Dad's Last Tape

Following on from The House That Fall Into The Sea, I worked with Clare Jenkins from Pennine Productions again, this time on a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled Dad's Last Tape.

Clare Jenkins explores why people record their life stories and what impact those stories have on other people when the interviewee is no longer themselves, or no longer alive. Twenty-five years ago, Clare recorded her father talking about his life: growing up in a Scottish tenement, being 'sold' as a farmer's boy at a hiring fair, a wartime stint in the RAF, working as a gardener to the wealthy, amateur poet. Jack Jenkins died 18 years ago, and Clare never listened back to the tapes - until making this programme. Broadcaster Rony Robinson never listened back to recordings he had done with his mother until Clare asked him to. Nor had singer-songwriter Sally Goldsmith listened to her mother, who died two years ago, singing May Day songs recalled from childhood. This programme explores the different circumstances in which people's life stories are recorded, and the memories and emotions that come flooding back when the tapes are eventually heard. We hear from the wife of a man suffering from dementia about her bitter-sweet feelings when listening to tapes of his voice. "They really calmed him and made him smile. And it was amazing for me, because I'd forgotten how funny he was." Another woman, terminally ill with cancer, has made a series of recordings for her newborn granddaughter as part of a hospice project in Sheffield. "I want her to hear about my life - and to know that I don't have a Yorkshire accent!" she says. We also hear from Mary Stewart of the British Library, who has been studying the way recorded interviews are used by and for those most intimately involved. Along the way, we discover the power of the beloved voice.

I needed to restore some of the recording but by and large they well remarkably good. Radio Times have chosen Dad's Last Tape as one of their recommendations for the week. This is what their reviewer Jane Anderson had to say...

There is nothing so effective in recalling the very essence of a dead loved one than hearing a recording of their voice. This gently edited programme mixes old recordings of elderly mothers and fathers with deeply moving stories of people facing death in the near future and their reasons for wanting to leave part of themselves behind for their families. Hankies at the ready.

"Gently edited", I'll settle for that. Once again it was a pleasure to work with Clare on what was for her a very personal programme. So if you can get to a radio at Monday 2d July you can enjoy it then otherwise take advantage of the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after that.

The Houses That Fall Into The Sea

One of the core parts of my work is helping radio producers make and realise their radio programmes. A recent example of this was for a programme called The Houses That Fall Into The Sea for BBC Radio 3. This is in the Between The Ears strand and is a documentary series, but as the strand name suggests requires a significant amount of sound design in the development and completion of the programme.

Here is some background information on the programme…

Lyz Turner’s house, in the East Yorkshire town of Withernsea, is falling into the sea. “My house has started talking to me,” she says. “It produces haunting sounds like far-off women wailing.” This programme, combining interviews with music and the sounds of the sea, the wind, the land, the dying houses, explores how people cope with natural calamity: with anger, stoicism, distress, and art. One winter, Ron and Judith Backhouse watched as first their fence, then their shed, and finally three trees slipped over the cliff at the bottom of their garden on a private estate above Scarborough. “The crack is running up towards our next door neighbour’s house,” says Ron. “It’s maybe five or ten metres away from his bungalow now and we’re connected to him. So if he goes, we go, too.”? Artist Kane Cunningham bought a condemned bungalow on the same estate so that he could live in it, use it as an artistic installation and document its demise. Since he moved in, the neighbouring three houses have been demolished for safety reasons, and he reckons his is next. “You can’t fight Nature,” he says, “so you may as well celebrate its destructive force. Houses aren’t immortal, and neither are we, despite what we may want to believe.” “As I listen to the soft wailing through the wall,” says Lyz Turner, whose family have lived here for three generations, “I feel the house knows what’s coming. Since Domesday there’s been a dwelling where I live, and it seems all the voices of the past, whoever lived here, all the people from the lost villages under the sea, are crying for us now.”

I had great fun working form my collection of 40,000 plus sound effects weaving sounds of wind and the sea from the appropriate perspectives into the interviews.  For example, when we meet the artist Kane Cunningham who bought the condemned house on his credit card, and uses the house as a studio and as an art installation too. He explains that as part of an art project people can write letters to the house. From those that the writers agreed could be opened we had some children read out quotes from the letters which I matched with Kane’s reading.

At one point we had a reference to a message in the bottle so out came my TL Space convolution reverb and selected a suitable ‘small space’ and put the reader in the bottle. I also had fun creating sounds as the contributors talked about the houses groaning and moving and wind singing and whistling through gaps and cracks.

There were a number of times where I wanted element of the programme not to be in the foreground, especially when we wanted hints of sounds, like the use of an excerpt from My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music. So I created a dedicated track with a suitable reverb effect from Reverb One and then automated both the Wet/Dry and Decay times as well as the volume, all in real time, to blend in the sounds into the soundscape of the programme.

You can listen to the programme very easily via the BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days. 

Cow Dust Time for BBC Radio 3

Cow Dust Time  was an "Between The Ears" programme for BBC Radio 3 that I worked on with producer Clare Jenkins just before Christmas and was transmitted on 14th January 2012.  

Dust rises from the hooves of cattle returning to a village at sunset. Smoke from open fires wreathes in ribbons across the fields. As the evening shadows begin to lengthen, people, animals and birds all return to their homes to rest. This time of day is known in India as "godhuli bela", or "cowdust time". It is the sacred time when Lord Krishna brought his own cattle safely home. In paintings, he is often seen meeting his beloved Radha in the evening, as peacocks call, bright green parakeets chatter loudly in the neem trees, temple bells and muezzins call people of different faiths to prayer. There are many devotional songs and poems devoted to this twilight hour. It is seen throughout India as an auspicious time for engagements, weddings, even business ventures. But it's also the time when mothers call their children home, to avoid evil spirits. And when those same children are told not to whistle, for fear of inviting evil in. In this hypnotic sound tapestry - recorded in Gujarat, the Kumaon hills and Madhya Pradesh - we hear cows and other animals being brought back to their village, the loud clamour of birds, the eerie noise of crickets. "It is that fantastic time of day," says writer and academic Rajendrasingh Jadeja, "when the cowdust raised transforms the scene from stark, sharp light to a fantasy world." That fantasy world has been captured in art, music and literature. Painter and art critic Amit Ambalal, poets Jayant Parmar and Mahek Tankarvi, and musician Sugna Shah, are among those who talk about the religious and cultural significance of twilight. We also hear the poetry, prayers, lullabies and ragas depicting this magical time "when the earth does yoga".

We were able to interweave the atmospheric sounds of the cows coming back home with conversations and descriptions of this special time of the day as well as poetry & music written for cow dust time. It was an really enjoyable programme to work on.   Clare wrote.....  

“Some years ago, we bought a reproduction of a painting of Krishna, Radha (his beloved) and the cows from the Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay. It’s called Cowdust Time, and on the back it tells the story of this time, when cowherds bring their cattle back home and the dust they raise blends with the smoke of the cooking fires to create a smoky effect in the villages. It’s a particularly lovely time of day.  It’s also seen as a particularly auspicious time, good for engagements, marriages and business deals. And a good time for reflection, prayer and meditation. Various people talked about how – at the same time that people are going to the temple or mosque to pray – birds like parakeets all flock back to their trees, and their loud chattering is like another form of prayer of thanksgiving to God,” she adds. “And one writer and academic, Dr Rajendrasinh Jadeja, likened it to a time when the earth does yoga.”

The programme has been well received and here are some comments that have come in...

What a lovely programme! We were both entranced by it. Thank you so much.

Seductive and richly other.  It drew me in. Lovely. Beautifully put together

Really lovely programme. We listened to it in the dark, sitting on an Indian rug, and it was like a meditation.

It was wonderful. I do not overstate when I say there were tears in our eyes, I can't remember when I saw my husband so visibly moved.

I've just listened to it and found it both beautiful and enlightening, and a wonderful counterbalance to the way I was feeling today. I've made some notes from it towards what might become a poem - not difficult, of course, because the programme is pretty much a poem in itself

I'm writing to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed the Between the Ears feature 'Cowdust Time'.  I always make a point of tuning in to Between The Ears because of the eclectic content.  While I'm listening, I'm usually doing something else - tonight I was preparing tomorrow's dinner - but, I stopped chopping carrots and just listened.  A really beautiful programme - congratulations!

The Bishop and The Prisoner for BBC Radio 4

I have enjoyed working on this series of three half-hour programmes with Rosie Dawson for BBC Radio 4.  It was an excellent series that really got behind the issues and talked to real people both victims and criminals on how the system fails so many people.

In the three-part series, he talks to prison staff, politicians and inmates, who share their ideas about effective punishment both within prison and in Community Payback schemes. In an article in the Liverpool Echo he wrote...

“In The Forgiveness Project (piloted in High Down prison) a woman who was repeatedly raped, and who was only saved from death because her attacker’s knife broke, said forgiveness is fluid, which I thought was a fascinating phrase.
“She said ‘Sometimes I can forgive, sometimes I can’t forgive, sometimes I have to will myself to forgive’.

and we hear from some inmates about how sex offenders are probably the only group of offenders that cannot be re-habilitated and forgiven.

Bishop James put himself in the shoes of a prisoner being admitted to Liverpool Prison: 

“This included the clanging of the gates, the shutting of the cell door, measuring out the cell (12 paces by nine) and listening to the noise of the prison. Although I’ve been going into prisons for years it gave me a deeper experience of what it was like. And it is punishment.”

In this second programme, the Bishop visits training schemes which offer inmates a chance to gain new skills and may even guarantee them a job. The shoe manufacturer Timpsons has training workshops in Liverpool and Forest Bank; High Down is home to the infamous Clink restaurant where prisoners cook and serve Michelin-style food to members of the public.

In the final programme, James Jones meets ex-offenders taking part in a variety of probation initiatives in Merseyside designed to cut re-offending and "pay back" the community for crimes committed. Three men on the Persistent Priority Offender scheme commend the programme for providing the supervision they found lacking on earlier probation orders. In a moving interview a mentor with the service, Lynsey, says probation saved her from prison, crime and alcoholism and her children from life in care. There are some incredibly moving stories across the three programmes in this seriesand I can thoroughly recommend listening to the series. Bishop James proved to be an excellent and caring interviewer too.


 Listen to programme 1 on iPlayer

 Listen to programme 2 on iPlayer

 Listen to programme 3 on iPlayer

Review of What Has Religion Done For Women in The Guardian

This was a one hour documentary fro BBC Radio 2, I fine edited and mixed  for the producer Mark O'Brien recently.  It is an interesting and revealing insight into women and religion and goes beyond the stereotypical viewpoints and voices. The Guardian picked it up as one of its featured programmes in its Rewind Radio series. This is what they had to say...

I was brought up short by the use of music in What Has Religion Done for Women?. Presented by the very great Shelagh Fogarty, as part of Radio 2's Faith in the World Week, this was an intelligent, open-minded investigation into how women of different faiths integrate some of their religion's trickier aspects into their lives. Fogarty spoke to Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Christians, and there were some lovely moments: a Sikh woman talking about how she managed to overcome her embarrassment at having hairy legs (Sikh women aren't meant to cut their hair); Fogarty herself donning a niqab and entering, then leaving, a shop packed with women and children, because, she said: "We're alarming people."
But. This being Radio 2, the producer clearly thought that we couldn't absorb Fogarty's points without relevant music to help. Though it's debatable whether helpful is the right word for the Scissor Sisters' "Mary"; that is, when it's dropped immediately after a discussion on the artistic representations of Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary. "Mary!" warbled Jake Shears, meaningfully, "You shouldn't let 'em make you mad." There was a debate about Muslim women's modesty of dress. Followed by Dolly Parton singing: "I can see you're disappointed, by the way you look at me". Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" popped up after the Sikh lady's "hurray for hairy" section; Aretha singing "Respect" after a subtle point about the niqab ensuring that men have to deal with women as an intellect, rather than a body. The cumulative effect was the same as if Shelagh had been followed around by Dave Lee Travis, with his trigger finger twitching on the "Quack Quack Oops" button. I'm not sure that was what was intended.

I have to say as someone who helped the producer place the music, I have disagree with some of the reviewer's points. The music for me added another layer to the story, yes a little tongue in cheek at times, and some of the choices weren't the stereotypical choices for that point in the documentary, but I stand by them.

What Religion Has Done For Women on Radio 2

I fine edited and mixed this one hour documentary for the producer Mark O'Brien last Wednesday.  It is an interesting and revealing insight into women and religion and goes beyond the stereotypical viewpoints and voices.

As women find themselves increasingly at the centre of religious news around the world - from Tahrir Square in Cairo, to the ban on wearing headscarves in France and Belgium, and the arguments over women bishops in the Church of England - Shelagh Fogarty speaks to women of different faiths to find out what their religious culture and beliefs mean to them.
Religion is seen by many as universally controlling women in all aspects of their lives, from how they see their bodies, their careers and roles in the family and society. Meeting female religious leaders and ordinary, everyday women of different faiths, Shelagh challenges many of the popular myths and stereotypes.
She meets theologian Tina Beattie at the National Gallery who explains the historical images of famous religious women - Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Eve in the Garden of Eden, Salome and even depictions of pagan goddesses from mythology. Tina Beattie points out that, throughout the ages, the quintessential woman has been either the virgin or mother or the whore and temptress - but little else in between.
Even though many of these iconic women are depicted naked, or at least reveal an abundance of flesh, why has the woman's body become the object to cover-up in modesty and not men's? Shelagh talks to Muslim women who are happy to cover themselves in a particular way. To experience people's attitudes and challenge her own perceptions, Shelagh puts on a niqab and joins them on a shopping trip. She also travels to a London Synagogue to hear why women choose to cover their own hair with wigs, wear ultra conservative regulation clothes, and remove themselves from their husbands once a month when they are deemed 'ritually impure'. Is Shelagh's perception of what she considers to be female oppression correct, or do these customs and religious discipline actually empower them as women?
Shelagh also explores the extent to which women are able to participate in their own acts of worship. Contributors include Canon Lucy Winkett, a young woman priest at St James Piccadilly. She talks about the Church's attitude towards women and how she dealt with a certain amount of abuse when she was appointed as the first woman precentor at St Paul's Cathedral.
Whilst much of Shelagh's encounters and discoveries challenge some of her own views, this documentary also acknowledges that there are cases of women oppressed and abused by religious tradition. Shelagh draws together all her experiences and considers whether women are beginning to enjoy their religious identity, distinct from that of men, and whether they are served by religion and valued as spiritual people.

Mark has found some different voices and his music choices are very good with a few that you might expect and some you wouldn't. Well worth a lisetn either live or via iPlayer.

Human Kind - The story of scientist George Price

Just before I went on holiday I worked on a very interesting programme called Human Kind all about an incredible guy called George Price

Matthew Taylor tells the story of the last eight years in the life of George Price - a scientist who studied the evolution of altruism and who suffered for his faith. With contributions from Price's biographer Oren Harman, writer Marek Kohn, Professor Steve Jones and Price's family and friends, Matthew follows a journey that began with a sensational breakthrough in evolutionary biology and ended in poverty and suicide.

Audio Editor: Mike Thornton

Producer: Peter Everett.

Apart from being an incredible brain and scientist what struck me about his story is that it was so easy to become homeless and one of those people you see wandering the streets.  Also to get an insight into how people loose everything and become homeless. It could so easily be me or you....

It is well worth catching this programme on iPlayer before next Wednesday.

The Robeson Files on BBC Radio 2

The Robeson Files was a very interesting programme to work on that goes out today on BBC Radio 2...

"A first rate nuisance in the world peace campaign... slightly anti-British, he is a crank on the colour question." Words from security files about the American singer and civil rights campaigner, Paul Robeson, as they feared the effect his popularity may have on the European colonies.

Dotun Adebayo looks at back at the extraordinary talents of one of the greatest American recording stars of the early 20th century, Paul Robeson, at how both the FBI and MI5 colluded to try and crush both his career and social justice activism, and examines his extraordinary relationship with the miners of South Wales.

Robeson, the son of an escaped slave, became a forerunner of the civil rights movement and is credited by many - including his godson, singer-songwriter Eric Bibb, for laying the path for future activists such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

This moving and powerful documentary includes archive of Paul Robeson's early performances, his recordings, his speeches and recounts a selection of extracts from the security files - his FBI file is said to be one of the most extensive of any entertainer ever investigated. The Robeson Files also examines Robeson's relationship with the miners of South Wales - whose plight he paralleled with slavery and looks at the years of espionage that resulted in the confiscation of his passport in 1950. This was a particular blow to the Welsh mining community who had invited Robeson to sing at the Miners' Eisteddfod. However, the 1957 Eisteddfod festival was to go down in history. Frustrated at the US and British governments' attempts to control his movements, Robeson addressed and sang to the miners in one of the first ever trans-Atlantic telephone link ups. A year later, Robeson's passport was returned.

Presenter - Dotun Adebayo,

Sound Designer - Mike Thornton

Producer - Hilary Robinson

Hilary brought me in much earlier in the production process and sent me copies of the FBI files to look at. I went through them and identified ones that leapt off the page that would work on radio. I then developed a style so that we could use these texts on the radio. I had them voiced up by a selection of British voices, because quite a number of the files were from the UK, as well as an american voice. Then I used the sound of an old fashioned telex machine to under score the text clips, simple but very effective. I also used music and clips or archive weaved together to help bring together the Welsh connection.  Although I say it myself it was a riveting programme showing the culture of spying and monitoring in the 50s and 60s.

If you miss it then it will be on iPlayer too.

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.

Shedtown review in Daily Telegraph

Gillian Reynolds Has written a lovely little review in The Daily Telegraph

We’re half way through Tony Pitts’s blackly comic series, about a strange seaside place where odd people live. At three in the morning someone is screaming. It’s the kind of thing that happens in Shedtown down by the bay, where dogs arrive as parcels in the post. It’s a bit like Under Milk Wood with touches of Father Ted. And it’s curiously addictive, the vivid, dreamlike script given life by a marvellous cast, including Suranne Jones, Ronni Ancona and Johnny Vegas as Colin (a thoughtful melancholic). Tonight: a puppet show about 9/11. 

Wow, "a bit like Under Milk Wood" praise indeed. This episode certainly had some sound design challenges, not least creating the unwrapping of a dog sent through the post in a parcel!! And the night screams were fun to record on the beach, we certainly got some very strange looks from passers by. All great fun.

Jim Poyser (Director) and James Quinn (Father Michael) at the end of the rainbow on the beach just after the puppet show scene

Another series of The Choice on BBC Radio 4

Radio 4 are running another series of The Choice which must be the 7th series on the trot that I have edited, the last 4 of which have been with producer Dawn Bryan. It is a series featuring people who have made life-altering decisions and exploring the whole process, from the original dilemma to living with the consequences.

This series has four episodes and the first 3 are available on iPlayer...

Episode 1 - Mikey Walsh

He grew up in the closed world of the Romany gypsies. Rarely at school, he seldom mixed with anyone outside his community with its colourful characters and strict family code. And despite its violence and hardships, it was the life that Mikey loved. Eventually he was faced with the agonising decision of whether to turn his back on everyone and everything he knew .....and face an alien world with no education and support... knowing he would never be able to return.

This programme really brought home to me both the strong community the Romany gypsies have, that is partially controlled by fear. But also the deliberate plans by some gypsies to take advantage and rip people off.

Episode 2 - Di Franks

When Di Franks asked her doctor about donating her kidney, she wasn't sure she would be taken seriously. Because Di wasn't giving her healthy organ to a sick and needy relative.. she wanted to donate it to a complete stranger. Five years ago it was illegal to give a kidney to someone you didn't know in this country.  When it was made legal, inspired by a friend in the US who had themselves donated a kidney, Di was faced with the extraordinary choice. Should she undergo a major operation to remove a vital organ to help someone she would probably never know ? Not only was she was risking her own life, the choice could have consequences for her son and the rest of her family if they ever needed her organ...

A powerful story of someone who wanted to help others but in a very different way.

Episode 3 - Joe Glenton

Joe Glenton was a bright young soldier, destined for leadership and intent on helping the local people, when he made his first trip to Afghanistan in 2006.  But what he experienced there led him to make the hardest choice of his life.. to honour his commitment to his colleagues and the people of Afghanistan or abandon his men, break his promise and run away to the other side of the world.

Joe's story made me even more aware of what war and killing does to individuals.

Episocde 4 - Professor Kevin Warwick

There will be more details on this rogramme on the Radio 4 web site next week.

But it is RIP The Choice after this. It is one of the changes Gwyneth Williams, the new controller of BBC Radio 4 has decided to make.

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....

Shedtown - Radio 4 comedy series starts on 1st June

I have to go back to early September where for nearly a week the cast and crew lived and worked in Robin Hood Bay recording Shedtown on location before the weather broke too much.  Ha ha, the British weather kept us on our toes and made umpteen schedules out of date almost before they had come out of the printer.

The view out to sea showing some of the bad weather coming in!

The frst episode is called "Something is Gonna Change....

Who hasn't thought about running away from it all at some time or other? Throwing caution to the wind, wrenching oneself out of a long established orbit to head for the deep space of the unknown?
Barry (Tony Pitts) and Jimmy (Kevin Eldon) haven't. Until now. Friends since school days in a small town, they find themselves slipping inexorably and almost unconsciously into middle age.  Shedtown is a dream born out of quiet desperation. Throughout the series our wooden icon of escape and isolation 'the shed' becomes a symbol of possibility and change; a new community by the sea where our heroes can circumnavigate the mundane, once and for all.  It's the works day out for the workers of Blakeley Industrial Museum - and something's got to change.

Cast:
Barry ...... Tony Pitts
Jimmy & Johnny ..... Kevin Eldon
Colin ..... Johnny Vegas
Diane ..... Suranne Jones
Dave ..... Shaun Dooley
Eleanor ..... Ronni Ancona
Maureen ..... Emma Fryer
William ..... Adrian Manfredi
Nicky ..... Caron May Carly
Yvonne ..... Jessica Knappett
Father Michael ..... James Quinn
Wes ...... Warren Brown
Narrator ..... Maxine Peake
Music ..... Paul Heaton
Sound Design ..... Mike Thornton
Written and created by Tony Pitts
Directed by Jim Poyser
Producer: Sally Harrison
A Woolyback Production for BBC Radio 4.

Shedtown cast outside Unit Base at Robin Hood Bay

We had to record 4 episodes in 4 days across a range of locations, not least of which was finding a shed to record in. Of course we couldn't find a shed by the beach to record in so what did we do, well you will have to wait until next week before the second episode. I don't want to give the game away!

Anyway you can listen to episode 1 on Wednesday 1st June at 23:02 or if you miss it then pick it up on the Radio Player.

"Divided We Fall" wins Sony Award

Polly Thomas (Drama Producer) Chris Mann (Executive Producer – with award) Sohail Nawaz (Programme originator)  Val Wallace (Production Manager)

At last night’s Sony Radio Academy Awards, Mannmade Production’s drama serial “Divided We Fall” which was edited by Mike Thornton, and made for Preston FM won the Bronze Sony in the “Best Community Programming” category. It was the brainchild of Sohail Nawaz and his Northwest Muslim Community organisation, Shanbash.  Sohail is always looking for new ways to convey the message that the majority of Muslims are peace-loving and law abiding citizens and he hit on the idea of a radio soap to illustrate the paths to extremism. Mannmade Productions was commissioned to make the twenty part serial which was recorded in BBC Manchester’s drama studio, with sound design and editing by Mike Thornton and transmitted on Preston FM.  Chris Mann, the executive producer said:

“I’m delighted this gripping serial has been awarded a Sony.  It’s refreshing to make a drama with the freedom of expression a good community station can give you.   Preston youth were enlisted to give insight into their problems and street-cred to the dialogue, enabling the soap to bring to life the inexorable path to extremism and the tradgedy of violence”

Of Mike’s cotribution Chris Mann said….

We are all very pleased and you must take credit for all you did to keep the show on the road!

This is what the Sony Award judges had to say…

Preston FM Community Radio has taken a very difficult subject, directly relevant to the diverse communities they serve, and tackled it in a brave and accessible manner. Through the innovative use of drama they have raised awareness of the complexity of the issues around violent extremism, faith communities and social exclusion and used the medium of radio to increase public understanding.

Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus! on BBC Radio 4

A programme I worked on a while back has just gone out. It really is the last programme from All Out Productions. It is all about how Monty Pyton went over to Germany to make some TV programmes for German TV...

2011 marks the 40th anniversary of one of the Monty Python team's most bizarre and least known television adventures, two forty five minute specials they made exclusively for German television.
Roll up, it's Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus! This is the extraordinary tale of when the Pythons went Bavarian. Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Alfred Biolek, the man who persuaded them to take their comedy to Germany, all talk about how life on set began to imitate a Monty Python sketch.
German Comedy Ambassador, Henning Wehn, tells the story of how in 1971 the Pythons were flown into Bavaria, full of new original ideas for sketches, including pieces about the German artist Albrecht Durer, William Tell and The Merchant of Venice. They also adapted the popular Flying Circus Lumberjack Song into German and planned to sing it with the Austria Border Police Choir.
Only Michael Palin and John Cleese were capable of delivering lines in 'understandable' German. Despite extensive language coaching, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman were virtually incomprehensible. This may have added to the Pythons' trademark absurdity and surrealism, but confused the bejeebus out of the German TV audience. Realising this dream was becoming a nightmare, Alfred Biokek took the decision to make the second programme in English, with German subtitles added later. It proved to be a major hit on German TV, but all concerned decided it best not to repeat the experience. Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus! hears from Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Alfred Biolek about how they came up with the material for these special versions and listening to clips from both programmes, asks whether 'Pythonesque' really works when translated into German.
Presenter: Henning Wehn
Edited: Mike Thornton
Producer: Jo Meek
An All Out production for BBC Radio 4.

We had great fun with this programme adding a number of 'Pythonesque' moments along the way. If you didn't catch it on Saturday then grab it on iPlayer whilst you have the chance. There are some lovely stories of their experiences of their time in Germay as well as the challenges of making Monty Python work for the German humour and how some jokes didn't translate. You will hear that they can still sing the Lumberjack song in German to this day. For any Python fan this programme is a must, and even if you aren't, you will still find it very entertaining.

R.I.P All Out Productions

Belief on Radio 3 - another great listen this week.

Radio 3 are running another series of Belief this week which I had the pleasure of working on a couple of weeks ago and the first in the series received a very complementary review in The Guardian. Belief is a programme presented by Joan Bakewell that talks to artists, scientists and thinkers and asks them about what they believe and why.

Monday
Omid Djalili is a British Iranian and a member of the Baha'i faith, a religion which, although it only has seven million adherents, is geographically the second most widespread in the world. Omid's forbears were among its first adherents in 19th century Iran, a country in which those practising the faith are now persecuted. The core principles of Bahá'í doctrine are the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of humankind. Omid's central belief is summed up in a quote from Teilhard de Chardin, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Tuesday
Tonight Joan Bakewell's guest is the physician, poet and philosopher, Raymond Tallis. He is Professor Emeritus of Geriatric medicine at Manchester University but has made his name as much outside the field of medicine as within it. A humanist, he writes about the transcendence of human beings and is a vigorous critic of the kind of scientific thinking which reduces them to animals. According to Tallis, only humans can point, and in that action they transcend their biology.

Wednesday
Tonight Joan Bakewell's guest is the novelist Salley Vickers. Salley Vickers wrote her first novel at the age of fifty after careers in university education and psychoanalysis. Miss Garnet's Angel, the story of an atheistic, uptight woman who flourishes during a winter spent among the churches and art of Venice, became an instant bestseller. Her succeeding novels, including Mr Golightly's holiday and The Other Side Of you, also have a spiritual dimension, featuring angels, Old Testament prophets - and God. Even so religion's arch-critic Philip Pullman describes her as "a presence to be cherished." Listen to "Belief" and you 'll understand why.

Thursday
Tonight Joan Bakewell's guest is the composer Tarik O'Regan. O'Regan, a rising star among composers, says his best composition lessons were the hours spent as an idle percussionist at the back of an orchestra waiting for his moment to play. He spent most of his childhood summers in North African with his family before studying at Oxford, and brings both the influences of the muezzin and the chorister to bear on his music. His first opera, based on Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" will be premiered in the autumn.

Friday
Joan Bakewell's guest on Belief this Good Friday is the Texan-born theologian Stanley Hauerwas. Born into a bricklaying family, Stanley Hauerwas says the skills he learned there are the same skills which he now applies to his academic work - and which has led Time Magazine to call him "America's best Theologian." A pacifist and a provacateur he criticises an American identity he says is built on waging war, and a church often more concerned to make good Americans than good Christians.

Monday nights programme with Omid has been reviewd by Elisabeth Mahoney in The Guardian on Tuesday...

Omid Djalili tells Joan Bakewell his fascinating life story and explains why his comedy routine can be offensive. What a fine fellow Omid Djalili sounded on Belief (Radio 3). Articulate and engaging as he spoke about being a member of the Bahá'i faith, he also seemed delighted to encounter host Joan Bakewell. "I just wanted to meet you," he told her. "I think you're wonderful." Explaining a central tenet of his faith, he used her as an example: "The Joan Bakewell we see here is going to continue in some form, just in a different essence." This is excellent news. His life story was fascinating. While growing up in London, his parents opened their house to many Iranian visitors, which meant Djalili kipping on the sofa. "I never had a bedroom until I was 14," he explained. There was a funny frankness about his memories of this time, living in a house full of fleeting strangers, "some of them charming, some of them absolutely awful". On the issue of comedy, and his standup routine, which Bakewell noted can be "riskily offensive", Djalili explained that it's deeply connected to his belief. "It's all about making people conscious, starting with myself," he told her. Life, and religion, is one long process of improving yourself, he insisted, and improving your core self. Bakewell asked him to describe his core. "I'm a fat, needy man, pleading for attention," he quipped.

Talking of offensive jokes there was a joke that was very funny that we had to take out.

The Sub 2-Hour Marathon: Sport's Holy Grail on BBC Radio 4

Next Monday 11th April at 8pm sees BBC Radio 4 broadcast a documentary about developments towards potentially being able to run a marathon in under 2 hours. This was one of the last programmes I worked on for, the now defunct, All Out Productions....

Sixty years ago, people said the four minute mile was impossible: in 1954 they all gasped in disbelief when Roger Bannister proved them wrong. They also said the 100 metres would never be run in under 10 seconds and shuddered again when Jim Hines did just that in 1968. Will the 2 hour marathon be the next great sporting barrier to be broken or will it remain beyond human endeavour? The question polarises opinion among athletes, sports scientists and commentators worldwide.
BBC reporter and marathon runner Chris Dennis will explore whether it's physically and mentally possible to run 26.2 miles in 120 minutes.
In the hills around Addis Ababa, the current world record holder Haile Gebrselassie tells him what it felt like to run the distance in 2 hours 3 minutes 59 seconds, how close to the limit he pushed his body, but why he is still convinced the two hour barrier will be broken in the next 20-30 years. Other elite athletes, including the women's marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe and London marathon Race Director Dave Bedford also explain when and how they think it will happen.
The Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru will argue that the sub 2-hour marathon is simply a pipe dream, a landmark too far. The Secretary General of World Marathon Majors, Glenn Latimer, who has worked with many of the world's leading athletes for 30 years also has serious reservations.
Chris also heads to Loughborough to the English Institute of Sport to meet Dr Barry Fudge who gets him on the treadmill so he can experience first-hand what it feels like to run a mile in 4 minutes 35 seconds, the pace required for a sub 2 hour marathon.
Presenter: Chris Dennis
Edited: Mike Thornton
Producer: Jo Meek
An All Out Production for BBC Radio 4.

There are two special moments for me in the programme. The first is when the presenter, Chris has a go at running on a treadmill at the sub 2 hour pace, and manages about 10 seconds, whilst commentating on his own achievement. The second is a sequence towards the end of the programme where Chris interviews a marathon trainer whilst running out in Addis Ababa. I supplied Jo with 2 headset mics so that she could plug them into two  Zoom H2 recorders, one on the Chris, and the other on the interviewee. and then we synced up the two recordings in the edit.
Especially if you are into running, or any sport, do try and listen to this programme as it explores the limits of human physical activity. If you do miss it then find it on iPlayer

3 nominations for awards including 1 Sony Award nomination

3 programmes I have worked on recently have been nominated for awards Firstly a Sony Award nomination for Best Community Programming 


Nomination - Divided we Fall

Christopher Mann Executive Producer
Polly Thomas Drama Producer
Mike Harris Writer
Kev Curtis Composer
Mike Thornton Editor
Sohail Nawaz Project Originator
Val Wallace Production Manager

Mannmade Productions for Preston FM

Then 2 programmes I have worked on have been shortlisted for the Sandford St. Martin Radio Awards...

The Story of the King James Bible – Broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 5th January 2011.  Producer Rosie Dawson and Presented by James Naughtie.

The King James Bible is everywhere – in  commercials, film titles, novels, music, even the way we speak.    “The Great monument to English prose” but how and why has it achieved such status? In the final programme to mark the 400th anniversary, James Naughtie assesses the legacy of the King James Bible.

The Choice – Heather Pratten – Broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 12 August 2010. Producers  Dawn Bryan and Amanda Hancox. Presented by Michael Buerk.

Heather Pratten’s life has been dogged by Huntington’s chorea which  is an inherited condition that attacks the brain and destroys the personality before leading to a slow and painful death. It turned her husband from a kind man into a stranger and now she has to watch her children to see where and how it would appear in the next generation. 

The Sony Radio Academy Awards winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, May 9th at The Grosvenor House Hotel, London and The Sandford St. Martin Trust 2011 Awards will be presented at Lambeth Palace on Tuesday 17th May.

Thoughts from the Radio Production in the North Conference

This event goes into my diary as the "must go to" event of the year. Why you ask? For one it is hear in the North West, secondly it is all about radio, and thirdly it is aimed at a growing part of my customer base - the independent radio production sector.  This year the organisers continued their strategy to make it a national conference rather than a regional one and that is great as long as it stays in the region. They also took that expansion and for the second half of the day presented the international view and opportunites for our sector to expand beyond our shores.

We started with a great batch of examples of radio produced by indies in the North and 3 of these examples had been across my hands. Cheque Book & Pen for Woolyback Productions, Merry Christmas Morris Minor for Pennine Productions and I Heart Milton Glazer for the now defunct All Out Productions.

With the conference becoming firmy planted on the national map, the BBC were there in strength with new things to say. We heard from several commisioners Piers Bradford from Radio 1 and 1Xtra, Jonathan Wall from 5 Live, Jeremy Skeet from World Service all outline a much more approachable flexible accessible commisioning system which is long overdue.


We heard from Chris Burns the BBC Audio & Vision Group Manager offering us access to the BBC Innovation Fund, understood to be worth around £500,000. It is designed to pay for ambitious projects which would not form part of the broadcaster’s usual commissioning rounds. She is keen to see more of the fund spent with radio indies. The push follows the extension of her role as the BBC bids to increase its transparency.

The keynote speech came from Time Davie whose is the BBC's Drector of Audio & Music announce a new BBC radio wide streamlined commisioning process.

The plan includes:

• Replacing genre specific preferred supplier list with the introduction of Open Indie Criteria - available to all independent production companies across all of BBC radio
• Launch of a less complex budgeting process
• Confirmation of a simpler system of commissioning rounds
• Introduction of 10 percent Window of Creative Competition (WoCC) across BBC Audio and Music
• Appointment of Chris Burns, Audio and Music Group Manager as ‘Indie Champion’.

Chris's network-wide role will involve liasing with the stations, in-house production and external suppliers to act as a point of contact to “ensure fairness” and adopt best practices. Chris also plans to hold quarterly reviews with industry, with the first taking place in May following Radio 3’s commissioning round to gain feedback how the process can be improved.

We heard from Jane McCloskey BBC's Head of External Supply as part of a session on What Radio Can Do For Telly with Richard Horwood from Channel 6. He made an appeal to the our sector to come and collaborate and get involved in local TV but I remain to be convinced that they aren't just looking for ideas on the cheap. Jane identfied what is good about indies and asked us to come up with big ideas. This is a big ask, because as long as we are a cottage industry it is very difficult to spend the time developing big ideas that might not get taken up. We need a bigger slice of the cake than even the new Window of Creative Competition will offer. Jane also suggested having live web chats with commisioners and channel controllers as a way of improving access for those of us who don't live and work in the South East.

We heard from Steve England and Simon Prentice from S2Blue whose normal time of business is station jingles and making adverts for commerical radio, who told us about how they have done a 12 month deal with Manx Radio  for a 'soap' sponsored the Isle of Man Creamery and called Glen Castle. It became apparent that they are using actors form 'am dram' socities and writing it themselves to make the project affordable which generated a lively debate at the end of the session about not paying people in a 'profit making' making venture.

We had an interesting presentaion from Diane Lees who is Director General of the Imperial War Musem talking about their incredible sound archive and how is is being used. Now I have made some great audio CD projects using this archive that went into books with subjects like Women in War and 2nd World War. It is indeed an excellent resource and they use it in their own presentations too. If you have ever been to the Imperial War Museum North you will know what I mean.

On the international side we heard from Sally-Ann Wilson from the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association outline how they facilitate collaboration internationally but I couldn't help thinking this is fine for the 'state broadcasters' but how can we as small indies make a living in this area. Then is was Lorelei Harris's turn from RTE to outline their new commsioning process which was only formally opened up to indies following their Broadcast Act in 2009. So it is all very new and because of the EU they have to treat any pitch from anyone one in the EU with the same weight as their home grown sector and we heard a varied group of examples of the indie output from Ireland too. Again I have some reservations on how this might work as Lorelei rightly pointed out you need to understand the Irish culture and market to be able to effectively pitch into this market and again how can we when most of us are still functioning as a cottage industry. Maybe another theme that was threaded through the conference might hold the answer, collaboration?  We will see.

Was it worth it? Absolutely, Will I be there next year? You bet!