (TV network), ITV Network, th ...
''. In 2013 BBC Radio 4 released a radio adaptation of ''
Neverwhere
''Neverwhere'' is an urban fantasy television miniseries by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996 on BBC 2. The series is set in "London Below", a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as "London Above". It was de ...
'' by
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...
, featuring a cast of well known television and film actors. Neil Gaiman has said he was excited about the radio drama adaptation as it allowed the work to be presented with a greater deal of special effects than was possible on television. In the United States, an adaptation of ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...
'' aired to modest success in the 2000s (decade) as a syndicated program.
Regular broadcasts of radio drama in English can be heard on the BBC's
Radio 3,
Radio 4 and
Radio 4 Extra
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital Radio broadcasting, radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It mostly broadcasts archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary program ...
(formerly Radio 7), on
RTÉ Radio 1
RTÉ Radio 1 () is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926.
The total budget for the station in 2010 w ...
in Ireland, and
RNZ National
RNZ National (), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operated by Radio New Zealand. It specialises ...
in New Zealand. The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
produced notable radio plays in Calgary and Toronto in the postwar decades, from which many actors and directors proceeded to international careers, but abolished its radio drama department in the 1970s and finally ceased production of radio dramas in 2012. BBC Radio 4 in today noted for its radio drama, broadcasting hundreds of new, one-off plays each year in such strands as ''
The Afternoon Play
''The Afternoon Play'' is a British television anthology series, which consists of standalone contemporary dramas first shown during the daytime on BBC One. The first episode, entitled "Turkish Delight", aired on 27 January 2003. Since, a total ...
'', as well as serials and soap operas. Radio 4 Extra broadcasts a variety of radio plays from the BBC's vast archives and a few extended versions of Radio 4 programmes. The British commercial station
Oneword
Oneword Radio was a British commercial digital radio station featuring books, drama, comedy, children's programming, and discussion. The station was available in the UK via digital radio ( DAB) and digital television ( Freeview DVB-T and Sky D ...
, though broadcasting mostly book readings, also transmitted a number of radio plays in instalments before it closed in 2008.
In the United States, contemporary radio drama can be found on broadcasters including ACB radio, produced by the
American Council of the Blind
The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is a nationwide organization in the United States. It is an organization mainly made up of blind and visually impaired people who want to achieve independence and equality (although there are many sighted ...
; on the
Sirius XM Book Radio channel from
Sirius XM Satellite Radio
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger ...
(previously ''Sonic Theater'' on XM); and occasionally in syndication, as with
Jim French's production ''
Imagination Theater''. Several community radio stations carry weekly radio drama programs including
KBOO
KBOO (90.7 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported, community radio station in Portland, Oregon. It airs an eclectic radio format, with a small paid staff and scores of volunteers. The studios are on SE 8th Avenue, in a converted ware ...
,
KFAI
KFAI (90.3 FM) is a noncommercial community radio station located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, broadcasting to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The station broadcasts programming for many of the diverse ethnic groups of the region, inc ...
,
WMPG
WMPG (90.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a community radio station broadcasting from Portland, Maine. It is located on Bedford Street at the University of Southern Maine Portland Campus. It is affiliated with the college, and a mix of USM students and ...
, WLPP and
WFHB.
A growing number of religious radio stations air daily or weekly programs usually geared to younger audiences, such as
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is an American Christian fundamentalism, Evangelical Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of Evangel ...
's ''
Adventures in Odyssey
''Adventures in Odyssey'' (AIO), or simply ''Odyssey'', is an Evangelical Christian radio drama and Radio comedy, comedy series created and produced by Focus on the Family. Aimed at families with children age 12 and younger, the series first air ...
'' (1,700+ syndicated stations), or
Pacific Garden Mission
Pacific Garden Mission is a homeless shelter which is located in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side section of Chicago, Illinois, it was founded in 1877 by Colonel George Clarke and his wife, Sarah. Nicknamed "The Old Lighthouse", it is ...
's ''
Unshackled!
''Unshackled!'' is a radio drama series produced by Pacific Garden Mission, in Chicago, Illinois, that first aired on September 23, 1950. It is one of the longest-running radio dramas in history and one of a very few still in production in the ...
'' (1,800 syndicated stations – a long-running radio drama), which is geared to adults. The networks sometime sell transcripts of their shows on cassette tapes or CDs or make the shows available for listening or downloading over the Internet. Transcription recordings of many pre-television shows have been preserved. They are collected, re-recorded onto audio CDs and/or MP3 files and traded by hobbyists today as old-time radio programmes. Meanwhile, veterans such as the late
Yuri Rasovsky (
The National Radio Theater of Chicago) and
Thomas Lopez (
ZBS Foundation
ZBS Foundation, a small Non-profit organization, non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez (aka "Meatball Fulton") in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a Art Commune, working commune, located on a donated farm in Up ...
) have gained new listeners on cassettes, CDs and downloads. In the mid-1980s, the nonprofit
L.A. Theatre Works launched its radio series recorded before live audiences. Productions have been broadcast via public radio, while also being marketed on compact discs and via download.
Carl Amari's nationally syndicated radio series ''Hollywood 360'' features four old-time radio shows during his four-hour weekly broadcasts. Amari also broadcasts old-time radio shows on ''The WGN Radio Theatre'' heard every Saturday night beginning at 22:00 on 720-WGN in Chicago.
In addition to traditional radio broadcasters, modern radio drama (also known as audio theatre, or audio drama), has experienced a revival, with a growing number of independent producers who are able to build an audience through Internet distribution.
While there are few academic programs in the United States that offer training in radio drama production, organisations such as the
National Audio Theatre Festival
{{Use mdy dates, date=March 2025
The National Audio Theatre Festivals, Inc. (NATF) is a US-based organization sponsoring a yearly, five-day workshop on radio drama, voice-over and the audio arts, as well as other special training. Participants take ...
teach the craft to new producers.
The digital age has also resulted in recording styles that differ from the studio recordings of radio drama's Golden Age. ''
Not from Space'' (2003) on XM Satellite Radio was the first national radio play recorded exclusively through the Internet in which the voice actors were all in separate locations. Other producers use portable recording equipment to record actors on location rather than in studios.
Podcasts are a growing distribution format for independent radio drama producers. Podcasts provides an alternative to mainstream television and radio which does not necessarily require a pitching process to be made and distributed (as these aspects of production can be learned by the creator) and which have no restrictions regarding programme length or content.
Radio drama around the world
Australia
In Australia, as in most other developed countries, from the early years of the medium almost every radio network and station featured drama, serials, and soap operas as staples of their programming; during the so-called "Golden Years" of radio these were hugely popular. Many Australian serials and "soapies" were copies of American originals (e.g., the popular soap ''
Portia Faces Life'' or the adventure series ''
Superman
Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...
'', which featured future Australian TV star
Leonard Teale
Leonard George Thiele Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (26 September 192214 May 1994), professionally Leonard Teale, was an Australian actor of radio, television and film and radio announcer, presenter and narrator known for his resonant ...
in the title role), although these were typically locally produced and performed live to air, since the technology of the time did not permit high-quality pre-recording or duplication of programmes for import or export.
In this period radio drama, serials and soap operas provided a fertile training ground and a steady source of employment for many actors, and this was particularly important because at this time the Australian theatre scene was in its infancy and opportunities were very limited. Many who trained in this medium (such as
Peter Finch
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Born in London, he emigrated to Australia at the age of ten and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudevi ...
) subsequently became prominent both in Australia and overseas.
It has been noted that the producers of the popular 1960s
Gerry Anderson
Gerald Alexander Anderson (; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist, who is known for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s production ...
TV series ''
Thunderbirds'' were greatly impressed by the versatility of UK-based Australian actor
Ray Barrett
Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in '' The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...
, who voiced many roles in Anderson's TV productions. Thanks to his early experience on Australian live radio (where he often played English and American roles), Barrett was considered better than his English counterparts at providing a convincing transatlantic accent, and he could perform a wide range of character voices; he also impressed the Anderson team with his ability to quickly and easily switch from one voice/accent to another without the sound engineers' having to stop the recording.
The effect of the introduction of television there in the late 1950s had the same devastating effects as it did in the US and many other markets, and by the early 1960s Australian commercial radio had totally abandoned radio drama and related programming (including comedy, soapies, and variety) in favour of music-based formats (such as
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
) or
talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...
("talkback"), and the once-flourishing Australia radio production industry vanished within a few years. One of the few companies to survive was the Melbourne-based
Crawford Productions
Crawford Productions is an Australian Media (communication), media production company, focused on radio and television production. Founded in Melbourne by Hector Crawford and his sister, actress and voice artist Dorothy Crawford, the company, a ...
, which was able to make the successful transition into TV production.
Despite the complete abandonment of drama and related programming by the commercial radio sector, the government-funded
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
(ABC) maintained a long history of producing radio drama. One of its most famous and popular series was the daily 15-minute afternoon soap opera ''
Blue Hills'', which was written for its entire production history by dramatist
Gwen Meredith
Gwenyth Valmai Meredith OBE (18 November 1907 – 3 October 2006), also known by her married name Gwen Harrison, was an Australian writer, dramatist and playwright, and radio writer. She is best known for her radio serials ''The Lawsons'' (1944 ...
. It featured many well-known Australian actresses and actors, ran continuously for 27 years, from 28 February 1949 to 30 September 1976, with a total of 5,795 episodes broadcast, and was at one time the world's longest-running radio serial. It was preceded by an earlier Meredith serial ''The Lawsons'', which featured many of the same themes and characters and itself ran for 1299 episodes.
In the 1960s and later, the ABC continued to produce many original Australian radio dramas as well as works adapted from other media. In recent years original radio dramas and adapted works were commissioned from local dramatists and produced for the ABC's
Radio National
ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2.
...
network program ''Airplay'', which ran from the late 1990s until early 2013. In late 2012 ABC management imposed budget cuts and axed a number of long-running arts programs, thereby ending the national broadcaster's decades-long history of producing radio drama (as well as its equally long history of providing daily serialised book readings).
Cyprus
Since around the early sixties the
Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation
Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (; ), or CyBC (; ), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic television channels, and uses one satellite channel for the Cypriot diaspora. It also transmits o ...
(RIK) features radio plays in the
Cypriot Greek
Cypriot Greek (, or ) is the variety of Modern Greek that is spoken by the majority of the Cypriot populace and Greek Cypriot diaspora. It is considered a divergent dialect as it differs from Standard Modern Greek in various aspects of its ...
dialect. They are called Cypriot (radio drama) sketches and they are mainly about Cyprus's rural life, traditions and customs, its history and its culture, and it continues until today.
Also very popular in Cyprus during the sixties, seventies and early eighties Police drama was very popular. The series "Police Adventures" became associated with the name of Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) radio producer Mikis Nikitas, who was responsible for its production for many years. The *"Police Adventures"* series also attracted the interest of foreign radio stations, as a number of its episodes were sold to Bavarian Radio in 1970, according to information cited in an annual CyBC report.
The oldest part of CyBC's Radio Theater was "Theater by Radio", which was broadcast on Monday evenings, Also broadcasting theatrical plays, mainly by classical Greek and Cypriot playwrights, as well as works by contemporary Cypriot writers selected through an annual competition, along with classic foreign repertoire. This tradition has been in place since 1953, the year RIK was established.
The works are written by established writers, but also from new writers through the Writing Contest of Cypriot Sketches issued annually by CyBC (RIK).
Currently, Cypriot sketches are broadcast every Sunday and have a mostly comedic character, satirising current events, they also include comedic song parodies. CyBC has also made other types of radio dramas, such as crime stories in the 2010s, which are available online.
Finland
In Finland radio dramas (in Finnish ) by the Finnish national broadcasting company
Yleisradio
Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...
have been popular since 1930s, and have always used well-known theatre or movie actors. The dramas include books converted to audio dramas, versions of popular theatre productions, pulp novels adapted for radio, or drama explicitly written as radio dramas. One of the most well known series was "Suomisen perhe" (the "Family Suominen") about a middle-class family, it became so popular that later the originally written for radio drama was converted into a movie series. Popular radio drama from other countries, like the BBC radio drama
The Men from the Ministry
''The Men from the Ministry'' is a British radio comedy series broadcast by the BBC between 1962 and 1977, starring Wilfrid Hyde-White, Richard Murdoch and, from 1966, when he replaced Hyde-White, Deryck Guyler. Written and produced by Edward ...
was translated as "Knalli ja sateenvarjo" ("Bowler hat and umbrella") and became very popular. J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...
was converted to multi-part radio drama.
Germany
The first German radio drama was produced in 1923. Because of the external circumstances in postwar Germany in which most of the theatres were destroyed, radio drama boomed. Between 1945 and 1960 there were more than 500 radio plays every year. The German word for radio drama or audio play is . Today Germany is a major market for radio plays worldwide. In particular, audio plays on CD are very popular. A popular audio play serial of Germany and of the world is '' (''
Three Investigators
The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "''Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators''". It was created by Robert Arthur Jr., who believed involving a famous person such as movie director Alfr ...
'').
Berlin's
Prix Europa
PRIX EUROPA – The European Broadcasting Festival – is Europe's largest annual tri-medial festival and competition. The event takes place in the third week of October in Berlin, Germany.
PRIX EUROPA awards the best European Televisi ...
includes a Radio Fiction category.
India
Vividh Bharati
The Vividh Bharati Service (VBS; ) of All India Radio was conceptualized to combat Radio Ceylon in 1967. Due to the Indian Government stopping its short wave relay centers, VBS is only available on the Internet. Vividh Bharati radio channel wa ...
, a service of
All India Radio
All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...
, has a long running Hindi radio-drama program: ''
Hawa Mahal''.
The Satyanweshi audio drama series created by actor Aneesh See Yay adapted twenty two
Byomkesh Bakshi
Byomkesh Bakshi is a fictional detective created by Bengali author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. A self-proclaimed "satyanweshi" (literally seeker of truth), Bakshi is known for his keen observation, logical thinking, and knowledge of forensic sc ...
novels and eight original audio dramas in the
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
language.
Republic of Ireland
RTÉ Radio Drama is one of the oldest audio theatre departments in the radio world.
Japan
Radio dramas began in Japan in 1925, and enjoyed a great level of popularity after the hit of ''Tankou no Naka''. This resulted in the
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
hiring famous writers to write radio drama scripts for 500 yen in 1930, equivalent to 1 million yen today.
Due to
voice acting in Japan
Voice acting in Japan is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including anime, video games, Radio drama#Japan, audio dramas, Television advertisement, commercials, and dubbing for non-Japanese film ...
having its own distinct culture, audio dramas continue to be popular in Japan, where they are now primarily released on disc as "drama CDs" (). They are also referred to in Japanese as "voice dramas" (). Many such audio dramas are based on
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
,
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
, novels and
video games
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
, but there are also many that are completely original. Though most drama CDs are commercial products made by corporate entities, there has been a growing number of ''
doujin
In Japan, a is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in "sewing circle"). Self-published creative works produ ...
'' audio dramas in recent years due to it being easier for hobbyists to obtain the equipment required to make recordings, and the Internet making distribution easier.
Norway
Radioteatret (Radio drama in Norway) has existed since 1926.
Poland
In
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, radio dramas are sometimes called "the theatre of the imagination" (). The first Polish radio drama, ''Warszawianka'' based on
Stanisław Wyspiański
Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artisti ...
's play, was produced in 1925 while the first radio drama written for radio was produced in 1929.
Polish Radio
The Polish Radio (PR; Polish: ''Polskie Radio'', PR) is a national public-service radio broadcasting organization of Poland, founded in 1925. It is owned by the State Treasury of Poland. On 27 December 2023, the Minister of Culture and Nationa ...
has been successfully producing radio dramas since then – between 1925 and September 1939, over 2,500 were made.
In 1956, Polish Radio started broadcasting ''
Matysiakowie'', which is currently one of the longest-running radio plays in the world. Audio plays based on literature are also popular in Poland, this is how the sound adaptations of
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948) also known by the initials G.R.R.M. is an American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the unfinished series of Hi ...
's ''
A Game of Thrones
''A Game of Thrones'' is the first novel in ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin. It was first published on August 1, 1996. The novel won the 1997 Locus Award and was nominated for both ...
'',
Mario Puzo
Mario Francis Puzo (; ; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably ''The Godfather (novel), The Godfather'' (1969), which h ...
's ''
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American Epic film, epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling The Godfather (novel), 1969 novel. The film stars an ensemble cast inc ...
'',
Ken Follett
Kenneth Martin Follett (born 5 June 1949) is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 198 million copies of his works. His books have been sold in over 80 countries.
Follett's commercial breakthrough came with ...
's ''
The Pillars of the Earth'' or
Robert Kirkman
Robert Kirkman (; born November 30, 1978)Löchel, Ingo"The Walking Dead: Die Comic-Serie – Robert Kirkman" Zauberspiegel. Retrieved February 17, 2013. is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for co-creat ...
's ''
The Walking Dead'' were created. Since 1988, the Polish Radio Theatre has awarded the ' awards to actors and authors of radio dramas.
Romania
Radio theatre (Teatru Radiofoni
has a long tradition in Romania. The first piece was played in 1929. The 7000+ piece repertoire includes radio adaptations of both Romanian and international books/plays across many genres interpreted by the greatest Romanian actors of the time.
South Africa
Radio broadcasting began in South Africa in 1924 and remained the dominant broadcast medium in the country until the late 1970s. Created by an act of Parliament in 1936, the
SABC, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) aired radio dramas along with news and British content in Afrikaans and English. Radio drama became more prominent with the launch of
Springbok Radio
Springbok Radio (spelled ''Springbokradio'' in Afrikaans, ) was a South African nationwide radio station that operated from 1950 to 1985.
History
SABC's decision in December 1945 to develop a commercial service was constrained by post-war financia ...
, an English and Afrikaans commercial station operated by SABC between May 1950 and December 1985.
The SABC launched Radio Bantu in 1960s, broadcasting first in
isiZulu
Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...
and soon followed by other African languages, intended to serve as the
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
state's propaganda channel. However, radio drama broadcast in African languages contributed to subverting the apartheid government by shaping culture and identity while challenging apartheid ideologies. Radio dramas were not subjected to the same level of apartheid editorial scrutiny, and therefore provided a forum for ideas without openly addressing politics. Radio drama evolved with changing socio-economic contexts. Female characters began to feature more prominently.
Radio drama continues to be a mainstay of South African radio. SABC's drama studios in each of the country's 9 provinces produce dramas for all 19 SABC radio stations. Recognising radio's reach, some private sector entities have also invested in radio drama, such as
Standard Bank
Standard Bank (officially Standard Bank Group Limited) is the largest bank in Africa, as well as the continent's biggest lender by assets.
The company's corporate headquarters, Standard Bank Centre, is located in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The ...
's 5-minute Iketsetse Zenzele radio drama which aired for 8 years to raise awareness about financial literacy, fraud, and cybercrimes. Non-governmental organisations widely use radio drama as part of campaigns for health awareness and rights activism, such as the long-running Soul Buddyz series focused on adolescent health, Masiphephe Radio Drama addressing gender-based violence, and the Plague in the Time of King Kapital and Queen Corona focused on Covid-19 awareness.
Thailand
A low power radio station "M.C.O.K. Radio 2" (formally Pira FM) introduces a new programming block called ''M.C.O.K. Television'' – aims to replace the regular evening music programmes. The programming block is composed of British radio dramas and an audio-described version of British TV programmes such as ''Doctor Who'', ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
'' and ''
Horrible Histories
''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more.
In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpo ...
''.
Since 1 November 2021, Radio dramas were scrapped and replaced with more (Audio-Described) programmes – ''All At Sea'', ''Dad's Army'', ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' and ''The Outlaw''. The radio station broadcasts on 87.2 MHz every evening / late night. Due to the nature of low-power VHF propagation, the coverage is very limited, the radio station can be heard only in
Lat Luang (Bangkok / Samut Prakan area).
It is the first radio station in Thailand to broadcast both English radio / TV programmes on FM.
Mainland China
Before 2010, radio dramas on mainland China were usually performed by organisations associated with the
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
, such as the Central Radio Drama Troupe (), which was founded in 1954. Their content was also deeply related to the historical events of the corresponding period and they largely served as
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
. ''10,000 Pieces of Clipboards'' (), produced by the
China National Radio
China National Radio (CNR; ) is the national radio network of China, headquartered in Beijing. CNR forms the national radio service of the state-owned China Media Group (also known as the "Voice of China").
History
The infrastructure began wi ...
in 1950 to commemorate the Great Strike of 7 February (), is considered to be the first radio drama after the
CCP established the regime in mainland China. Similar radio dramas include The ''North Korean
Zoya - Kim Yu Ji'' () and ''Thanks to Stalin'' ().
With the development of the Internet and the spread of Japanese
ACG culture, ACG fans on mainland China began to independently produce radio dramas at around 2010. These radio dramas are usually not broadcast on radio stations, but uploaded to online audio platforms like MissEvan.
See also
References
Further reading
* Tim Crook, ''Radio Drama: Theory and Practice''. London; New York: Routledge, 1999.
* Armin Paul Frank, ''Das englische und amerikanische Hörspiel''. München: Fink, 1981.
* Stephen G. Eoannou, ''Yesteryear'': SFWP, 2023.
* Walter K. Kingson and Rome Cowgill, ''Radio Drama Acting and Production: A Handbook''. New York: Rinehart, 1950.
* Karl Ladle: ''Hörspielforschung. Schnittpunkt zwischen Literatur, Medien und Ästhetik''. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2001.
* Sherman Paxton Lawton, ''Radio Drama''. Boston: Expression Company, 1938.
* Peter Lewis (ed.), ''Radio Drama''. London; New York: Longman, 1981.
* Dermot Rattigan, ''Theatre of Sound: Radio and the Dramatic Imagination''. 2nd edition. Carysfort Press, 2003.
* Neil Verma, ''Theater of the Mind: Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
External links
Audio-Drama.com��A directory of audio drama websites
The Audio Drama Production Podcast��Instructional podcast on the production of audio drama
The Well-tempered Audio Dramatist��Treatise on writing, producing, performing and directing audio plays in the 21st century
(archived at the
Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...
)
National Audio Theatre Festivals��Radio drama workshop
MissEvan��Largest online radio drama platform in
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
Classics Radio Drama��Radio drama produced by
RTHK
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...
in
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
and English
BBC sources
The BBC Story – The Written ArchivesRadio Plays & Radio Drama webpage(England)
by Tim Crook
{{Authority control
History of radio
Performing arts