Radio commissioning framework

SECTION A: EDITORIAL OPPORTUNITY

Drama on 3 is Radio 3’s weekly drama showcase. At its heart are classic and modern stage plays; major new plays from leading and emerging writers; radio versions of acclaimed current stage productions and international drama in translation.

Drama on 3 follows the philosophy once laid out by the novelist EM Forster “The Third Programme does, or should do, the unexpected…Janus like, it gazes with tranquillity into the past and with ardour into the future”.

These plays are a central part of Radio 3’s mission:

• Connecting audiences with remarkable music & culture

• Exploring human experience

• Believing that music and culture enrich life and help us understand, engage with and appreciate the world better
Main Editorial Brief

The key qualities:

This is “event” drama. Drama on 3 should be one of Radio 3’s stand-out moments of any week. The plays we commission here have to catch people’s imagination and then hold their attention for a full 90 minutes. Every broadcast in this slot is Radio 3’s play of the week. Audiences need to want to make a date with the titles we offer and keep coming back.

20 per cent of Drama on 3 listening is now done on-demand online – one of the highest proportions of any radio programme on BBC stations. But the fluctuations between productions are large – so each play has to earn that audience. We need to know how you will do that.

We’re looking for fresh and innovative productions of the great plays of world theatre. They need to appeal to today’s audiences. They might be re-written to increase impact; they could be radiophonic versions that re-imagine the plays for today; or they could feature high profile casts who act as a make-a-date bridge into historical pieces. They are always superb high quality programmes.

By radio standard, these works are sometimes very long. They are big and bold statements about what Radio 3 offers to audiences. We need to know that your proposal will keep listeners engaged and that your version will feel like a significant moment in the history of productions of this work.

Think twice before you offer a lesser-known work by a leading playwright. How recently has Radio 3 produced their best-known works? Maybe we should be offering that instead? And avoid proposals which are obviously standard re-hashes of old favourites. We need to know what you the production team are going to add to an established work.

But at the same time, we’re not only reflecting the theatrical canon – we aim to push at its boundaries. Are there works from different times and different parts of the globe that you can make resonate and surprise today’s audience?

We’re also looking for innovative rediscovery of existing plays – but they need to be forceful and newsworthy revivals, rather than interesting curiosities or neglected classics.

In line with Radio 3’s objective to rediscover unjustly neglected female composers from the past, we’re interested in hearing about historical female playwrights who you think you can turn into thrilling radio drama.

Younger audiences

Drama on 3 is looking to attract replenisher audiences (35-54) without losing its sophistication, its commitment to historical plays and theatrical innovation. We’re looking for ideas that directly address this audience, not just might reach them as an added bonus.

We’d like to discuss with you writers, storylines and formats that are going to achieve this. Recent successes in this field have tackled contemporary subject matter and have drawn on genres like the ghost story and the psychological thriller to create compelling plots.

We are open to new ideas about how we use the R3 drama slots to make it more flexible: we’ve been commissioning 5-part series that run in the weekday Essay 2245 slot before being repeated as an omnibus on Sunday. We’d like to do more of these.

We’ve divided the Sunday evening into three plays of 30 minutes by lesser-known writers from abroad. We’re looking for further formats of this kind.

Perhaps you have an idea that you assumed wasn’t right for Drama on 3? Now that you’ve read the guidelines perhaps we should talk about it after all?

The digital importance of Drama on 3 is vital – and growing. 20 per cent of all listening to this slot is now online. When pitching and producing programmes for Drama on 3, we need you to think about its online presence.

The minimum requirement for any commissioned programme is an arresting and pithy description that works well on the programme website; clear metadata; strong photographs of the cast recording where realisable and possible clip requirements. These core components are essential for any new play.

However, we are looking for some key drama commissions which could work harder online and become available as long-term podcasts. If you’ve got a project that will have clearable rights then please let us know. We’re looking for head-turning, effective ideas.

At the point of commission our digital editor will look at the slate and assess the potential for any additional digital content. The supplier of the programme will have the first option to offer to supply this if it is required and if you have the capacity and expertise.

But we are interested in trying new things, in challenging the way we broadcast in order for Drama on 3 to reach out to new audiences.

Alongside this, Radio 3 is committed to technical innovation in its broadcast quality, including the introduction of lossless sound. For Drama on 3, this has meant increasing numbers of binaural productions, including our first binaural Shakespeare play. We’re interested in commissioning further sonic innovations, fresh ways to develop binaural recordings and in commissioning more plays which put at their heart an adventurous sonic landscape.

New writing

We’re looking to commission major new plays from the best writers in British drama – both the existing titans and up-and-coming voices. Drama on 3 offers at least 90 minutes of air-time to writers who want to tell a thrilling story that needs time and space to develop. For the established writer, this should be a chance to realise a passion project. For brand new writers, we’re looking to find fresh ways of segmenting the drama on 3 slot so that we can make space for a variety of new voices.

We’re also looking for a number of works that offer a radical challenge to received ideas about radio drama. These might be collaborations with leading artists, poets, musicians or sound designers – but they will bring together innovative ideas about format without abandoning a sense of the importance of the listeners’ experience. This is a chance to create a radio work with the now-established creators of immersive or site-specific theatre – or to collaborate with digital partners.

Stage Transfers

Radio 3 is a station for the performing arts, with concerts, operas, poetry readings all integral features of our output - and Drama on 3 aims to reflect the best of what’s happening in Britain’s flourishing theatres. In particular, we want to bring exciting newly-written plays to our broadcast audience – from both the West End and studio venues.

Our priority is for fairly fast turn-around recordings that are made to ensure core cast members can be put on air. But we are also open to new radio productions of recent stand out plays which will bring the play to a broader audience. But these do need to be very strong plays, not quite interesting ones.

We will transfer classic plays if they offer unique casting or production styles that provide an unmissable opportunity for listeners.

Transfers can be offered ahead of their run within the commissioning round, or they can be proposed throughout the year.

Partnerships: We’re also interested in developing on-going partnerships with leading theatres and performance companies that could involve bringing their work to Radio 3 in innovative ways, or might mean collaborating on joint stage/broadcast works. This is a very open area. Please let us know your ideas even if they are at an embryonic stage.

Contemporary European Drama

This is an area that is often neglected. We’d like to address the paucity of contemporary European drama with new commissions – but productions that offer strong propositions for the Radio 3 audience, and aren’t just curiosities. These should be plays that travel easily and aren’t meant to be beginner’s guides to an unknown country - our interest is focused on the writing and the writers.

We would also like to introduce UK audiences to writers whose works are well known in Europe but unjustly not so well known here. We’ve already looked at translating some works that aren’t yet available in English, based on sample sections.

Long Poems and readings

We’ve commissioned a number of long poems and extended readings in this slot – and we are now keen to do more. We’re looking for classic poems but not over-familiar or often-quoted works. These need to be long works that take full advantage of the Drama on 3 slot. Some have run at 100 minutes or more. They need imaginative and contemporary treatments, with, for example, music, archive and additional voices included. The poems can be narrative or non-narrative, and can be challenging language – but must be attractive propositions as programmes. We expect high profile readers who will draw the audience to poems they have not heard in full.

We’re looking for special seasons for Radio 3 which put Drama on 3 at their centre. Seasons on Anthony Burgess, Arthur Miller, Franz Kafka and obviously Shakespeare have all used this slot to offer something epic to audiences. Now we’re looking to widen the possibilities to topics that use drama to draw in the audience. This isn’t always about volume – it can be about a single ambitious commission around which other programming can coalesce. It can be about unusual scheduling of the drama. It can about a collaboration that makes waves.

We’re also always looking for great new plays about classical music. But too many of these proposals have focused on great historical composers. We’re keen on finding new ways of representing music in the contemporary world – new stories that have music at their heart, use music in their production, but aren’t biographical journeys of the great and the good.

In recent years we’ve invited guest performers to curate Drama on 3, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Mark Ravenhill and Harriet Walter have all done so. We’d like more ideas on how Drama on 3 could collaborate with high profile actors, directors, writers and other practitioners working in the stage-world to showcase radio drama.

We’re introducing short proposals for Drama on 3 for the first time. These don’t need to be a summary of your full proposal. We’ve allowed a window of only 2 weeks for this stage in the process as an indication of the fact that all we need is your title, a plot indication if necessary and a précis of why you want to bring it to Drama on 3.

Successful proposals will make the case for a new production of the play, and must include the main features of your new interpretation.

Key casting suggestions will influence our selection – of course, we don’t expect these to be confirmed – but we are looking for striking, imaginative or high-profile casting ideas.

Please give an indication of the extent of adaptation proposed, any particular challenges it raises, and whether or not the adaptation will be done by the producer or by another writer (and if by another, your reasons).

If the proposal is based on an existing script this must be submitted at the same time as the full proposal (please do not leave this for the commissioning team to chase up). Please send written material as hard copies (ie, already printed out) and audio material as MP3 files (either by email or by WeTransfer). Please also label such material with the title of the offer, commissioning brief and return address details, and complete and attach the supporting material inventory form which can be found on the commissioning website. Please send all these items to Lea Lauvray at Rm 4028, Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA or to lea.lauvray@bbc.co.uk.

If the proposal is for new writing please include details of the writer’s previous work including any radio commissions, and it will strengthen your proposal if you submit an example of this work. If you want to work with a specific composer please give details.

We now regularly use informal, unscripted two-minute introductions before Drama on 3, usually from the director or writer. If your proposal is conditionally commissioned we would expect you to discuss the introduction with the commissioning editor and if necessary factor it into the final budget and duration.

If the play involves the portrayal of real people, strong language or other major editorial issues, this must be made clear in the proposal. All proposals should include details of the proposed Editor/Executive Producer who will be responsible for compliance.

The guide price for Drama on 3 is between £15,000 and £18,000 per hour and we will be looking to commission programmes at different points along this scale. Please submit a price (you can now do so in the “Price per episode” field) that is realistic for your proposal, with justification if necessary.

At the point of commission a formal price offer will be made which, if accepted, will result in a contract being issued immediately at that price, without the need to have budgets analysed and approved.

Credits

Closing announcements and cast details at the end of the play must be recorded and included within the duration of your drama. If they are not, and this omission has not been agreed with Radio 3, we will expect a new version to be delivered.

There is more flexibility with the start of plays. We would prefer plays to begin with an opening sequence which gives the title and writer – but this opening sequence cannot be a plain reading by a single voice, since this is too similar to continuity. It might include a music bed or sound effects to establish the sound world of the drama. Listeners now hear Drama on 3 in a variety of digital formats and we cannot be sure they will hear the continuity announcements.

Duration

Please try and include a realistic estimate of duration in your offer. We will confirm the duration and slot with you when we agree the budget and confirm the commission. The total length of the recorded play and any live announcements will be one minute less than the overall slot i.e. a for a 90 minute slot we require a total of 89 minutes including announcements.

Radio 3’s schedule does give us more flexibility to accommodate changes to the original estimate if these are raised with us at least 8 weeks ahead of broadcast. We hope to offer listeners as full an experience of stage plays as possible. Although these may often be edited as part of the adaptation on editorial grounds we hope to avoid the editing of stage plays simply to fit a slot.

After commissioning any requests for a variation on the agreed duration must be raised with Matthew Dodd and David Ireland as early as possible and agreed in writing.

All proposals must be submitted via Proteus.
All proposals must first go through the short proposal stage – please complete your short proposal using no more than 250 words (in the short synopsis section of the Proteus submission form).

COMPLIANCE AND BBC EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

You will be required to deliver programmes that are in line with the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and be able to adapt to the BBC’s changing editorial and business needs during the period of the commission.

The following people will evaluate your proposal:

Matthew Dodd, Head of Speech Programmes, Radio 3

Alan Davey, Controller, Radio 3

David Ireland, Commissions and Scheduling Manager, Radio 3

Subject matter experts (e.g. production experts, network management, finance, etc.) may also be consulted. See Section B for information on the commissioning process, timetable and assessment criteria.