The BBC has decided to abolish Drama on 3, a regular slot for radio plays.
The broadcaster cites financial pressures and claims, rightly, that listeners turn to Radio 3 for classical music, not drama – especially not very long drama without moving pictures. Those days have gone.
Predictably, the actors union Equity has protested (below). Its petition has gathered 2,700 names.
We, the undersigned, are writing to you to express our dismay at the planned changes to Radio 3 drama programming, to urge a rethink and change to this damaging decision, and ultimately to Save Audio Drama at the BBC.
The most recent commissioning brief for Radio 3 has removed all radio drama slots. The removal of Radio 3 drama effectively wipes out the only platform for 90-minute full-length radio plays in the UK, which the BBC has pioneered for years. These 90-minute slots have not only been enjoyed by audiences but have provided work opportunities for many including writers, actors and producers.
While we recognise the financial pressures facing the BBC, we are greatly concerned about the impact of this short sighted decision, as audio drama production is on the rise elsewhere.
One needs only to look at the list of past playwrights who have written for this slot to see its importance for the cultural landscape – Simon Armitage, Sebastian Baczkiewicz, Howard Barker, Neil Bartlett, Alan Bennett, Lolita Chakrabarti, Caryl Churchill, David Greig, Tanika Gupta, Lee Hall, David Hare, Zinnie Harris, David Harrower, Katie Hims, John Hodge, Charlotte Jones, Jackie Kay, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Tony Marchant, Linda Marshall-Griffiths, Abi Morgan, Phyllis Nagy, Joe Penhall, Mark Ravenhill, Jack Thorne, Debbie Tucker Green, Roy Williams, Winsome Pinnock, Timberlake Wertenbaker – to name a few. At the same time, Radio 3 offers short slots to new writers through themed or compilation shorts for Drama on 3. Full-cast audio remains cheap to produce in comparison with TV. Audio is a vital area of work for actors at all levels of experience within the industry; new writers work with experienced producers, skilled sound designers and great actors – such as Adjoa Andoh, Lorraine Ashbourne, Simon Russell Beale, Sudha Bhuchar, Simon Callow, Peter Capaldi, Martin Freeman, Richard E.Grant, Toby Jones, Paterson Joseph, Tim McInnerny, Maxine Peake, Timothy Spall, Meera Syal and Samuel West – whose expertise they would rarely access at a similar career stage elsewhere.
BBC Radio 3 audio drama fuels the eco-system of British drama, and the removal of these opportunities will be a devastating loss for writers and actors alike. Combined with the sense that slots are diminishing on Radio 4, the complete loss of Radio 3 drama is catastrophic. The only beneficiary of these cuts are large commercial US platforms such as Audible, allowing them to keep rates low and ignore the high contractual standards set by the BBC which are often used as a benchmark within the wider audio drama industry. It also seems like a huge missed opportunity with new writing and audio commissions from BBC Radio 3 providing content for podcasts and content for BBC Sounds, keeping the BBC current and moving with the tide of how people are consuming audio.
As the BBC states in its mission, values and public purposes as a public service broadcaster, its priority is to show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services, including taking creative risks to develop fresh approaches and innovative content. Moving away from original scripted Audio Drama seems to be actively going against this statement. The BBC has so far been a place for experimental new writing, giving opportunities to new creatives, from writers to performers, to showcase their talent on the BBC and as such it has provided unique and important employment opportunities for creative professionals. The BBC in this sense has also provided an invaluable platform for these creative workers to learn their craft. We have a grave concern that the cuts to BBC 3 Audio drama and audio work is only a small part of the story. There have already been cuts over the years to the number of actors engaged as BBC Radio Drama Company/rep actors, with now just a few engaged on the rep.
For Radio 3, audio drama is a natural companion to music programming. Many Radio 3 dramas blend genres through spoken word, poetry or feature live music performance or are about specific pieces of music or composers. Just as the National Theatre in London sits alongside music venues and galleries and shares talent and expertise across the artforms, so Radio 3 drama has been the ‘National Theatre of the Airwaves’. No matter where in the country or in the world you are, one can access shared appreciation of music and drama in the same place. This is surely at the heart of the BBC’s mission as the keystone in not only the nation’s cultural heritage, but also to its cultural future.
The creative trade unions that represent the workers that create this art and content for BBC Radio 3, have been given repeated assurances about the BBC’s commitment to audio drama with explicit promises of greater investment, but have not yet seen that commitment translated into the action needed to develop and support the next generation of audio writers and performers. We would like to seek some concrete commitments from the BBC as to how many hours of scripted audio drama will be commissioned going forward across BBC radio channels and audio platforms.
We urge the BBC to reconsider the planned cuts to Radio BBC 3 Audio Drama, and to work with the creative community to find alternative ways to preserve this vital art form and employment opportunity.
Save Audio Drama at the BBC
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