Radio Dramas Traditional and Post-Modern

Two different types of radio dramas are Traditional and Postmodern. A

traditional radio drama consists of a strong structured storyline, thats
familiar to people that enjoy radio dramas. There are many characters and
usually a narrator, the story is always to solve a problem and documents
the characters working towards their goal. Where traditional dramas, the
problems and questions are solved, Postmodern radio dramas leave
questions and problems open and leaves the audience/listener to answer
them themselves.

The Traditional radio drama I have chosen to critique is the BBC Radio 4
Drama; The Archers. The drama is a famous long running drama about
northern farmers, originally billed as an everyday story of country folk, it
is now described as contemporary drama in a rural setting. The show was
created in the aftermath of World War II to educate farmers and increase
food production. This became very popular and attracted 9 Million
listeners in 1953. The story of this certain episode is based in the rural
town of Ambridge. The towns folk are talking about the dress rehearsal for
the upcoming play, Mother Goose. The story continues to The Bulls
Great Escape event, where Elizabeth tells Debbie she thinks she's ready
for a new relationship. An intrigued Debbie is about to press Elizabeth for
further details just as Richard Locke joins them. He and Debbie are
pleased to see one another and reminisce over old times. In the Pub
Kenton, Lynda and Susan relax after the dress rehearsal and talk about
the towns recent relationships.

The Postmodern drama I have chosen is The Blind Mans Confession by

the website FinalRune.com. This drama is a fictional horror story about an
incident around a car crash and a strange figure that comes out the forest
around the character. The story is a flashback with a narration from the
main character in the story, doing this gives a non-linear look and
interests the listener. The use of narration breaks the 4th wall to the
listener but then it is found out that it really hasnt and it is a use of a
flashback. This flashback is signified by the narrator/ main character,
telling the audience about the incident from the future, aural signposting
to give that impression. The start follows the main character driving round
the stretching forest roads, when he suddenly crashes into a patrolling
police car. The main character is thrown out of the car down into the river
beside the road. He climbs out the river to discover the policeman hasnt
survived the impact. When he tries to assess the situation, a man appears
behind him with a gun to his back. The man explains that hes a killer and
asks why he should keep his life. After the panic of reasons, he is knocked
out to wake up without his eyes, never to see again. This story leaves a lot
of questions open to the listener and a lot of the story can only be
interpreted by the subtle hints given in the drama.

The atmosphere of The Blind Mans Confession is conveyed to the listener

through atmospheric background noise and sound effects, for example
rain is played to reinforce the Aural signposting of a forest. Some sound
effects arent as successful at immersing the listener than others, the car
crash is a good example of budget reasons restraining the quality of the
sound effects. This is a contrast to The Archers, where the background
noise and sound effects are very effective and high quality, making you be
able to pin point where you are without dialogue. Another way that The
Blind Mans Confession generates atmosphere is the use of silence in
emotion parts of the drama, for example at 7:45, the main character
emotionally discusses that he has lost his eyes and will never see again.
The sadness in his voice sounds genuine, and the way he acts using
sniffles, for example, adds to the emersion and realism.

Whilst driving in the car, rock music is played to make the scene seem
more exciting and interesting. The music played portrays the mood and
speed the driver is going. Unlike other examples the music does not lower
for the dialogue, this gives the impression that he is in the car and further
engrosses the listener. The traditional radio drama is different in the way
that music isnt used as a technique of portraying an action, instead it is
used as an aural signpost of where the characters are. At around 1 minute
30 seconds, the car hes driving and the music in it stops. This change of
sound makes the listener believe that there has been crash, since the lack
of sound is so sudden. Silence is used in radio dramas to pinpoint pivotal
moments of the story. Another silence is when the main character is at the
end of the drama, the moment where he gets knocked out by the mystery
man. The silence is what signifies that he is unconscious. The production,
in parts, depends on the background sounds and music for aural
signposting and distinguishing locations. The most prominent example of
this is when the rain sounds start to fade in, this both signifies that he is
now outside and that he has awoken. Using fades to distinguish time is
used in a lot of radio dramas. For example, if a character fell asleep and
the background fades from one thing to another, the listener will have the
sense that time has passed. The drama ends with the main character in
the hospital talking about the situation giving direct speech, telling the
listener that this has happened. This would also link that he has created a
dramatic reconstruction of the events; A dramatic reconstruction is a
creation of events after the fact. Starting the dramatic reconstruction with
a beginning and stating the conflict and giving the listener some
resolution at the end, with the character retelling events, gives a good
development of plot. Developing the plot in this way is easy to follow and
helps the narrative structure of the drama. With the use of flashbacks, it is
easy to find following the plot difficult, but using the liner development of
plot makes the listener follow the story quite well.

It isnt known what happens to the character that clearly. We are hinted
that the mysterious character has taken the main characters eyes. The
final line I shouldve known better than to f**k with god, signifies the
ending of the drama and allows the listener to resolve whats happened.
This is different to a traditional radio drama in the way that, something
like The Archers, would end in a cliff hanger ending making the listener
want to continue in the series. The difference between The Archers and
The Blind Mans Confession would be that The Archers is a series, and The
Blind Mans Confession is a single episode short story. The story line of
The Blind Mans Confession is in a non-chronological order, using
flashbacks to continue the story, with the main character looking back at
what happened through over time. The target audience for The Blind
Mans Confession would likely be fans of the Horror and Thriller genre, but
in my opinion fans of the drama creators, The Final Rune, are best suited
for the drama.

The traditional drama is The Archers. The Archers is a fictional drama set
in the rural village of Ambridge. The drama was set up in June of 1950 to
get the British public to think about agriculture and to increase
production. The episode opens with Debbie gathering costumes for the
Mother Goose dress rehearsal. She must deliver them in time for the
actual rehearsal. This theme of story automatically appeals to an older
audience rather than a younger one. The aural signposting is used to
make apparent where the characters are. An example of a character
signposting with dialogue is in the final scene, where Kenton, Lynda and
Susan debrief after the dress rehearsal. The characters discuss drinks to
order, asking for Double Malibu and Coke and White wine. This intern
also subconsciously reinforces the social status of the characters, having
the posh sounding people order more expensive drinks and getting the
more everyday people to order cheaper drinks. Background sounds are
also used, for example; when Elizabeth tells Debbie, she thinks she's
ready for a new relationship at the Bull's Great Escape event. The
background music is classical and fancy sounding, reinforcing that they
are at an event for the wealthy. The use of words and voice in the drama
give a significant sense of realism, making it seem like actual people
saying these words in the accent needed. For example, the posh sounding
people, just from the use of words and the chosen accent, seem posh with
no hesitation. The speech throughout maintains this careful choice of
words and dialect to further engross the audience into believing the
realism of the drama.

The opening and closing music for The Archers is very happy and
traditional sounding, this helps set the mood of the drama which is quite
relaxed and upbeat. This is also used and the title for the drama, using the
widely-known music to establish what we are listening to. This sets up the
actions in the drama, but also compliments the cliff hanger ending, giving
a happy undertone under some tension between characters. Music is only
used at the start and ending of each episode, unlike The Blind Mans
Confession where music is used to create moods, a sense of location and
atmosphere throughout. The only silences used in this episode of The
Archers is used to transition scenes and locations. For example; a silence
is used to transition the scene from the characters dropping off costumes
to Bull's Great Escape event. Following the traditional style of storyline,
there are no flashbacks used in The Archers, unlike The Blind Mans
Confession. The Linear Storyline structure keeps the story understandable
as a series; resolution of problem continuing into the creation of problem
for the cliff hanger ending. This is shown in the episode by completing the
delivery of costumes, calming down after the resolution and then
continuing into the cliff hanger, which in this case is Elizabeth watching
Debbie and Richard leave the pub together. This is then followed by the
theme music, signifying that the episode has ended and the use of credits
to give tell who wrote and starred in the drama; this use of credits
finalises the ending, enforcing the sense of ending to the listener. This is
different to The Blind Mans Confession, where all loose ends are covered
and the drama is left on a closing line. This shows the big difference
between a traditional and post-modern drama.

From this episode of The Archers, I can assume that, the target audience
is a more elderly generation that enjoys rural dramas. The length of both
dramas is easily manageable to listen to, with the archers being a daily
episodic series, the running time is suited to the audience and can be
easily listened to everyday. With a longer running time, this is may not be
possible to listen every day. This use because of the topics that are
discussed throughout the drama, that wouldnt really suit a younger
audience. Some subjects that are in the drama does not really suit a
younger audience and may not understand the situations the characters
are in. An example of this is when the characters are at The Bull's Great
Escape event, Elizabeth tells Debbie she thinks she's ready for a new
relationship. And Debbie is about to press Elizabeth for further details just
as Richard Locke joins them. This kind of story is not something a
stereotypical teenager would want to listen to. The characters are all
middle age and discuss their lives, this would only relate to people that
have been through these situations. You can tell this by the way the
characters speak and communicate. This is also enforced by their social
class, thats indicated in their accent. The tone of the episodes is overall
quite cheerful yet informal, in a way that makes the listener enjoy what is
going on. The overall theme of the series is that you have opportunities
for relaxation and easily relatable.