British Radio Drama

Apart from pronouncements by broadcasters and the more or less casual remarks of the dramatists themselves, there has been little serious attempt in Britain to deal critically and historically with the subject of radio drama. This volume concentrates upon a small but influential group of writers who have devoted all or part of their attention to writing plays for radio. The introduction charts the development of radio drama from its inception in the 1920s and its changing relationships with the theatre and later with television. It shows how the early deal of broadcasting significant works of established literature and drama helped to provide a broad foundation for the growth of a body of dramatic literature which fully exploited the medium's reliance upon sound alone. Separate contributions contain full appraisals of the radio writing of Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas and Henry Reed, while detailed studies of particular aspects of the work of Dorothy L. Sayers, Susan Hill, Giles Cooper and Samuel Beckett explore the practical as well as the critical issues involved in the study of radio drama. A final account of developments in the 1960s and 1970s assesses current trends in radio drama in the light of the developing technology of the medium itself and of the rival and alternative claims of television. Some of the material from the BBC Written Archives has never before been published, and this volume contains the fullest available list of radio plays which have been published during the past fifty years. rks of the dramatists themselves, there has been little serious attempt in Britain to deal critically and historically with the subject of radio drama. This volume of essays concentrates upon a small but influential group of writers who have devoted all or part of their attention to writing plays for radio. The introduction charts the development of radio drama from its inception in the 1920s and its changing relationships with the theatre a