The Stage

BBC radio drama head Hindell vows to guard drama output

Published Tuesday 4 May 2010 at 15:47 by Matthew Hemley

BBC head of radio drama Alison Hindell has moved to reassure actors, writers and producers that there will be “no more significant cuts for some time to come”, following Radio 4’s decision to axe the Friday Play from next year.

Hindell, who is responsible for all in-house drama production in her role and who was involved in the discussion to cut Radio 4’s Friday Play strand, said the Corporation is still the “biggest broadcaster of radio drama in the world by miles”, and vowed to guard the genre going forward.

She said: “I would hope we have reached the end of any significant cuts. I do appreciate why people are concerned about the loss of the Friday Play, but in proportion to the rest of the drama output, it’s very small. We are still the biggest broadcaster of radio drama in the world by miles and make hundreds and hundreds of titles - a claim that Hollywood can’t make. We now have to say, let’s guard that stronghold. And part of my job is to protect that.”

But Hindell warned the future of drama on BBC World Service, which is funded by the Foreign Office, is “hanging in the balance”.

Two years ago, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain penned a letter to then World Service director Nigel Chapman about the decline of drama broadcast, claiming a reduction since 2005 had resulted in a loss of 100 hours of commissions for writers and 600 days of work for actors.

The World Service currently broadcasts around 13 plays a year, eight of which are made by the BBC, with the remainder consisting of foreign imports or productions made by the independent sector.

Hindell said: “There is a question mark over World Service drama, because the Foreign Office is under huge financial pressure.”

Speaking about last month’s decision to axe the Friday Play, Hindell said the strand - which provides writers with room to tackle more challenging stories, such as this week’s RIP Boy by Neil McKay - had been dropped because doing so was the “lesser of several evils”.

She said themes discussed in the Friday Play strand could be absorbed into the Afternoon Play slot on Radio 4, but added productions could still be broadcast on Friday nights in the future “if something is crying out to be done that could only be done post-watershed”.

“It’s down to us to demonstrate that the door is not closed to plays of that scale and nature,” she said.

For a full interview with Hindell, see next week’s edition of The Stage.