Shedtown - episode 2 on BBC Radio 4

Last night Radio 4 broadcast the 2nd episode of Shedtown, a 4 part comedy starring Johnny Vegas.

"Foundations" written by Kevin Eldon in which, Colin (Johnny Vegas) is all at sea as the foundations of Jimmy's dream take shape on the beach. Wes and Father Michael witness the profits of some not-so-spiritual meat.

Script conference on the beach

As you my remember I recorded this comedy drama on location in Robin Hood Bay last September and one of the challenges was to find a shed to record all the 'shed actoring' in. Sally Harrison, the producer had done some research and found 2 possible candidates. One was a small shed in the village itself, and the second was the score board hut at the local cricket club. Both had their merits so we decided to use them both for different scenes. The one in the village we used when Barry gets kicked out of the house and decides to live in the shed in the garden with his dog. But because it was in the village and it was full of visitors we had the fun of getting a complete take in without too many people in the background. We decided to use the cricket club shed for the sheds that become "Shedtown" on the beach. However part way through recording the shed scenes a local farmer decided to plough a field close to the cricket club so we had to time the 'takes' when he was at the far end of his field. However we were loosing too much time, so we abandoned the session and went and recorded some other scenes. The next time we returned to the cricket club, the farmer had gone but instead, not long after after starting again, we had a pitch invasion! A number of young people had been tasked to tidy up the ground and they had to do it that date. So we then had to search for yet another shed! We found one that belonged to the ice cream seller on the beach and he kindly cleared it out and so his shed enabled us to complete all the shed scenes for the series in one session and helped us get back on track.

Shedtown reviewed in The Observer

Miranda Sawyer in The Observer at the weekend has reviewed Shedtown. She wrote...

Shedtown, a new programme from Johnny Vegas's production company, was far from ranty: a strange drama/comedy/soundscape, narrated by Maxine Peake, it took advantage of its 11pm slot to offer something much more dreamy and hilarious than the usual wait-for-the-laughter Radio 4 fare. It's about the final works trip for the staff of a failed museum. They go to the seaside. The jokes came in under the radar: "What can I get you?" asked the barmaid. "Peace of mind," said Barry. "I want a pint, me," said Dave. The barmaid talked them through the new menu, which included chicken catch-a-Tory.

I am proud that she used 'soundscape' in her description of Shedtown as I worked hard to provide an aural wash of sound to support the narrative. More about the next episode soon....

Examples of my work - Cheque Book and Pen

On Thursday BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting Cheque Book and Pen, a fictional drama on how Les Dawson might have got to host Blankety Blank. Working with Woolyback Productions I recorded on location, edited, tracked and mixed this production which will be the afternoon play on 16th Dec 2010 at 2:15pm.

Johnny Vegas pays tribute to the legendary Les Dawson in a comic flight of fancy. Les has a way with words but is northern, rather crumpled, a little shambolic and an unknown quantity, and delightfully unpredictable when he is faced with representing a national institution. Nicholas Parsons is Farson, a resplendent foil for Dawson. Farson embraces and embodies the hammiest forces of the ‘traditional BBC’. A nemesis to Les and all he stands for and aims to subvert. This homage is a pure joyous farce, taking full artistic license in imagining how the BBC might have engaged the iconic Les to become a game show great in its eighties flagship, Blankety Blank.

Cast:
Les ….. Johnny Vegas
Farson ….. Nicholas Parsons
Helen ….. Shobna Gulati
Dave Parkins ….. Mick Miller
BBC Executive ….. Mark Chatterton
Number Two …… Paul Foot
Doris (Barmaid) ….. Catherine Kinsella
Other parts ….. Peter Slater (and cast).

Written by Andrew Lynch and Johnny Vegas.

Sound Design: Mike Thornton

Directed by Jim Poyser

Producer: Sally Harrison

A Woolyback Production for BBC Radio 4.

I have had great fun working on this production with challenges like a scene in a Manchester club where Les is on stage doing his act whilst the BBC executives were in the audience commenting on his performance. Another scene, that took a few goes to get right, was a montage of agents all ringing the BBC offering their clients for the new presenter of Blankety Blank. Also look out for Shobna Gulati playing a lovely cameo part as the queen phoning the BBC exec to complain.
We were unable to get the original Blankety Blank theme clean but we did get Les’s first show from the BBC archive and I was able to weave that into this production. If you don’t get to listen to Cheque Book and Pen on Thursday then do go to iPlayer and listen to it from there.

Radio 4 is pulling the plug on its Friday Play

Les Benedictus has written a very comprehensive article on this but also going into the background of radio drama, past, present and future. The article is well worth a read.

The reason, of course, is cost. At £23,000 per hour, the BBC spends on radio drama about one 40th of what it might pay for an hour of television. Hampton's White Chameleon is a marquee production for Radio 4, and yet there are no White Chameleon baseball caps, no Dionysian trailers, no egos being massaged (no time). Gather its entire cast and crew together, and you would not have enough people for a football match. This, BBC bosses argue, is why Radio 4's main evening slot, the Friday Play, will cease to exist from next year; it was either save there, where the audience is smallest, or cut everything else beyond the bone.

It is a shame that Radio 4 are having to drop The Friday Play but there is still a lo of drama on Radio 4 with The Afternoon Play, the Womans Hour serial, etc.

Les goes on to look at the future especially on line of radio drama....

Is there anybody out there? Radio drama beyond the BBC
The BBC has such a grip on radio drama in Britain that it's easy to forget about the alternatives.
Ireland's RTÉ still podcasts a Sunday Playhouse each week – go to rte.ie/radio1/drama. If you speak French you may also find something worthwhile on Arte Radio (arteradio.com).
There is a rich online supply of radio plays from the 1940s and 1950s. You can find mystery plays from Orson Welles at cjkell.squarespace.com; classic drama at classicdrama.libsyn.com; and kids' entertainment featuring Space Heroes at spaceheroes.libsyn.com.
By far the busiest group of original audio dramatists, however, are the small-scale podcasters. For the most part, this means science fiction, fantasy and mystery stories – try the Pendant Productions website (pendantaudio.com). For a polished zombie drama podcast go to zombiepodcast.com. Mystery stories can be heard at olinemysteries.com and wormwoodshow.com. One well-regarded (and British) ghost story series from 2006 is still available at paranormalists.co.uk.
You can find well-packaged guides to what else is out there at audiodramareview.blogspot.com and radiodramarevival.com. And it's all free.

Yes it may be free but how are actors, writers, technicians and producers going to pay the mortgage?