Principles of Radio Drama

Ground rules
Set up...struggle...resolution.
You can reverse this if the setup is more dramatic and
explosive than the resolution.
Regard your play as a series of
phases
The Beginning
The Plot
The beginning is everything. If

this part of it does not work
you are 'up shit creek without a
paddle'. Your listeners will
desert you. You have failed.
You do not exist as a
dramatist. Booo!
This is the story with lots of

twists and turns. The more the
merrier. Most listeners like
good exciting plots. Without a
good plot you're eating a
souffle that has gone flat. You
need plot, more plot and more
plot. Run at least two story
lines. Two sub plots would be
interesting. Keep the plots
linked logically within the same
play. The best system is a
major and a minor storyline
linked to one another. Get
them to come together at the
end.
PRINCIPLES OF
RADIO DRAMA
The Moment of Arrival

This is how you drop your
listeners into the story. Don't
give them a warm bed with
comfortable pillows and a hot
water bottle. The background
and sub-text of previous
histories is better explored
through revelation in dramatic
action. So parachute your
listener into a top dramatic
moment. Not the climax. That
would be premature. Find the
MOMENT to join the story.
Avoid the slow snail's
explicatory route. Kick 'em into
a high energy trip and whoosh
them through the rapids.
Structure
Surprise
People are hungry for
entertainment. If they wanted
boredom they would be filling
out their tax returns instead of
listening to your radio play.
Make people afraid, but also
excited.
Character
Your main character must have

the sympathy of the audience.
Your audience has to identify
with your main character. If
this does not happen you have
created a failure. Booo!
Conflict
Drama = conflict = audience.
There has to be an emotional,
financial, human, moral,
physical struggle so your
listeners can laugh or cry. Yes,
you want your listeners to
laugh or cry or laugh and cry.
If you don't, give up.
Polarities or Extremes
The art of story telling is
exploring the extreme limits of
our psychological or physical
existence. To pitch one polarity
against another.
The Climax
I apologize for the sexual
metaphor. But there is
something in this. The better
sex has foreplay, development,
sustained excitement, surprise
and affection, nay love followed
by an explosion of ecstasy.
Good radio drama is not all
that different. If you don't use
it, you lose it.
Dialogue
This is how we engage
dramatically with the world.
Characters inform, argue,
amuse, outrage, argue through
the ebb and flow of dialogue.
When we do we talk and that is
how great radio plays are
made.....by talking in dramatic
dialogue.
Atmosphere / Ambience
This sets the emotional spirit of
the play. It determines whether
your listeners believe in the
world that you have created.
Worlds are not created by
dramatic dialogue alone. There
is attitude and atmosphere.
This is determined by detail
and relevant detail. It could be
in a sound effect. It could be in
the writing. It could be in the
music. It could be in
everything. But the result is
that the fifth dimension of
radio writing - the imagination
of the listener - is stimulated to
become a picture palace of the
mind.
Emotion
Got to be there. You have to
generate an emotional
response from the
audience....preferably to the
main character....also not so
strongly in relation to the other
characters. Emotion = love,
hate, admiration. Never mind
about the type of
emotion.....concentrate on
whether it is there or not.
Emotional connection between
the writing and the listener =
good radio drama.
Balance Character and Plot
You have to have both. You
cannot trade. One can
predominate over the other.
Where they are balanced
equally....it can only work if
characterisation relates to plot
development. If your main plot
is character intensive, make
sure that your minor plot is
plot intensive.
Purpose
Crook's golden rule is that
every word, every line, every
scene must serve a dramatic
purpose in terms of
characterisation and plot
development. Drop anything
that does not have a dramatic
purpose.
Tension and Humour
To stop the listener dropping

off or switching off, maintain
the tension always and throw
in the humour. Tension,
humour, tension, humour,
tension humour...like the
foxtrot..Make the emotional
rhythm of the play dance on
the listener's heart and mind.
Charm and alarm, charm and
alarm. But they've got to be
linked. Your character uses
humour to react to the tension
in the scene or play. Keep one
character who uses humour to
deal with difficult situations.
Make sure the humour is
verbal. Slapstick belongs to a
different type of play or
entertainment. Make sure you
do not have characters taking
it in turns to be funny. This is
not stand up comedy or
sitcom. Make sure that the
character who uses humour
has a consistent sense of
humour.
Get your listener inside the
world of your play. How?
a. Sympathy or empathy with
the main character.
b. A bloody good set up.
c. A big, nasty antagonist or
villain.
d. Great Plot...Great
Story....twists and turns.
e. Crisis at the beginning is

dramatic and a great start.
f. Emotional intensity. Hit some
high points.
g. Escalating conflict so the
structure climbs with tension
and humour.
h. Strike the colours with detail
so there's an atmosphere,
mood...ambience.
I. Modulate charm with
alarm...humour with
tension...tension with
humour...funny policeman
nasty policeman.
j. Surprise, surprise...that's
what you do to the listener,
through the plot.
The principle of developing
scenes
1. Introduction.
2. Character one...goal
and objective.
3. Character two...goal
and objective.
4. Purpose of scene in
overall plot.
5. One of the
characters achieves
a goal.
6. Link to the next
scene by introducing
or pointing to
location of next
scene or presence of
character in next
scene.
Question marks in the mind
of the listener. Always keep
one, better two or three
The Principle of Character
1. Believable and
recognisable.
2. Purpose within the
plot.
3. Characters have to
have function.
Character has to be
consistent with
function.
4. Characters have to
be intentional.
5. Start with a
stereotype to ensure
rapid recognition,
then twist the
stereotype.
Challenge the homily
that there is nothing
new under the sun
by making it new
under the moon.
6. Give each character
a dominant physical
or behavioural
characteristic. Make
the dominant
characteristic
purposeful. Make it
extreme.
7. Your main character
must be active.
8. Active character /
urgent plot. The
character's energy
has to fight the
urgency of the plot
and the urgency of
the plot makes the
character more
energetic.
3.
The principle of Hero /

Heroine
1. Listeners look up to
main characters,
want to admire them
because we all want
heroes and heroines
in our lives. Life's
eternal fantasy that
transcendent people
and transcendent
moments conquer
adversity.
2. If you are very
clever you can
transfer the hero
from the obvious to
the humble and
make great the
inferior or character
who has greater
4.
5.
6.
potential for human

dignity.
Charisma.
Characters need
intensity and
conviction. They
may not be perfect
but they are
attractive. You
cannot identify with
people who are
unlike
ourselves...too
perfect, no
beliefs...take
themselves too
seriously...lack a
sense of humour..
Give your characters
private moments
when they drop their
guards and allow us
into their minds and
hearts. Make the
listener privileged.
Use this moment for
revelation.
The main character
has to change and
has to be changed
by the plot.
You must have a
main character and
secondary
characters. Your
main character
changes. Your
secondary
characters are
probably more
singular in their
characteristics. Your
secondary
characters are
already committed.
Your main character
is still weighing up
the options.
7. You must have
characters who are
extreme in relation
to each
other...characters
that are different
make drama.
Where are we now?
Well, we should be here....
a. The main character is in the
middle of the story.
b. You've used dominant
characteristics.
c. The listener likes the main
character.
d. The listener cares what
happens to the main character.
e. The listener hates the
antagonist.
f. The main character is
developing.
Principles of Dialogue
a. Dialogue must be a response
to a situation, plot or action.
b. Dialogue must be a response

to each character in the scene.
c. Dialogue must be comic
relief.
d. Dialogue must connect to
the next scene.
e. Avoid reflective, passive and
neutral. Go for active, and
direct and emotional.
f. Dialogue must be believable
by being specific...by being
specific to the character's
background and emotional
state.
g. If dialogue is reacting to
action or situation then it must
be dramatic and poised on
polarities. The goals of the
characters in each scene
should be different.
h. Dialogue should be
continuous. Tip...characters
often take a tag by repeating
the last word spoken by the
first character.
i. Dialogue must relate to
function.
j. You can mix direct with
indirect between two
characters because they have
different goals.
k. Humorous dialogue is not a
character telling a joke but a
line or lines responding to the
dramatic situation.
l. Heightened dialogue vs
naturalistic dialogue.
Heightened language is the
language of the theatre...high
octane communication...poetic,
philosophical...charged..the
expression of the
playwright...It serves not only
the development of the plot
and character, but it also
presents the view of the writer.
Works well in radio. But there
is now a tendency for more
naturalism. Radio producers
like to go out on location and
explore realism. In these
situations you must stick to
natural dialogue.
Principles peculiar to Radio
1. The inner existence.
2. The tension and
conflict between the
interior and exterior.
3. More psychological.
4. Easier to explore the
real and the surreal
and to delineate the
line between the
two.
5. Have to work in the
fifth dimension...the
energy of the
listener's
imaginative
participation.
6. The interior
existence offers
exploration of
personal thoughts,
fantasies, emotions
and conflicts.
7. All levels of external
conflict can be
explored.
8. The precipitating
event through plot
has to threaten the
inner life of the main
character. This is the
kick-off in radio
drama.
9. The end or
resolution in radio
drama is more
deeply rooted in the
emotional
equilibrium and
insight of the main
character. Changes
are internal as well
as external.
10.
Time
transposition and
translocation are
faster and more
rapid and more
complicated.
Flashbacks...flashfor
wards... different
ages.
11.
Radio requires
less rather than
more characters.
Characterisation
needs to be strong
and fascinating.
12.
Maintain the
focus of the main
character and plot.
13.
Economy of
words underlines
subtextual surprise
and engagement
with the listener's
imagination.
14.
Wit is vital
because language is
so
important...cleverne
ss with
words...energy with
words..humour with
words...Wit is
advanced by
surprising the
listener...being
aggressive with the
listener..being fast,
short and clever with
the listener.
15.
Irony is pathos
and bathos. It's
conflict between the
inner life and outer
action.
Other radio drama
producers in the world
Norway: NRK kulturkanalen, P2
RODD- 0340, Oslo, Norway.
Swedish Radio, SR S-105 10
Stockholm, Sweden.
YLE Finnish Broadcasting

Company Radio, PO Box 79
FIN-00024 Yleisrdio, Finland.
HR, Hessischer Rundfunk
Bertramstrasse 8, 60320
Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
DR Danmarks Radio, Radio
Drama Department,
Ewaldsgade 3-9, DK 2200,
Copenhagen N Denmark.
ABC Australia, ABC Ultimo
Centre, Level 5, 700 Harris
Street, Ultimo NSW 2007.
CBC-SRC, Radio Drama
Department, Box 500, Station
A, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
MSW 1E6
SDR Suddeutscher Rundfunk,
Neckarstrasse 230, 70190,
Stuttgart, Germany.
Radio Television Hong Kong,
Broadcasting House, m 30
Broadcast Drive, Kowloon,
Hong Kong, China.
Other radio drama producers,
SABC, South Africa, Los
Angeles Theatre Works, LA,
California, Public Radio, New
Zealand.
http://www.irdp.co.uk/scripts.htm

Principles of Radio Drama

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Principles of Radio Drama

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Ground rules

The beginning is everything. If

This is the story with lots of

The Moment of Arrival

Your main character must have

To stop the listener dropping

e. Crisis at the beginning is

The principle of Hero /

potential for human

b. Dialogue must be a response

YLE Finnish Broadcasting

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