Drama on 3: The Depths of Dead Love [ 5.10.2014]

[DracoM]

Just iPlayered this.

Flawless production, beautifully acted by Richard E Grant et al. A take on the Charon / Ferryman myth with a poet as guardian of the Well of Death. Language as ceremonial necessity to avoid the contemplation of unplesantnesses, but failing to disguise, even as it entertains.

Worth catching up with.

[aeolium]

I enjoyed it first time round, DracoM, but like so many Do3s these days it's a repeat.

I think there may well be a discussion about it elsewhere on the forum as I remember making some comments.

[Ed] Here's the brief discussion the first time round:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?9940-Do3-Sun-01-Dec-new-Howard-Barker

[DracoM]

Woops, sorry - hadn't checked it was a repeat. Apologies.

[frankwm]

You could always have a discussion about the R4ex repeat from 1982 of Kafka's "The Trial"
Wonder who chooses these 'blasts from the past' / the criteria ..but it'll be ages/never to re-hearing (m)any of those long-forgotten '70's/80's R3 plays...bet you lot (sic!) can scarcely recall them, either..:rolleyes::rolleyes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04k6p4c

[aeolium]

You could always have a discussion about the R4ex repeat from 1982 of Kafka's "The Trial"
Wonder who chooses these 'blasts from the past' / the criteria ..but it'll be ages/never to re-hearing (m)any of those long-forgotten '70's/80's R3 plays...bet you lot (sic!) can scarcely recall them, either..:rolleyes::rolleyes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04k6p4c

Clive Heath posted an early 1970s recording of a BBC production of The Tempest recently. I certainly remember quite a few of those 70s/80s R3 plays and wish they would rebroadcast them rather than productions less than a year old (and I wouldn't mind hearing some old Giles Cooper play broadcasts either).

[frankwm]

That's the general point: I only recall some '80's plays due to taping/playing a few times in those days - so can 'still hear them' - but even seeing the plays titles wouldn't otherwise jog my memory.
As they seem to have retained more than might be assumed (prior to CD/Hard-Drive archiving) then the BBC should have the ability (given 'rights' being sorted) to make some available - even on a monthly rotating-basis via the 'net...and, for students, the earlier Shakespeare productions would be very interesting (though '60's -style, judging by their Macbeth rebroadcast some years ago on BBC7, would have a 'musical soundtrack'..!).

The Clive Heath I might copy - it was only a few months before the BBC's first discrete 4-channel broadcast (R3+R4, after midnight) - though they have done 'surround' in recent years using just R3 stereo - the 2003 "Stalingrad Kiss" by Sebastian Baczkiewicz was in that format.

[aeolium]

I came across this website a while back (thanks to "Jim"), which lists quite a lot of the R3 (and before that the Third Programme) drama productions - lots of gaps, especially further back, but you may well recognise quite a few:

http://suttonelms.org.uk/jim-radio-3-list.html

Seeing some of the titles does indeed jog my memory about the productions, but many I can't remember having heard at all. Some of the earlier ones were repeated in the 1970s and 1980s - that's how I heard the Cooper and earlier Beckett plays.

[frankwm]

OTTOMH have retained 67 on that list since 1998 - from "The Weir" - made that available a few years back (naughty..) - and very recently listened to the Stephen Wakelam/John Fletcher near the top of that list.
The 1983 "Amadeus" was recently on BBC4ex...but really cannot recall any there from 1971-88..

It would be fascinating to have made-available particular authors works, spanning a few decades of broadcasts.

[mopsus]

This week's play is being repeated after only 5 months!

[french frank]

This week's play is being repeated after only 5 months!

That good, was it? :-)

[Honoured Guest]

This week's play is being repeated after only 5 months!

In the "good old days" (i.e., several decades ago), most Radio 3 dramas received a second broadcast - always within two years of first going out (for contractual reasons) and quite often within a few months, so this is nothing new at all.

Obviously, last night's play was repeated on this particular day to coincide with the Dylan Thomas centenary.