The British Broadcasting, bbc radio 4 – Afternoon Play

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2.1. Technology
2.2. Sound

2. BBC Drama Department

The first person to be in charge of the Drama Department, which was established in 1924, was R. E. Jeffrey. Because at the time of Mr. Jeffrey no one had any experience with broadcasting plays there appeared problems that had not risen up before. Therefore there was no need to look for a solution. One example that is mentioned by John Drakakis is that actors themselves had some difficulty in coping with the demands made upon them by live broadcasting before the microphone. Also it was Jeffrey who commissioned Howard to write a play especially for radio. The first radio play, A Comedy of Danger was broadcasted in 1924. [Joh81] E.R. Jeffrey set his mind on making radio plays sound realistically. To achieve this Jeffrey himself, executed several experiments. For instance he purchased a shotgun and began shooting into a wall near a staircase. Unfortunately, he did not achieved the sound effect that he intended to achieve because the shots sounded like a flat champagne. [Hol10]

Next who took the post of a head of the Dramatic Department was Val Henry Gielgud. Prior to this he was employed at Radio Times. While working there he frequently criticized the way the Dramatic department was run. As Gielgud admits latter he, himself, penned several letters from readers criticizing dramatic work. So when the position opened he saw the chance to make drama to meet his own standard. He stayed at the same post for 35 years. [np134]

Val Gielgud worked hard to develop specific radio performance skills. He formed a Radio Drama company of actors to be available to perform in BBC productions, but more importantly to specialise and develop in a new drama performance medium. He and his directors consolidated radio's intrinsic techniques of texture and narrative. They found little difficulty expressing the equivalence of moving from long shot to close-up in sound by using the intimate space and closeness of microphone performance. Radio could enter the minds of characters much more readily than the visual media. [Tim99]
In 1936 a Features Department was created and the man appointed as a head of the newly created department was Laurence Gilliam. Although this department was formed to deal with different things to Drama department it still remained a Guliard’s responsibility. The Features Department was in charge of literary features, documentary features, actuality feature, historical features and features for special occasion. Whereas Drama department dealt with stage plays, specially written plays, novels and short stories, adaption, serials and poetry reading.[Tim99]
From the 1930s, the Features Department of the BBC existed alongside the Drama Department before they were eventually merged in 1967. The credit for exploring the unique dramatic potential of radio during the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s belongs to Features rather than to Drama under Lord John Gielgud's brother Val which tended to concentrate on book dramatisations or adaptations of theatre productions. [Tim99]

2.1. Technology

There are several important stages that in the history of BBC technology that had a great significant at the development of the dramatic plays. One of the inventions is, without a doubt, the development of the BBC microphone. The development of the type A microphone took place in the early thirties. The reason for its significant is the fact that it was able to accept a person’s voice from both sides. This meant that it did not matter where actors were standing, whether at the back or in the front of the microphone. [npnd11] The reason for developing new microphone was very simple. The BBC did not have the budget to be able to afford to buy the quantity that was needed by BBC. In a consequence the new BBC type A microphone was introduced in 1934 – 1935. [Bar02]

The convenience of the double-sided property of the ribbon microphone in drama need not be stressed. The directional property of the microphone is also useful for obtaining distant effects, the artist moving round towards the dead side as well as adopting the more usual expedient of going further away from the microphone. To obtain certain effects it is sometimes necessary for him when at the maximum distance also to turn away from the microphone when speaking. [Bar021]

Although the type A microphone was revolutionary there were some difficulties that had to be removed. One of the problems was a resonance which was objectionable. Another problem appeared while using the microphone near an electromagnetic field. In consequence to each problem found and solved there was a new addition to the BBC microphone family. [Bar02]

Another innovation, which changed the world of dramatic production, was introduced in 1928. The innovation enabled to combine sounds, meaning music, discourse and sound effects, from several studios. [Lau04]

Prior to this technological miracle everything that was needed for radio play, actors, music and equipment necessary for sound effects, had to be prepared before hand in one room only. During live broadcast everyone who was involved in a play had to be ready waiting for his time to come and at the right time move closer to a microphone. There were others also moving around the room as the sound effects had to be created in the process of broadcasting. If an actor leaned forward a or backwards either to reduce or to enlarge the distance between him and the microphone the effect it created was recognized as character walking towards an event or away from it.

The dramatic control panel was introduced in 1928, enabling the producers and engineers to mix live from one studio to another. The plays were now performed live from several studios, with a "noise room" set aside for sound effects. With this evolution, a new radio drama department was founded: 'The National Theatre of the Air,' under the supervision of Val Gielgud. [Stend]

To get a better understanding of how it worked short documentary films were made. But it is Gielgud’s film, Murder at Broadcasting House, where the dramatic control panel can be seen in use.

2.2. Sound

Since the radio drama started at the time of silent film the dramatists had taken a big load to deal with. The first sound film was released in 1927 whereas the first radio dramatization of the BBC was broadcasted in 1922. The only sound effects in era of silent film was a pianist to accompany the images shown on a screen and the better cinemas paid a man to produce some sound effects, e. g. thunderstorm or a running horse, during the performance, it had the advantages in visual effects. Nevertheless it seems to be the starting point to sound effects in drama production. [Tim99]

With a new medium a new terminology had to be developed. As Alan Beck explains in his work, not all terminology used in TV broadcasting is compatible with radio broadcasts. Beck gives an example with the terms ‘on screen’ and ‘off screen’. In radio jargon it would be ‘on air’ and ‘off air’. But the problem is that the term off air’ is not the same like ‘off screen’. [Ala98] For this reason panel operators (director, managers) use their own terms. Screen is replaced sound picture. Further on the sound event can be either in or out of the sound picture. Sound picture by Beck is what your imagination allows you to visualize. For better explanation we need set an example. I, as a listener, hear opening door, people talking, footsteps and closing door so I visualize a room and people talking, this would be in-sound picture. But then someone knocks at the door and that would be out of sound pictures because the person is behind the shut door which he or she has not opened yet. [Ala98]

Acousmatic sound is a term which was explained by French film sound theorist Michel Chain in his book Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Acoustic sound can be viewed in two ways. The first definition is that the sound is first seen and then heard. An example of this could be an airplane high above, so high that it can be seen but not heard and it is only when the plane descends that motors can be heard. The second definition is that the sound can be heard but it is only latter that the source is revealed. A similar plane example will be sufficient enough. This time listeners hear the plane but it is above the clouds and the clouds are low therefore it is impossible to see the plane but it is near enough to be heard. [Micnd]

Acousmatic sound draws our attention to sound traits normally hidden from us by the simultaneous sight of the causes—hidden because this sight reinforces the perception of certain elements of the sound and obscures others. The acousmatic truly allows sound to reveal itself in all its dimensions. [Mic76]

In radio drama the term ‘acousmatic sound’ is useful for sounds that are heard but not seen by the characters and consequently are not ‘seen’ by the listeners either. A very good example of this is a distant bomb explosion. Complete opposite to acousmatic sound is ‘visualized sound’ which means that it is accompanied by an image. In case of radio drama by it means that an image created by listeners imagination is endorsed by actors. [Micnd]

Sound effects basically help the listener to use his imagination and visualize the settings as close to reality as possible, it widens the frame. It can be stated that BBC dramatists were the real pioneers of sound effects. Not only that there had to introduce innovative ways to create realistic sounds but also there had to acquaint professionals at the same department and interested in the same matter with the techniques used. Thanks to this a whole new field of study was discovered and over the years a great BBC Sound Effects Library. These effects are divided into two categories. The first category includes human sounds (children), water, transport and interior and exterior backgrounds. This would be called the major sound category. Whereas the second category, called Unusual and Hard to Get Sound, includes like St. Paul’s Cathedral, County Cricket Match, Big Ben, Markets in Morocco, Algeria and many more. [npnd34]

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