The Stage

Free online audio dramas set to circumvent radio’s ‘closed shop’

Published Tuesday 20 October 2009 at 16:20 by Matthew Hemley

Leading actors, writers and directors - including Reginald Perrin creator David Nobbs and playwright Tim Fountain - are working with production company Made in Manchester to develop a new range of audio dramas that can be downloaded online in order to bypass the “closed shop” of the radio commissioning process.

The production company said it had formed an alliance with the artists in an attempt to “re-excite people again about the power of speech” and to provide opportunities for writers and actors, whom it said were currently only served by a “limited number of slots on the BBC”.

Others working with the production company include directors Adrian Bean and Joyce Branagh, Coronation Street actress Vicky Binns, writer and EastEnders actor Chris Coghill, and poet Ian McMillan.

Ashley Byrne, creative director of Made in Manchester, said the alliance had created a “drama playhouse” where writers can try out new work and, unlike traditional commissioning, claimed it would give actors the time to work with writers to develop their part.

“It frustrates me that we have a really great genre which is being under-utilised and under-promoted. Apart from a limited number of slots on the BBC, there’s little opportunity for writers, actors or listeners to appreciate it anymore,” Byrne said.

He added that while there was a current trend for companies to trial new work on the internet, there had been “little focus on quality” to date.

The plays will be made available for streaming or download, free of charge, through websites of companies that Made in Manchester reaches deals with.

He also revealed there were plans to premiere some of the audio dramas to audiences in darkened cinemas and theatres, so people can “experience the full power and impact of speech”.

Fountain, who is best known for his 2004 play Sex Addict, welcomed the company’s plans and said: “Anything which bypasses the turgid commissioning process and brings the work directly to the people who matter - the audience - has to be a good thing.”

Meanwhile, Coghill, whose own company Fink on Theatre is working with Made in Manchester, said: “As an actor and a writer looking to get into radio I have always found it something of a closed shop with very specific and limited boundaries. This is a truly innovative platform to deliver new work to a new media.”