Drama to be eradicated from Radio 3

[Forget It (U2079353)]

Signed

[french frank]

When I signed the Next Goal was 200. It's now 2,500.

[Pulcinella]

Signed and shared.

[french frank]

They'll have to be quick about it - the contracts with the chosen producers of the 10 brass band programmes

Note that brass bands are another import from Radio 2 joining Jools Holland and Friday Night is Music Night. Only 10 episodes of brass bands so to be followed, no doubt, by The Organist Entertains.

[DracoM]

When I signed the Next Goal was 200. It's now 2,500.

Yea!!!!

[DracoM]

They'll have to be quick about it - the contracts with the chosen producers of the 10 brass band programmes and 40 20th century modernist programmes (see P.11 of each document) which will fill the slot are probably about to be signed, if they haven't already been.

The barbarians aren't at the door, they're inside.

[Andrew Slater]

Note that brass bands are another import from Radio 2 joining Jools Holland and Friday Night is Music Night. Only 10 episodes of brass bands so to be followed, no doubt, by The Organist Entertains.

Yes, I doubt very much that the brass band programme will be along the lines of the late lamented Bandstand, where a series of whole, serious, band pieces were played by a selected band each week; it'll be more snippets. Curiously there hasn't been a commissioning brief for the other 30 weeks in the 8-9pm slot.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Note that brass bands are another import from Radio 2 joining Jools Holland and Friday Night is Music Night. Only 10 episodes of brass bands so to be followed, no doubt, by The Organist Entertains.

I can remember a brass band series on Radio Three in the nineties. It had a very well spoken and excellent presenter who was also a conductor who I think was called Bernard Keeffe . I think there was a parallel programme on BBC TWO .

[Ein Heldenleben]

Signed. This is a determined effort to destroy Radio3 as a cultural network.

Maybe . I think it’s more likely that this is the reason . The budget per ep for 20th Century Modernists from the brief

£1375 per episode, excluding presenter fees

Thats a fraction of what a drama costs . I doubt if £1375 would even cover a Radio Drama writers fee.

The reality is that Radio drama is expensive and gets a small audience . I suspect it’s a tiny one. I don’t know why as audiobooks are doing well and so are podcasts. Possibly the fare is too recondite - the Brooklyn Gatsby on this week is unlikely to be an audience puller. Stars are too expensive and getting newer talent to adapt classics is a lot cheaper than commissioning an established playwright and casting it with star names. It’s also difficult to get foreign investment as the plays can’t be dubbed obviously, Something like 2/3 rds of funding for TV drama comes from outside funders and that’s changing the nature of what gets green lighted and how it’s cast - probably for the worse.

[AuntDaisy]

They'll have to be quick about it - the contracts with the chosen producers of the 10 brass band programmes and 40 20th century modernist programmes (see P.11 of each document) which will fill the slot are probably about to be signed, if they haven't already been.

The barbarians aren't at the door, they're inside.

Thanks Andrew.
Page 4 also claimed:

About Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is the BBC’s classical music station, also offering a range of broader cultural programming to entertain and absorb audiences. Classical music leads its daytime schedule, complemented by a host of live concerts and live performance every day. Alongside this are distinctive programmes on jazz, world music, and drama, as well as documentaries and speech programmes.

But drama has disappeared from page 4 of the Documentary commissioning brief.

[AuntDaisy]

...
The reality is that Radio drama is expensive and gets a small audience . I suspect it’s a tiny one. I don’t know why as audiobooks are doing well and so are podcasts. Possibly the fare is too recondite - the Brooklyn Gatsby on this week is unlikely to be an audience puller. Stars are too expensive and getting newer talent to adapt classics is a lot cheaper than commissioning an established playwright and casting it with star names. ...

Doctor Who (Nu-Who!) fans will be flocking to R3 drama...

[oddoneout]

Thanks Andrew.
Page 4 also claimed:


But drama has disappeared from page 4 of the Documentary commissioning brief.

From that claim

a host of live concerts and live performance every day.

I suppose that's the benefit of redefining the meaning of 'live'. The only live music( in the meaning that I understand) that appears everyday(rather than sporadically) is the studio performances from the In Tune guests. I also would disagree about the 'host of concerts', whether truly live or not. The only concert is the evening one - Classical Live is not a concert, and it doesn't even broadcast recordings of concerts complete. Hardly a host, as in many - or indeed a throng, seeing as we are not long out of the angelic thronging season.

[french frank]

Thats a fraction of what a drama costs . I doubt if £1375 would even cover a Radio Drama writers fee. The reality is that Radio drama is expensive and gets a small audience . I suspect it’s a tiny one.

That's BBC-think certainly, but it's not comparing like with like, is it? Let's do away with the NHS and fund a new wellness channel on BBC TV. Even a 50,000 audience for a play by Lope de Vega would pack 25 provincial theatres around the country, and offer to everyone with a radio something not available anywhere else. Classic plays on television have also largely been consignd to history to be replaced by written-for-television here-today-gone-tomorrow new plays. This has impoverished the country's cultural life.

Your argument is based on cost rather than value, except that 'value' for the BBC is now measured in terms of cost v reach. The higher ambitions of the early BBC which resulted in the launch of the Third Programme have been abandoned. But there's more money to be made from junk food to the masses ... quantity rather than quality.

[LMcD]

Thanks Andrew.
Page 4 also claimed:


But drama has disappeared from page 4 of the Documentary commissioning brief.

The trailer for 'Call The Midwife' is pretty dramatic, although it won't tempt me to watch the programme.

[Ein Heldenleben]

That's BBC-think certainly, but it's not comparing like with like, is it? Let's do away with the NHS and fund a new wellness channel on BBC TV. Even a 50,000 audience for a play by Lope de Vega would pack 25 provincial theatres around the country, and offer to everyone with a radio something not available anywhere else. Classic plays on television have also largely been consignd to history to be replaced by written-for-television here-today-gone-tomorrow new plays. This has impoverished the country's cultural life.

Your argument is based on cost rather than value, except that 'value' for the BBC is now measured in terms of cost v reach. The higher ambitions of the early BBC which resulted in the launch of the Third Programme have been abandoned. But there's more money to be made from junk food to the masses ... quantity rather than quality.

I’m not sure they are even getting 50,000. It would be nice to have some figures wouldn’t it ? And there will be radio programmes that get smaller audiences than Drama on 3. I would make a different argument . There’s a plethora of drama on TV much of it contemporary and very high quality ; the audiences for radio drama are tiny - so why not put scarce funds into two genres which don’t feature at all in other media - brass bands and 20th century modern music ? How many of the people now writing in have even listened to a Drama on 3 ?

Having worked on a series that got 2-3 million viewers and was absolutely classic public service broadcasting that was axed putting about 120 out of work I have every sympathy with Drama On 3 but with a 30 per cent cut in funding in real terms the family silver was sold off long ago. Very few have written to the Times about local radio cuts but those services have been very severely cut - much more so than Radio 3 and 4 which because of their powerful middle class educated lobby have been relatively protected.