Shedtown - The finale on Radio 4 - The Storm

The shed, wooden icon of escape and isolation. Barry and Jimmy, friends since school days, find themselves slipping inexorably and almost unconsciously into middle age. Wednesday night saw the last episode of Shedtown.

Real storm clouds over Robin Hood Bay whilst we were recording

The Storm

A layer-cake of disaster threatens the creosoted community. And where’s Colin?
Cast:
Barry …… Tony Pitts
Jimmy & Johnny …… Kevin Eldon
Colin ……. Johnny Vegas
Diane …… Suranne Jones
Dave ……. Shaun Dooley
Eleanor …… Ronni Ancona
Deborah Dearden …… Emma Fryer
William ……. Adrian Manfredi
Carly …… Jessica Knappett
Father Michael …… James Quinn
Wes ……Warren Brown
Petshop Owner …… Caron May
Narrator…Maxine Peake
Music……Paul Heaton
Written and created by Tony Pitts
Sound Design by Mike Thornton
Directed by Jim Poyser
Producer: Sally Harrison
A Woolyback Production for BBC Radio 4.

The closing scene where the council send in bulldozers to demolish Shedtown was fun to create for radio. First a building storm through the episode then the arrival of the bulldozers, all normal stuff for a radio drama but then add the ice cream van pushing a shed into its hole and finally the storm rolling the bulldozer over and over with the council official Deborah Dearden inside was fun to create. Needless to say lots of layers in there but the break through sound was the sound of a steel rolling mill which gave me heavy rhythmic clanking as the steel went back and forth through the rollers. I then processed Emma’s screams so they span round and round.

Being buried alive on radio!

However there is another scene that is worthy of a little reveal into the magic of radio drama. It is where Dave and Diane are playing with their latest toy a ‘metal detective’ and they decide to bury Dave in sand using a snokel so he can breathe. The plan is that Diane will be able to find him because “there is metal in his fillings and foil in his cigarette packet”. Being radio of course we don’t actually need to bury Shaun, but some seroius acting was called for from them both as you can see from the pictures….

Stand back, serious acting taking place.