The Stage

Radio 4 to present snappy dramas to appeal to youth market

Published Tuesday 19 January 2010 at 16:30 by Matthew Hemley

BBC Radio 4 is to experiment with new “song-length” dramas, some less than a minute long, in a bid to appeal to a younger generation of listeners and create more opportunities for British playwrights.

While BBC Radio 4’s drama output is best known for consisting of single productions, ranging in length from 15 to 45 minutes, the broadcaster said introducing this shorter format will allow it to work with both new writers and established playwrights, who might otherwise be too busy time to create full-length plays for the station.

It is starting the process with Postcards from a Cataclysm - a production comprising nine short-form plays - which will feature work from Tim Crouch and performances from Kenneth Cranham and last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Tim Key.

All of the nine shorts will be run in the Afternoon Play slot on February 10, however producer James Robinson said BBC Radio 4 was currently exploring where future short productions can sit in the schedules, and suggested they could run in between existing programmes. He also revealed that each of the works for Postcards from a Cataclysm, the shortest of which is 45 seconds, will be made available as downloads.

“We are hoping to find a new audience and encourage the older audience to listen in new ways. I think it would be great if these short pieces were sprinkled through someone’s iPod playlist. It would be a really satisfying listen to be able to hear these short dramas in between songs,” he said.

Although each play in Postcard from a Cataclysm shares the theme of global annihilation, they have been written so they can be listened to as stand-alone pieces, allowing listeners to pick and choose what they want to hear.

Robinson explained: “So often a listener will come in half way through an Afternoon Play and will not enjoy it as much, because they missed the beginning. In this instance, you can pick it up at any point, leave at any point, and if you are not enjoying one of the plays, you know there is another coming up any second.”

Other writers featured in Postcards from a Cataclysm are Carl Grose, Josie Long, Lizzie Nunnery, Rommi Smith, and David Varela.