BBC Radio Drama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BBC Radio Drama is a London-based group within the BBC Radio operational business division of the BBC. BBC Radio Drama oversees the production and broadcast of radio dramas aired on the BBC Radio network. Radio dramas had been broadcast even before the public service company had an officially established radio broadcasting network in the United Kingdom. Thus, the work of the BBC Radio Drama group also pre-dates the 1967 conversion of BBC Radio from a single national station into four separate, specialized national stations; since 1967, the BBC radio dramas are broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.
BBC Radio Drama has a long history.[2]
The earliest radio drama surviving in the BBC Sound Archives is "The Purple Pileus"[3] by H.G. Wells, with Philip Wade, Ann Trevor, Harold Scott, Myrtle Richardson, Douglas Burbridge, Peter Ridgeway, Edward Craven, Lilian Warde. It was broadcast 6/8/1935; it is 37:04 in duration and the BBC identifier is T13646.
Also from 1935, there is "Reconnaissance"[4] by Geoffrey Askew and E.J. King-Bull with Holland Bennett, Robert Speaight, Ivor Barnard, broadcast 24/12/1935 on the Regional(N & LR) Service; it is 27:24 in duration, and the BBC identifier MT13855.
Earlier extracts & trailers exist in the BBC Sound Archives. For example, trailers recorded in October 1932 & broadcast in 1933[5] - 4:30 of Tyrone Guthrie's "The Flowers are Not For You to Pick"; 4:20 of P.H. Lennox's "Matinee"; 2:55 of L. du Garde Peach's "The Path of Glory" - all part of the series "Twelve Plays for Broadcasting" and produced by Lance Sieveking. There is also a 3:36 trailer for "Trent's Last Case" adapted from the novel by E.C. Bentley from 14/12/1933.[6]