The BBC Radio blog

The winners of the first BBC Audio Drama Awards

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Andrew Scott receives the Best Supporting Actor Award from June Whitfield

The winners of the first BBC Audio Drama Awards were announced by actor David Tennant at a special event in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House.

The awards are a celebration of audio drama, on air and online, and are about giving recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers, and others who work in the genre.

The winners of the BBC Audio Drama Awards are:

Best Audio Drama:
Lost Property - The Year My Mother Went Missing by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Actor in an Audio Drama:
David Tennant, Kafka: The Musical by Murray Gold
Producer: Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3

Best Actress in an Audio Drama:
Rosie Cavaliero, Lost Property: A Telegram From The Queen by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Supporting Actor/Actress in an Audio Drama:
Andrew Scott, Referee by Nick Perry
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Scripted Comedy Drama:
Floating by Hugh Hughes
Producer: James Robinson, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Online Only Audio Drama:
Rock by Tim Fountain
Producer: Iain Mackness, Made in Manchester for The Independent Online

Best Adaptation:
The History of Titus Groan dramatised by Brian Sibley
Producers: David Hunter, Gemma Jenkins and Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama:
Bad Memories by Julian Simpson
Producer: Karen Rose, Sweet Talk Productions for Radio 4

Innovation Award:
The Unfortunates adapted by Graham White
Producer: Mary Peate, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3

The winner of the Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 by a new writer is:
Amazing Grace by Michelle Lipton

The winner of the Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 is:
Gerontius by Stephen Wyatt

You'll be able to hear some of the BBC shortlisted audio dramas again on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra between Monday 30 January and Friday 10 February. Details to follow.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio blog

BBC Audio Drama Awards: Shortlist

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Ed's note: The Drama Awards shortlist is announced today. Here's the press release with the details. You can read about the launch of the Awards here - PM.

Today, the shortlist for the first ever BBC Audio Drama Awards is announced. The awards aim to celebrate and recognise the cultural importance of audio drama, on air and online, and to give recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers, and others who work in the genre.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held on Sunday 29 January 2012 in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House in central London and presented by actor David Tennant. In conjunction with the Society of Authors and The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, The Imison and Tinniswood Awards will also be announced and presented by playwright and Guild President, David Edgar.

The BBC Audio Drama Awards shortlist for each category is:

Best Audio Drama
(Judges: Lord Hall, Razia Iqbal, Sarah Sands)

A Shoebox Of Snow by Julie Mayhew
Producer: Justine Potter, Red Production Company for Radio 4
Lost Property - The Year My Mother Went Missing by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
The First Domino by Jonathan Cash
Producer: Frank Stirling, Unique Broadcasting Company for Radio 3

Best Actor in an Audio Drama:
(Judges: Ian Brown, Lisa Campbell, Dame Harriet Walter CBE)

Damian Lewis, Giovanni's Room dramatised by Neil Bartlett
Producer: Turan Ali, Bona Broadcasting for Radio 3
David Tennant, Kafka: The Musical by Murray Gold
Producer: Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3
Rory Kinnear, Flare Path by Terence Rattigan
Producer: Jeremy Herrin, Catherine Bailey Productions Ltd for Radio 3
*Special Commendation* Tom Riley, Henry's Demons by Patrick and Henry Cockburn
Producer: Karen Rose, Sweet Talk Productions for Radio 4

Best Actress in an Audio Drama:
(Judges: Michael Billington, Kate Harwood, Robin Lustig)

Candis Nergaard, Atching Tan by Dan Allum
Producer: Charlotte Riches, BBC Audio Drama North for Radio 4
June Whitfield, A Montrous Vitality by Andy Merriman
Producer: David Hunter, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
Rosie Cavaliero, Lost Property: A Telegram From The Queen by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Supporting Actor/Actress in an Audio Drama:
(Judges: Daniel Evans, Gillian Reynolds, Imogen Stubbs)

Andrew Scott, Referee by Nick Perry
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
Carl Prekopp, The History of Titus Groan dramatised by Brian Sibley
Producers: David Hunter, Gemma Jenkins and Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
Rupert Penry-Jones, Flare Path by Terence Rattigan
Producer: Jeremy Herrin, Catherine Bailey Productions Ltd for Radio 3

Best Scripted Comedy Drama:c (Judges: Andrew Davies, Christopher William Hill, Miranda Sawyer)

Cabin Pressure by John Finnemore
Producer: David Tyler, Pozzitive for Radio 4
Ed Reardon's Week by Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds
Producer: Dawn Ellis, BBC Radio Comedy for Radio 4
Floating by Hugh Hughes
Producer: James Robinson, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Online Only Audio Drama:
(Judges: Nicolas Kent, Julie Myerson, Jane Thynne)

Rock by Tim Fountain
Producer: Iain Mackness, Made in Manchester for The Independent Online
Wild Hackney
Producer: Francesca Panetta and Russell Finch for Hackney Podcast

Best Adaptation:
(Judges: Viv Gardner, Maxine Peak, Fiammetta Rocco)

Alone In Berlin dramatised by Shelagh Stephenson
Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan, BBC Northern Ireland for Radio 4
Five Days In May by Matthew Solon
Producer: John Dryden, Goldhawk Productions for Radio 4
The History of Titus Groan dramatised by Brian Sibley
Producers: David Hunter, Gemma Jenkins and Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama:
(Judges: Kevin Brew, John Hardy, Elisabeth Mahoney)

Bad Memories by Julian Simpson
Producer: Karen Rose, Sweet Talk Productions for Radio 4
Can You Hear Me? by Margaret Wilkinson
Producer: Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North for Radio 4
The History of Titus Groan dramatised by Brian Sibley
Producers: David Hunter, Gemma Jenkins and Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Innovation Award:
(Judges: Susannah Clapp, Rupert Goold, Stephen Wright)

Blue Eyed Boy by Helen Cross
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery, BBC Bristol for Radio 4
The Unfortunates adapted by Graham White
Producer: Mary Peate, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3
Wild Hackney
Producer: Francesca Panetta for Hackney Podcast

The shortlist for the Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 by a new writer is:

Atching Tan by Dan Allum
The Pursuit by Matt Hartley
The Barber and the Ark by Marcia Layne
Amazing Grace by Michelle Lipton

(Society of Author's Broadcasting Committee: Alison Joseph, Mike Bartlett, Lucy Caldwell, Nazrin Choudhury, Christopher William Hill, Karen Liebreich, Sue Limb, Karl Sabbagh, Colin Teevan and John Taylor)

The Tinniswood Award shortlist for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 is:

The Climb by Andrea Earl
Sarah and Ken by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Setting a Glass by Nick Warburton
Gerontius by Stephen Wyatt

(Judges: Robert Bathurst, Paul Donovan, Nell Leyshon)

The panel of judges taken from within and outside the BBC are:
Michael Billington, Theatre Critic, The Guardian
Kevin Brew, Producer, RTE
Ian Brown, Artistic Director, West Yorkshire Playhouse
Lisa Campbell, Editor, Broadcast
Susannah Clapp, Theatre Critic, The Observer
Andrew Davies, British Author and Screenwriter
Daniel Evans, Artistic Director, Sheffield Crucible
Viv Gardner, Professor of Theatre Studies, Manchester
Rupert Goold, Artistic Director, Headlong Theatre and Associate Director, RSC
Lord Hall of Birkenhead, Chief Executive, Royal Opera House
John Hardy, Composer
Kate Harwood, Controller, Series and Serials TV Drama
Christopher William Hill, Radio Dramatist and Playwright
Razia Iqbal, Journalist, BBC News
Nicolas Kent, Artistic Director, Tricycle Theatre
Robin Lustig, Journalist, BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4
Elisabeth Mahoney, Radio Critic, The Guardian
Julie Myerson, Author and Critic
Maxine Peake, Actress
Gillian Reynolds, Radio Critic, The Daily Telegraph
Fiammetta Rocco, Editor of Books and Arts, The Economist
Miranda Sawyer, Radio Critic, The Observer
Sarah Sands, Deputy Editor, Evening Standard
Imogen Stubbs, Actress and Playwright
Jane Thynne, Radio Critic, The Independent
Dame Harriet Walter CBE
Stephen Wright, Head of Drama, BBC Northern Ireland

BBC Audio Drama Awards 2011 - Celebrating audio drama in the UK

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Ed's update Monday 9 January 2012: The shortlist for the Awards has been announced. Full details of the shortlist are here - PM.

Today sees the launch of the BBC Audio Drama Awards. The awards aim to celebrate and recognise the cultural importance of audio drama, on air and online, and to give recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers, and others who work in the genre.

You can find out more about the BBC Audio Drama Awards by downloading the press release.

You can download a copy of the rules and the entry form for the BBC Audio Drama Awards.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the BBC Radio blog

Download:

The short-listed entries will be announced on Monday 9 January 2012 and the winners announced at a ceremony to be held on Sunday 29 January 2012 in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House, London.

Delivering Quality First and the BBC

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

The BBC has announced how it proposes to make budget cuts of 20% as a result of the freeze to the licence fee. These announcements come after a nine-month staff consultation process called Delivering Quality First (DQF).

You can find out more detail on the dedicated Delivering Quality First website.

The BBC Trust are leading the public consultation on the DQF proposals. You can have your say via the BBC Trust website.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio blog

New homepages for Radio 1 and 1Xtra

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:22:00 +0000

The redesigned Radio 1 homepage

There are three posts you might be interested in on the BBC Internet blog covering the recent redesign of the Radio 1 and 1Xtra homepages.

Senior producer Chris Johnson introduces the ideas and principles behind the new design in Building the Radio 1 and 1Xtra Home Pages; senior software engineer Patrick Sinclair goes Under the Hood of the Radio 1 Homepage: the technical low-down and last but not least senior creative director Yasser Rashid tells the design and user experience side of things in Redesigning the Radio 1 and 1Xtra User Experience online.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio blog

Leave your comments about the new homepages on the BBC Internet blog

BBC Radio and 9/11 Ten Years On

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:20:00 +0000

On the 5 live blog station controller Adrian Van-Klaveren has written a post detailing 5 live's coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. He recalls where he was at the time (as I'm sure we've all done in the last few days):

At the time I was Head of BBC Newsgathering. I remember catching up with the breakfast news and then setting off for some meetings at the BBC's Washington office. It seemed an entirely unremarkable news day. After 15 minutes walk, I arrived in the office to find an extraordinary amount of activity for that time of the morning. The first plane had struck the Twin Towers.

Within the coverage Peter Allen and Stephen Nolan will be reporting and presenting from the United States, including special programmes from Florida where President Bush heard the news and Victoria Derbyshire will have rare access to Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, presenting her Friday programme from there. You can find more details and leave a comment on the 5 live blog.

On Monday night Radio 1's Mike Davies presented a musical history of 9/11 and its aftermath, featuring interviews, archive and the sounds of the likes of Moby, My Chemical Romance and the Beastie Boys.

Radio 2 marks the anniversary with Faith and 9/11. Journalist and Pause For Thought contributor, Abdul-Rehman Malik guides listeners through a reflective anthology combining personal reflections - past and present - with news archive including an interview given to the BBC by the Archbishop Of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, shortly after the terrorist attacks.

A Guernica for Gotham on Radio 3 investigates how New York artists have responded to the destruction of the Twin Towers. Interviewees include composer Steve Reich and writer Meg Wolitzer.

Radio 4 is currently broadcasting the second half of this year's Reith Lectures under the title Securing Freedom and you can download the first of Eliza Manningham-Buller's lectures, Terror, from the website.

There are details of Radio 4's other coverage on this page 9/11 - Ten Years On including The Saturday Play Washington, 9/11 and The Day before 9/11, a portrait of New York, America and the wider world as it was - the day before.

Gwyneth Williams, the controller of Radio 4, has written about Radio 4's coverage of 9/11 on the blog, where you can find out more and leave a comment.

Paul Murphy is editor of the Radio blog

Round up: Identity is the crisis can't you see?

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:43:00 +0000

Bollywood Stars: BBC Asian Network's Tommy Sandhu with Bipasha Basu at IIFA

The BBC Trust is currently reviewing BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra. The period for public submissions closed recently and the Trust promises to publish its finding in "due course".

In the meantime, several trade papers are reporting on what the trade body for commercial radio, the Radiocentre, called 5 Live's "identity crisis" in their submission.

Broadcast wrote:

'Commercial radio trade body Radiocentre has accused BBC Radio 5 Live of "suffering from an identity crisis and confusion over its purpose" and called for it to stop branding itself as an entertainment station.'

Radio consultant and ex-5 Live executive Bill Rogers wrote on his blog:

'The Centre's current target is the Richard Bacon show, for doing too much "celebrity and entertainment news". I suspect the authors of this report are only recent listeners to the station, and may be quite young. It's always been there. Hark back to The Magazine, with Diana Madill. Remember Eddie Mair's jousts with Cliff Richard...'

You can download the Radiocentre's submission via Bill Roger's blog post.

You have until Sunday to catch the BBC Asian Network's coverage of the International Indian Film Academy Awards in Toronto on the BBC's Red Button digital TV services. You can also catch photos and videos on the Asian Network website now and extended video footage from this Monday. Maestro Cam and Soloist Cam also return to the Red Button for this season's Proms. More details of both items and other Red Button services here.

On the About the BBC blog the head of Audiences has written a post Measuring quality and reach at the BBC announcing the quarterly publication of audience figures related to, wait for it, quality and reach across all platforms including radio. The first report, covering January to March 2011, makes for happy reading for UK radio executives:

'Overall radio listening remains strong, not just for the BBC but for the wider radio industry. The most recent data release from RAJAR (...) relating to Q1 2011 shows radio to be in better health than ever before with 91.6 per cent of the adult population listening to a UK radio station every week (47m). 68 per cent of UK adults 15+ (35 million) consume at least 15 minutes of BBC Radio in an average week (the highest figure on record) and listeners spend over 16 and a half hours on average per week listening to BBC Radio.'

Read the rest of Measuring quality and reach at the BBC and download the report on the About the BBC blog.

Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Radio blog

Glastonbury - covering a major cultural event

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:50:00 +0000

Editor's note: On the About the BBC blog Andy Parfitt, the Controller Radio 1, 1Xtra, Popular Music and Asian Network has written about the BBC's coverage of Glastonbury - PM.

Every year we have to counter the charge that the numbers of backstage talent the BBC sends to create Glastonbury is excessive. If the figures were 600, 300 or 100 people I don't think it would make any difference. Last year we sent 274 staff and freelancers and this year it will be less.

Glastonbury is a major cultural event and the UK's most significant popular music festival. Last year our coverage reached nearly 16 million people, was listened to by 5.7 million individuals and the website featured around 170 hours of video. The BBC prides itself on its high-quality coverage of major events like Glastonbury, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what I see backstage to give you a better scale to understand why, later this month, the BBC will send 263 of its best people to Somerset to bring a huge amount of content to our audiences across all our platforms.

Read the rest of Glastonbury - covering a major cultural event and comment on the About the BBC blog.

Where does your local BBC get its news?

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:25:00 +0000

Ed: On the About the BBC blog Tim Bishop, Head of Regional and Local Programmes at BBC East, has written about the relationship between BBC local radio and regional newspapers.

For many in the newspaper industry, and in particular the local press, the suspicion is that the BBC's Deep Throat is picking up a copy of the local paper.

It's a suggestion repeated fairly frequently and usually without much challenge. So what's the actual evidence?

Six months ago, the BBC and the Newspaper Society, the body that represents regional publishers, decided to work together to find out. The agreed method was simple. Monitor news in one area for a month then look at the stories that overlapped and trace them back to their source. Northamptonshire was chosen. It has two strong evening papers and a weekly run by Johnston Press. The BBC is not unusually well-resourced there.

Read the rest of Where does your local BBC get its news? on the About the BBC blog

March 2011 BBC iPlayer stats: "38 million requests for Radio programmes"

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:30:00 +0000

The performance pack for the BBC iPlayer covering March 2011 has been published today on the BBC Internet blog. Headlines from the Comms team include:

March 2011 saw a new record being set, with 38 million requests for Radio programmes, boosted significantly by World Cup Cricket 2011 coverage and Chris Moyles' Longest Show Ever for Comic Relief

Live streaming on BBC iPlayer was at the highest levels seen to date for both TV and radio - for TV making up 15% of all requests, and for radio, up to 75%

You can download a PDF of the BBC iPlayer stats for March 2011 from the BBC Internet blog.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio blog

The image is from the BBC Archive. The caption reads: "Middle School Mathematics, 01/09/1963 © BBC picture shows - Dick Tahta, lecturer in Maths at Exeter University. Studio5, TVC"
Read the Next Web story: Radio Listening Via BBC iPlayer Hits Record High

What Makes an Interview Distinctive and Engaging?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:55:00 +0000

Evan Davis, Scott Mills and Judy Finnigan were brought together as part of a staff training event at the BBC's Council Chamber in Broadcasting House by Razia Iqbal to discuss what makes a great interview. They shared their insights learnt from the hundreds, if not thousands, of interviews that they've conducted with the likes of rapper Jay-Z, politician Hillary Clinton and the anti-gay preacher Ugandan Pastor Solomon Male. [Who interviewed who is revealed below.]

The BBC College of Production will be posting a video of the event but in the meantime here are a few tips gleaned from the session:

"Sound authentic and be yourself" was Evan Davis's opening advice before he went on to say "Everything in my career has come down to two things: Blue Peter and Nationwide. With Blue Peter you can see that the presenters are genuinely interested in what people are saying."

Scott Mills said that his interviewing got better when he started relaxing and that often the hardest part of doing the interviews for his Radio 1 show wasn't the star but the huge entourage that they often brought with them. He related the story of being refused access to his own studio by one interviewee's security who asked him where he was going.

Judy Finnigan saw the interview as a conversation you might have at your kitchen table and that listening and responding to what people were saying was probably more important than having a long list of questions. For her nothing was more annoying that having a producer telling her what questions to ask in her ear mid-interview.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the blog

Evan Davis interviewed Jay-Z for the Today programme; Scott Mills interviewed Solomon Male for BBC Three's The World's Worst Place to Be Gay? and Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Judy Finnigan on the Richard & Judy show.
A video of The Art of the Interview will be posted on the BBC College of Production website where previous events and training films covering a range of topics including speech radio are available.
Rory Cellan-Jones has blogged about What do you do when an interviewee objects to a question? following his interview for BBC Click with Mike Lazaridis, CEO of RIM, the makers of Blackberry on the College of Journalism website.

The launch of the 2011 BBC Proms

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:30:00 +0000

18:00 update. The About the BBC blog has just published a post rounding up discussion of the new Proms programme.

On the Radio 3 blog Roger Wright, the Controller of BBC Radio 3 and Director of BBC Proms, has blogged about this year's Prom's season:

It's the morning of the BBC Proms launch. I have a real sense of anticipation and excitement because, at last, it's possible to tell everyone about the 2011 plans.

I always feel rather unfriendly keeping the plans as secret as possible until now.
We need as much publicity as possible on launch day as we have hundreds of thousands of tickets to sell and therefore want to spread the word as widely as we can. Leaks beforehand would simply drip the news out and potentially undermine the launch day splash.

Of course, in these days of social networking, rumours spread very quickly - and some of them were really wide of the mark! The first Proms performance of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, however, has been one of the worst kept secrets in recent history! It's been fun to read the message boards full of 'will they, won't they?' comments. So now it's clear - we will! I'm not, by the way, one of those who, in order to make the case for a neglected work, overstates its importance. I don't claim the Gothic as a masterpiece, any more than I do the Second Symphony of Arnold Bax (also receiving its Proms premiere this year), but I do think they are important pieces, worth hearing in good performances and then letting audiences make up their own mind, rather than being influenced by second- or third-hand opinions.

Read the rest of Launching the 2011 BBC Proms... on the Radio 3 blog.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio blog

Visit the BBC Proms 2011 website
Follow the BBC Proms on Twitter @bbcproms
BBC Proms 2011 press pack
Go to the Radio 3 website