A Wireless War
Drama of the Week
BBC
3.9 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At the outbreak of war in 1939, the BBC evacuated its newly-formed Radio Drama Company of actors, led by Val Gielgud, to Worcestershire. To mark a hundred years of radio drama at the BBC, a cast of current and former members of the RDC perform this new drama by Hannah Khalil. So how do you record a play in the stables of a Victorian stately home?
Val Gielgud ..... Carl Prekopp Laurence ..... Joel MacCormack Audrey/Wendy ..... Clare Corbett Pete/Bill ..... Ben Crowe Gladys ..... Jessica Turner Leonard ..... John Lightbody Mary ..... Kitty O’Sullivan Charles Siepmann ..... Michael Bertenshaw Warden ..... Tyler Cameron Marius Goring ..... Josh Bryant-Jones
Sound design by Peter Ringrose with Alison Craig and Mike Etherden Production Co-ordinator - Maggie Olgiati
Directed by Toby Swift A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the |
| 0:03.8 | podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC. |
| 0:08.6 | It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world. |
| 0:15.3 | What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism |
| 0:19.8 | and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines. |
| 0:23.7 | And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject |
| 0:28.4 | you might not even have thought you were interested in. |
| 0:30.2 | Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment, |
| 0:36.1 | you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.7 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:45.0 | Hi, my name is Kitty and I'm a member of the BBC's Radio Drama Company. |
| 0:51.0 | This week's Drama of the Week is part of the BBC's celebration |
| 0:55.0 | of the Centenary of Radio Drama on the BBC. It is performed by 10 past and |
| 1:00.1 | current members of the Radio Drama Company, seven of whom joined the company straight from drama school |
| 1:05.6 | after winning the prestigious Carleton Hobbs Award for student actors over the last 25 years. |
| 1:11.1 | The drama you're about to listen to tells the story of how the BBC's |
| 1:15.2 | original radio repertory company was permanently established to perform plays, |
| 1:19.8 | comedies and drama serials throughout the Second World War and beyond. I really hope you enjoy it. |
| 1:26.0 | It's a bad idea. It's not. War is coming. It's all over the papers. It's all anyone is talking about. It's inevitable, Mr. Seaman. |
| 1:38.5 | Yes, but I don't see how you can use war to argue for this. What are you calling it? A repertory company? A radio repertory |
| 1:46.2 | company, a permanently employed group of actors skilled in the art of acting for radio. |
| 1:51.1 | I thought reps were for theatre. Are you just angling for a job for your brother? |
... |
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