R3 & r4

[french frank]

I'm indebted to Honoured Guest for reminding us (copied below) of what we said on the subject of R4's 'The Waste Land' in 2012. Rather than disrupt discussion on either that or the Four Quartets, I've started a new topic.

Bumped as a reminder of what y'all posted at the time.

Which included on 25 March 2012 my:

I hope this isn't a stage in one of those stealthy processes to alter what Radio 3 does; in this case remove any serious spoken arts programmes from R3 on the grounds that they're now on R4 (albeit in reduced quantity).

which foreshadowed my comment on the Four Quartets thread yesterday

I fear this is a strategy which is becoming clearer: by the end of RW's 4th term (Nov 2018?), he'll aim to have moved all the drama to Radio 4.

If one were a scaremonger, one might even pick up on Classic FM's recent comments and think R3 wants everything that isn't classical music off Radio 3 ['for cost reasons'].

Classic FM enumerated 12 ways in which Radio 3 had reduced or placed in late night slots non classical content (speech and music), thus rivalling Classic in all the higher listening times of day. Its YouGov survey of R3 listeners reported:

"YouGov also looked at Radio 3 listeners’ perceptions of the station’s non-classical music output – an important part of the station’s remit. 50% of listeners feel that Radio 3 is representing Religion poorly; 38% say feel that the station is representing Drama poorly; 31% believe that Jazz is represented poorly; 26% believe that World Music is represented poorly; and 19% believe that Arts and Ideas are represented poorly. "

Classic FM itself said:

"...BBC Radio 3 programming output continues to be allowed gradually to creep away from its responsibilities to non-classical music genres and peak-time coverage of speech-based arts programme..."

They reject outright claims that the changes are due to financial constraints; so do I and have done so consistently. It's far more likely that Radio 3 gains - or hopes to gain - some sort of benefit from being 'cooperative' beyond necessity in times of cuts in this particular way.

Furthermore, as we well know, the classical output is being targeted more and more on the 'new listener' with little knowledge of classical music.

[amateur51]

My word, 2014 sees you on even more formidable form that last year, french frank! Brava!

[Andrew Slater]

'The Wire' on Radio 4

I don't think this has happened before: next Friday Radio 4 is repeating Tony Teardrop, which, of course, was first broadcast on R3 (17/03/2012). (The first broadcast is not mentioned on the R4 webpage: deliberate or accidental?) Does this add weight to our suspicions?

[french frank]

Perhaps Honoured Guest can shed some light on this?

[french frank]

(The first broadcast is not mentioned on the R4 webpage: deliberate or accidental?)

Not only does it not mention it's a repeat, it actually says:

"First broadcast: Friday 31 January 2014". First broadcast on Radio 4, of course that means

So Radio 3 is not recommissioning The Wire and suddenly The Wire is appearing on Radio 4 ...

[Honoured Guest]

There's a new Part 2 as the Afternoon Drama on Radio 4 on Monday 3 Feb at 2.15pm (I think, to be followed by a new Part 3) so it makes sense to precede these with a rebroadcast of the original on the same station.

Some Radio 3 drama productions have been rebroadcast on Radio 4 throughout my listening memory (from the mid-70s). It's unusual for The Wire to end up on Radio 4, but quite understandable. Writers commissioned by The Wire have a lot of freedom, and there's no reason why some of the outcomes shouldn't hit a popular nerve and end up on Radio 4, or even as a serial on BBC1 tv. It's akin to the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs spawning The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Constellations, for example.

[french frank]

It's akin to the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs spawning The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Constellations, for example.

The question mark is over whether Radio 3 will, or will not, eventually be recommissioning The Wire or whether Radio 4 is going to take it over. Not that Radio 4 is rebroadcasting a Radio 3 play.

[Honoured Guest]

Radio 3 announced a "break" from commissioning The Wire, so I'd expect it to return. I suppose that this would probably reduce the currenr quantity of either Drama on 3, Between the Ears or The Verb. It might be scheduled as a separate series or as a new specific sub-strand of Drama on 3. The Wire's freedoms for writers and directors mean that it allows content, complexity, experimentation and inaccessibility which Radio 4 could really only regularly schedule in its discontinued Friday Play slot. I think that writers would have additional constraints on Radio 4, even at 9.00 on Friday evenings, which would counter some of the objectives of the series. However, I also think that some past The Wire plays commissioned and produced have turned out to be more suited to other radio drama strands, and were wasted by being broadcast on Radio 3. I very often listen to the first few minutes of The Wire, but then switch off because of puzzlement over the context of the play. I think that some dramas in The Wire don't sit well on Radio 3 but are scheduled there because the commissioning freedom given to writers has excluded them from Radio 4. It might make more sense for BBC Radio Drama to commission The Wire but for the various strands (Afternoon Drama, Saturday Drama, Drama on 3) to have an option of first broadcast, although this would reduce the impact of having a separate strand in one slot.

[Bryn]

Radio 4 is promoted by the Beeb as the home of radio comedy, yet one of the very finest radio comedy series ever to grace the airwaves was a Talkback production for Radio 3, and as I understand it the series has yet to find its way to even Radio 4 Extra. Oh, Why Bother?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Radio 3 announced a "break" from commissioning The Wire, so I'd expect it to return.

Indeed - the Beeb also took a "break" from commissioning new series of Doctor Who in the '80s, and that did, indeed, return. Looking forward to the new series of The Wire in 2029.

[Honoured Guest]

I'd never heard of Why Bother? which I find was a five-part 1994 series of ten-minute improvised interviews of Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, played by Peter Cook, by Chris Morris. Chris Morris of course also created Blue Jam for BBC Radio 1, so is a maverick in BBC Comedy!

There's very recently been some occasional original comedy on Radio 2. I almost never hear The Verb, but wouldn't a contemporary Why Bother? fit there today?

[DracoM]

A proper, non-facetious, serious programme about contemporary POETRY might go where The Verb is. Revolutionary idea?