3's Faust on 4 extra

[aeolium]

Though if any evidence were needed that Radio 3's drama output would not find a place on Radio 4, this is it. I think there's still a place for very long plays broadcast in a single evening, rather than divided into 'episodes' (was it Henry V/Hamlet? that R4 divided into five episodes, spread over the week? [I don't object to that totally - just not instead of full-length plays].

Maybe, but it's imv a mistake to think that today's R3 drama output, with its numerous repeats and adaptations shunted into a late Sunday evening slot, is anything but a shadow of its former self. The Faust being replayed on R4X, lasting 5 hrs 30 mins in total, was from 1982. Even R3's 2010 Faust, at just over 4 hours, was an unusually ambitious and presumably expensive production and was probably planned before Delivering Quality First started to really bite into radio programming. I think it would be extremely surprising to see anything remotely as ambitious now on Do3.

I listened to most of the R4X Faust. Some parts of the production were impressive, and I thought a lot of the minor roles were well done, but I felt Callow was miscast in the title role and Pickup was disappointing as Mephistopheles. I didn't find the translation very convincing either (though MacNiece was one of the translators) but it is difficult to sustain a poetic translation of that length. Well done to R4X for scheduling it for broadcast though.

[french frank]

Maybe, but it's imv a mistake to think that today's R3 drama output, with its numerous repeats and adaptations shunted into a late Sunday evening slot, is anything but a shadow of its former self [&c]

I quite agree - remember when the old forum had a discussion every week, more or less, about the play? I haven't listened for years. I thought the previous Arts & Ideas editor, Abigail Appleton, was very good - but she went off to another bit of the BBC.

I don't feel today's Radio 3 has much of a commitment to drama - or has anyone around with really imaginative ideas (or much knowledge). That doesn't alter my view one jot about what I think the drama on Radio 3 should be, and that that wouldn't fit with Radio 4's (4Extra's) remit at all.

[aeolium]

I don't feel today's Radio 3 has much of a commitment to drama - or has anyone around with really imaginative ideas (or much knowledge). That doesn't alter my view one jot about what I think the drama on Radio 3 should be, and that that wouldn't fit with Radio 4's (4Extra's) remit at all.

That may though be derived from an idea of R3's drama as it used to be (years and years ago) and comparing it with R4's drama as it is now. Though R4 in its former existence also used to have long plays, including quite ambitious ones e.g. from Stoppard and Giles Cooper. It's a sad fact that now you're just as likely (or unlikely) to hear interesting stuff on R4 or the repeat station R4X as on R3.

[french frank]

It's a sad fact that now you're just as likely (or unlikely) to hear interesting stuff on R4 or the repeat station R4X as on R3.

Yet I think drama on Radio 4 (don't know about 4 Extra) is very popular - so they're broadcasting what a lot of people now want. Indeed, much of what used to be on R4 would fit well on R3, but, as you've pointed out, there are so few front rank writers writing plays for radio. [But this shouldn't stop R3 broadcasting classics].

[clive heath]

Two of my most existential (?) experiences of happening on plays mid-broadcast and having to listen to the end were (probably on the Third Programme) "Le Grand Meaulnes" and "Heartbreak House". What are the chances of that nowadays!? Does anyone remember being similarly transported? The only other programme I had to sit in the car and hear the end of was the Alan Partridge interview with the old military guy who... (anybody?).

[Bryn]

As announced in connection with the Faust broadcast, coming up is the 2003 production of some Welsh play for voices or other, and in 5.1 surround via the iPlayer, too.

[mercia]

4 extra likes to dig up the old(er) ones

speaking of which today we have Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden, not Radio 3's 2011 version but Radio 4's 1968 production with Edith Evans reprising Mrs St Maugham.

and here's the very page from Radio Times - which is useful because 4ex don't give us the cast list

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/radio4/fm/1968-08-31#at-20.30

[aeolium]

There is another ex-R3 drama production (from 1990) which is being broadcast on R4X today (Monday 3rd Nov) as part of the German Season, Brecht's Mother Courage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nczz2

It seems that if one wants older R3 repeats of classic productions, R4X is the place to go - for recent R3 repeats it is R3's own Do3

[mercia]

It seems that if one wants older R3 repeats of classic productions, R4X is the place to go

yes, another one yesterday - Wolfgang Borchert's The Man Outside

[french frank]

It seems that if one wants older R3 repeats of classic productions, R4X is the place to go - for recent R3 repeats it is R3's own Do3

And not at 10pm. At least it confirms that there are no rights issues involved.