Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: Audio Drama, bbc, bbc archives, radio play, The Radio Circle

BBC Adds Over 1000 Lost Radio Plays to Archives: Macbeth & More

The BBC recovered over 1,000 previously lost radio plays with help from The Radio Circle, who restored the plays from private collections.

Before television, before podcasts, there were radio plays produced by the BBC. The broadcaster transmitted their first play in 1924, which means they've been making radio plays for over 100 years now, and have broadcast radio dramas every day of the week ever since. The US has only just rediscovered audio drama in the 2000s and is practically reinventing the wheel in producing them as streamable podcasts. Many major British playwrights and screenwriters got their start writing radio plays for the BBC. It has been a training ground for new writers for generations, and some of their radio plays are considered classics of the form. Many of them were lost because the BBC didn't keep the original recordings. Until now.

The Radio Circle Mission to Recover Lost Radio Plays

Now over 1,000 radio plays have been returned to the BBC Archives by the Radio Circle, a group of radio enthusiasts and collectors – made up of reels and home recordings sent in by members of the public. BBC Radio 4, 4 Extra and Radio 3 will celebrate their return to the Archive with a season of special broadcasts of the recordings, including Macbeth, which, when it was first broadcast in 1971, was the first-ever stereo production of the play. The season also includes adaptations of works by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Wallace, Kingsley Amis and JM Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan. Radio 4 will also celebrate the BBC Archives by broadcasting two plays by giants of twentieth-century literature, Harold Pinter and Dennis Potter, which have not been heard on BBC Radio since their original broadcasts in the early 1980s.

The Radio Circle identified and restored recordings that belonged to members of the public, who recorded them for private use on their personal tape recorders during the original live broadcasts. Most recordings in the collection are of programmes which were not already in the Archives, which makes this discovery special.

A Quick History of the BBC Archives

The BBC Archives have evolved significantly over the course of the BBC's history. In its early days, there were significant obstacles to keeping permanent recordings – including cost, copyright issues, and a culture that saw radio as a 'live' medium never to be repeated – but much progress has been made. The BBC now archives all output from its network stations, and the Archive currently spans multiple collections. The focus is now to bring these collections together into one unified back catalogue, and the discovery of these additional recordings by the Radio Circle is an excellent addition to this resource.

Alison Hindell, Commissioning Editor for Drama and Fiction, BBC Radio 4, said, '"I'm delighted to be bringing these rediscovered gems to listeners – there are some very special dramas which I'm sure listeners will love, with great actors such as Denholm Elliott, Bob Hoskins and Roy Kinnear. The BBC has always been at the forefront of audio drama, and we're in a unique position to preserve and celebrate the rich history of this very special art form. Many thanks to the Radio Circle and the BBC Archives team for their work on this."

Carl Davies, Senior Curator, BBC Archives, added, "The Radio Archive is a vast and diverse series of collections with millions of recordings from the 1930s to the current day from all the BBC radio services. When new discoveries are found, it's a wonderful opportunity to add to the archive. The Hidden Treasure season is a great moment to highlight the hard work we undertake to curate, catalogue and preserve the BBC's archive holdings, ensuring they are accessible for our audiences via radio output and BBC Sounds in the months and years to come."

Steve Arnold from the Radio Circle shared, 'We at the Radio Circle are so glad to have been able to return these cultural treasures to the BBC Archives and hope that listeners enjoy hearing these slices of audio history. Many thanks to all the members of the public who contributed to this project.'

BBC Radio Plays can be streamed every day on the BBC Sounds website.

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