Year Two: Codes and Conventions of
Fictional Radio Programme genres
Fictional Radio Programme genres
Radio Drama Example:
Serial Drama
The Archers - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008wt6
Episode - ?/ ?/ 1958: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rq6jsCo97w
Episode - ?/ ?/ 1958: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rq6jsCo97w
Episode - 29/09/2019: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0008wt6
Crime Series
Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs
Series 5 - 25/08/1964 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00094nh
Crime Series
Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs
Series 5 - 25/08/1964 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00094nh
One-Off Horror
Carey Harrison - A Call From The Dead
Recorded - 20/05/1997 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01nf2h9
Codes and Conventions of
Fictional Radio Programme genres
Radio productions have been a important form of entertainment for around 100 years, although they aren't as dominant as they once were, they are still enjoyed by millions of people across the world. With the invention of the television, it was seemed unnecessary by some for radio dramas to still be produced, as you were getting the full picture, of the actors and the actual props, moving around with a camera following them around, times had changed and technology deemed it unnessisary. However, just like reading a book, many other people liked the idea of imagining the set and what the characters looked like in their heads, so people over decades still tune in and listen, and this is why radio dramas are still ongoing to this very day.
The main reason why they became and still are successful is because they follow certain codes and conventions.
The Main Codes being:
The Archers
The main reason why they became and still are successful is because they follow certain codes and conventions.
The Main Codes being:
- Dialogue and Speech
- Music
- Sound Effects
- Silence
And some nessisary Conventions being:
- Cliff-Hangers
- Intro and Outro Music
- Establishing Location
- Narrative
- Exposition, Conflict, Resolution
The Archers
What makes radio dramas so intriguing though? Is it the polished dialogue? Or the use of depth within the people speaking? There is so many different reasons why radio dramas still hold a decent level of popularity and keep a large number of audience coming back for more every week. One of the most popular is the great British radio soap opera The Archers, which has been ongoing since the 29th May 1950. Listening back to the old episodes, i come to realize that most episodes from back then, and this goes to almost all radio programs, that not a lot has changed in quality since the 50's, these broadcasts could easily be mistaken for a production from decades in the future. That is because The Archers and many other productions over the years all seem to follow a certain few Codes and Conventions of Fictional Radio Dramas, for example, looking at a more recent episodes of the series, The Archers follow the typical usual codes like how a televised soap opera would be filmed using their own codes and conventions. Each episode from the beginning is greeted by the same welcoming theme song and slowly fades into a different scene where people are talking or various sounds are played to give the listener an idea of where the characters are. For example, in the 29/09/2019 Episode, the episode starts with two characters in what seems to be a kitchen, the womans voice is muffled and a bit quiet but as the conversation goes on we discover that she is cleaning a oven, and this is accompanied by multiple sound effects behind the two characters of oven trays rattling and scraping, this really sets the scene and we really can envision the scene, the echoing kitchen, the smell of the oven, it overwhelms us and we dont even realise, this is the effect of around 10-15 seconds of listening to the programme and we already have the scene laid out in our heads without the need for a narrator for example to set the scene before the actors start speaking, this is because the scriptwriters and directors mix the two together so that we know what is going on by only listening to it. And if youve noticed, that is basically all the codes and conventions used within that tiny part of the programme, this adds so much depth and realism to the production that it could easily sound like you were listening to a conversation from the next room, overhearing the actions and the different sounds, we can just set the scene in our imaginations.
Now what i am going to do now is look at a very old episode of The Archers and compare the two to find their similarities and their differences and the rules that they follow. Im now listening to an episode from 1958, i can confirm that the two episodes are almost identical in terms of quality and production, this is why. We are first greeted again with the theme music that slowly fades into the characters talking, our initial thought is that we are listening to some kind of gathering or a party even. The group are in good spirits, full of hysterical laughter and then we start to hear non-diegetic sounds of glasses clinking together and this has immedialy set the tone again within the same amount of time, we believe we are in a house, in either a dining room or somewhere else, in a party, we feel like someone there, we hear the the party in every direction, from every conversation to every drink being drunk. This is why they are so similar in terms of quality, this episode could easily be mistaken for years in the future and vice versa for the later episode. This is because they dont really do anything different. It is alot easier to tell how much a visual production has aged from the technology quality but listening to radio productions like the Archers, it never seems to age and is timeless for many many more years to come
With listening to the two, we can now state that we are listening to a drama set somewhere in England, just like many other television soap operas, this is typically enjoyed by the British audience and by people of all ages, mainly coming from the older generation as most younger audiences dont have time for the radio when everything they could ever want is on handheld devices, more modern forms of entertainment. Although most radio productions are put on the internet for later use, this makes it a whole lot of a difference when it comes to getting in more consumers as they can be accessed by anyone at anytime online. Listening to the two episodes and the two groups speaking, we can tell that this is set somewhere in southern England due to their middle class posh clearly spoken accents, however this doesnt have to mean that this is only listened to by people of this class and personalitys, The Archers is enjoyed by all classes, all races and all ages from around the world.
Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs
Radio Series, Sherlock Holmes with Carleton Hobbs, was a crime production introduced in the 1950's to the 1960's. This chosen episode of the series was episode 2 of Series 5, released in august 1964. Before we get into this, Hobbs was a veteran of Radio Productions with many televised credits also, by the time he was cast in the radio production of Sherlock Holmes, many fans of all ages and class would circle round the radio set ready for every broadcast. Back in the 50's, Sherlock Holmes was seen as one of the main figures in British Fiction culture, due to the limitations in technology, the stories were first brought through books, then other movies and television productions. The one thing about Sherlock Holmes when it comes to how successful the character was with the audience, was how he solved crimes with almost no evidence, becoming one of the first whodunnit?'s to open up a whole new genre of crime from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's absolutely magnificent literature skills.
So to reprise Sherlock Holmes, the producers would need someone who can fit the shoes and attract an even bigger audience, and they chose right in Hobbs.
Right, back to the Radio Drama. This is 5 series deep in to the program, based on actual novels by Doyle. This episode was picked at random but it would not matter as they should all follow the same codes and conventions of a typical radio production. This episode starts with a brief beginning of the episode to set the mood, from what it sounds like Holmes and Watson, getting on a stagecoach as we hear them get on and then ask the driver to take them home, all though this we hear multiple sound effects like horse's hooves clacking away on the ground and bells ringing, this sets the scene that they are outside in the city somewhere. The narrator then explains to us what we are about to listen to, giving us information on which episode we are on and where it is set, this really sets the mood and outs a lot of minds at ease so that we now know where this takes place, sometimes this can be unnecessary as we can almost tell exactly what we are listening to just by the use of sound effects and the dialogue, speaking with southern accents, so it is still easy to determine where the characters have came from, arguably these are the most important in terms conventions. From the dialogue in this episode, we can see that this is quite a gritty crime drama and this focuses on Holmes and Watson trying to find out evidence of their case. After the narrator finishes, we listen to Holmes and Watson speaking in what seems like an office until we hear three knocks at the door followed by the command ' come in!'. Immediately, by such a small little bit of detail, this has gave us such a bigger picture of where the scene is set as the narrator didnt give much of a description. This is then followed by a telegram that was sent by an acquaintance of his, we hear the envelope being ripped open and we feel the tearing of the paper close to us, it soothes the listener as it gives us so much information.
Following the codes and conventions of the typical radio productions, the two genres of drama and crime, comparing The Archers and Sherlock Holmes, you would expect that the two would be quite similar when it comes to the same sound effects and non digetic sounds of foley work. There is still plenty of realistic sound effects that don't sound out of place at all, they sound like we are listening to a tv show with only the sound being played. The dialogue are both fairly similar with plenty of drama for each storyline, and this is why productions like these are the most listened to by the British audience and even people over the world, this recording was produced in the 1960's so the audience wasn't as picky when it came to radio productions, yes the television was popular by those times but many of the older generation stuck with what they were used to, which was a radio set. Still, this radio broadcast is still up on the internet for people to enjoy and still manage to gather a decent audience for an older production such as this. For example, to listen to an older episode of the archers, it can be confusing because we aren't given a narrator and are thrown straight into it, as this is a serial drama, we are constantly updated with new episodes, so to keep up can be a chore, and we aren't to sure who everyone is or even where it is set, we only base it on the accents from the characters and use our geographical skills to figure out where to have an image in our head
Carey Harrison - A Call From The Dead
This one-off Horror story, recorded in 1997 was written by Carey Harrison, many other of his work has been turned into radio productions, but i will focus on this one just now, without any fuss, lets get straight into the story. We are first introduced to the story with a phone call, a ticking clock. The silence around these two immediately gives the impression that this is set at night, and the silence is a common theme in this radio drama as it sets the breaks in-between scenes so that each part of the horror story is separated. The man moans and yawns as he goes to pick up the phone, complaining. Just after a narrator says the title and the authors name to tell the audience just what they are listening to. This story is what you would expect from a 30 minute short horror story, with a fairly decent twist on the end of it, listening through the entirety of it, it is gritty and dark and has plenty of personality in the main person of interest, Stephen Warburton who is supposedly locked in a coffin, he is an old patient of the main character and calls him in the middle of the night hysterically crying, begging for help. This production was perfect for radio and has aged well in over 20 years, listening to it makes us wonder that if it was made recently, that we could be able to spot when it was made, and this is the case with most radio dramas, except for the silly accents, we wouldnt be able to tell when this was made. The codes and conventions have been followed very carefully within the production with multiple sound effects played through, such as graves being dug and flashbacks being able to be noticeable as flashbacks .
The use of codes and conventions have been very accurately done in this production, adding the typical non-digetic that we could expect from something of this degree, we often get a lot of silence to focus on the little amount of sound on the scene and we are dragged in and forced to focus on it against our will, this isn't as easy to listen to to the typical casual dialogue that we would listen to in The Archers for example, the typical horror genre would focus on sound more, to distinguish scenes from each other and focus on the emotions of the characters and they come closer to the conclusion of the story. See in the typical production, we might have a bit of time to be introduced to the characters that we will be following, but short stories such as this will not have as much time to take character development as serious as a mini series or serial dramas, if the producers would want to focus on the characters more, they would turn this into a series so the characters can have more time to grow with each story. But this is only a 30 minute one-off Horror story, so we still don't know a great deal about our characters, only what they have managed to squeeze into the set time.
Now what i am going to do now is look at a very old episode of The Archers and compare the two to find their similarities and their differences and the rules that they follow. Im now listening to an episode from 1958, i can confirm that the two episodes are almost identical in terms of quality and production, this is why. We are first greeted again with the theme music that slowly fades into the characters talking, our initial thought is that we are listening to some kind of gathering or a party even. The group are in good spirits, full of hysterical laughter and then we start to hear non-diegetic sounds of glasses clinking together and this has immedialy set the tone again within the same amount of time, we believe we are in a house, in either a dining room or somewhere else, in a party, we feel like someone there, we hear the the party in every direction, from every conversation to every drink being drunk. This is why they are so similar in terms of quality, this episode could easily be mistaken for years in the future and vice versa for the later episode. This is because they dont really do anything different. It is alot easier to tell how much a visual production has aged from the technology quality but listening to radio productions like the Archers, it never seems to age and is timeless for many many more years to come
With listening to the two, we can now state that we are listening to a drama set somewhere in England, just like many other television soap operas, this is typically enjoyed by the British audience and by people of all ages, mainly coming from the older generation as most younger audiences dont have time for the radio when everything they could ever want is on handheld devices, more modern forms of entertainment. Although most radio productions are put on the internet for later use, this makes it a whole lot of a difference when it comes to getting in more consumers as they can be accessed by anyone at anytime online. Listening to the two episodes and the two groups speaking, we can tell that this is set somewhere in southern England due to their middle class posh clearly spoken accents, however this doesnt have to mean that this is only listened to by people of this class and personalitys, The Archers is enjoyed by all classes, all races and all ages from around the world.
Sherlock Holmes With Carleton Hobbs
Radio Series, Sherlock Holmes with Carleton Hobbs, was a crime production introduced in the 1950's to the 1960's. This chosen episode of the series was episode 2 of Series 5, released in august 1964. Before we get into this, Hobbs was a veteran of Radio Productions with many televised credits also, by the time he was cast in the radio production of Sherlock Holmes, many fans of all ages and class would circle round the radio set ready for every broadcast. Back in the 50's, Sherlock Holmes was seen as one of the main figures in British Fiction culture, due to the limitations in technology, the stories were first brought through books, then other movies and television productions. The one thing about Sherlock Holmes when it comes to how successful the character was with the audience, was how he solved crimes with almost no evidence, becoming one of the first whodunnit?'s to open up a whole new genre of crime from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's absolutely magnificent literature skills.
So to reprise Sherlock Holmes, the producers would need someone who can fit the shoes and attract an even bigger audience, and they chose right in Hobbs.
Right, back to the Radio Drama. This is 5 series deep in to the program, based on actual novels by Doyle. This episode was picked at random but it would not matter as they should all follow the same codes and conventions of a typical radio production. This episode starts with a brief beginning of the episode to set the mood, from what it sounds like Holmes and Watson, getting on a stagecoach as we hear them get on and then ask the driver to take them home, all though this we hear multiple sound effects like horse's hooves clacking away on the ground and bells ringing, this sets the scene that they are outside in the city somewhere. The narrator then explains to us what we are about to listen to, giving us information on which episode we are on and where it is set, this really sets the mood and outs a lot of minds at ease so that we now know where this takes place, sometimes this can be unnecessary as we can almost tell exactly what we are listening to just by the use of sound effects and the dialogue, speaking with southern accents, so it is still easy to determine where the characters have came from, arguably these are the most important in terms conventions. From the dialogue in this episode, we can see that this is quite a gritty crime drama and this focuses on Holmes and Watson trying to find out evidence of their case. After the narrator finishes, we listen to Holmes and Watson speaking in what seems like an office until we hear three knocks at the door followed by the command ' come in!'. Immediately, by such a small little bit of detail, this has gave us such a bigger picture of where the scene is set as the narrator didnt give much of a description. This is then followed by a telegram that was sent by an acquaintance of his, we hear the envelope being ripped open and we feel the tearing of the paper close to us, it soothes the listener as it gives us so much information.
Following the codes and conventions of the typical radio productions, the two genres of drama and crime, comparing The Archers and Sherlock Holmes, you would expect that the two would be quite similar when it comes to the same sound effects and non digetic sounds of foley work. There is still plenty of realistic sound effects that don't sound out of place at all, they sound like we are listening to a tv show with only the sound being played. The dialogue are both fairly similar with plenty of drama for each storyline, and this is why productions like these are the most listened to by the British audience and even people over the world, this recording was produced in the 1960's so the audience wasn't as picky when it came to radio productions, yes the television was popular by those times but many of the older generation stuck with what they were used to, which was a radio set. Still, this radio broadcast is still up on the internet for people to enjoy and still manage to gather a decent audience for an older production such as this. For example, to listen to an older episode of the archers, it can be confusing because we aren't given a narrator and are thrown straight into it, as this is a serial drama, we are constantly updated with new episodes, so to keep up can be a chore, and we aren't to sure who everyone is or even where it is set, we only base it on the accents from the characters and use our geographical skills to figure out where to have an image in our head
Carey Harrison - A Call From The Dead
This one-off Horror story, recorded in 1997 was written by Carey Harrison, many other of his work has been turned into radio productions, but i will focus on this one just now, without any fuss, lets get straight into the story. We are first introduced to the story with a phone call, a ticking clock. The silence around these two immediately gives the impression that this is set at night, and the silence is a common theme in this radio drama as it sets the breaks in-between scenes so that each part of the horror story is separated. The man moans and yawns as he goes to pick up the phone, complaining. Just after a narrator says the title and the authors name to tell the audience just what they are listening to. This story is what you would expect from a 30 minute short horror story, with a fairly decent twist on the end of it, listening through the entirety of it, it is gritty and dark and has plenty of personality in the main person of interest, Stephen Warburton who is supposedly locked in a coffin, he is an old patient of the main character and calls him in the middle of the night hysterically crying, begging for help. This production was perfect for radio and has aged well in over 20 years, listening to it makes us wonder that if it was made recently, that we could be able to spot when it was made, and this is the case with most radio dramas, except for the silly accents, we wouldnt be able to tell when this was made. The codes and conventions have been followed very carefully within the production with multiple sound effects played through, such as graves being dug and flashbacks being able to be noticeable as flashbacks .
The use of codes and conventions have been very accurately done in this production, adding the typical non-digetic that we could expect from something of this degree, we often get a lot of silence to focus on the little amount of sound on the scene and we are dragged in and forced to focus on it against our will, this isn't as easy to listen to to the typical casual dialogue that we would listen to in The Archers for example, the typical horror genre would focus on sound more, to distinguish scenes from each other and focus on the emotions of the characters and they come closer to the conclusion of the story. See in the typical production, we might have a bit of time to be introduced to the characters that we will be following, but short stories such as this will not have as much time to take character development as serious as a mini series or serial dramas, if the producers would want to focus on the characters more, they would turn this into a series so the characters can have more time to grow with each story. But this is only a 30 minute one-off Horror story, so we still don't know a great deal about our characters, only what they have managed to squeeze into the set time.
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