Welcome to yourIntroduction to Writing Television and Radio Drama reading list! Here you will find the resources to support you throughout your module.
Essential Reading, Listening and Viewing
Writing for Radio by Caulfield, A.Advice and inspiration is offered here for anyone thinking of writing or beginning to write for radio. The book focuses mainly on radio drama techniques, with advice from producers and experienced writers, but also covers documentary writing, radio soaps, radio comedy, and essential advice on how to begin and maintain a career.
So You Want to Write Radio Drama? by Grove, C.; Wyatt, S.A practical guide to writing radio drama and getting it produced, by a leading radio dramatist and a hugely experienced radio drama producer who have both created award-winning dramas for the BBC. For writers, radio drama offers a remarkable degree of creative freedom, a unique relationship with an audience listening at home or on the move, and a wealth of opportunities to earn a living. But writing for radio is also a very particular craft, with its own distinctive conventions, techniques and pitfalls. And you need to know how the industry works to stand the best chance of getting your play commissioned. This book, written from the dual perspective of a writer and a radio drama producer, tells you all you need to know about: What works well on radio, and what doesn't How to hook listeners from the start, and how to keep them listening How to format your script How to research and contact the right producer for your play What to expect after you've received a commission What happens when you're in the recording studio Full of practical advice, tips and invaluable inside information about the industry, it also includes extracts from many outstanding radio dramas and a series of writing exercises to help put ideas into practice. So You Want To Write Radio Drama? is an essential guide for anybody who wants to write a radio play, whether you're a first-time writer or one currently working in a different medium. It will also be of help to those already involved in making radio drama, or who simply want an insight into how it is written and made.
Call Number: 808.222 GRO
ISBN: 9781848422834
Publication Date: 2014
Spoonface Steinberg by Hall, L.An award-winning play which took the nation by storm when first heard on BBC Radio 4, now in a new stage version Lee Hall's extraordinary, award-winning play about faith, love and the meaning of life was first broadcast on Radio Four in 1997 to unprecedented acclaim. A monologue by an exceptional autistic seven-year-old girl called Spoonface Steinberg, who is dying of cancer, touched the hearts of all who heard it. It is a moving, funny and exhilarating piece of drama. The radio version was immediately repeated due to popular demand and a cassette of the play was rushed into shops and has sold over 80,000 copies. This play edition was performed in Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in December 1999 and then in London's West End in January 2000 at the Ambassador's Theatre. The production starred Kathryn Hunter."And what was the meaning of all these things? And the meaning was as if you found the spark - and it was finding the sparks inside you and setting them free" (Spoonface Steinberg)
Call Number: 822.91 HAL
ISBN: 9780413748706
Publication Date: 2000
Minghella Plays: 2 by Minghella, A.A collection of screen and radio plays including: Cigarettes and Chocolate "one of the best radio plays I ever heard...profoundly original" (Financial Times); Hang Up "an intense and brilliantly realised study of a love affair" (Telegraph); What If It's Raining? "a tender, sensitive play while also being the most no-bones-about-it account of adultery I have seen on TV" (Guardian); Truly, Madly, Deeply (which starred Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman) - "This lovely, original comedy...is the work of a mature artist, one with the skill to draw us into a fresh and startlingly humane vision of urban life." (The New York Times)
Writing for Radio by McInerney, V.Writing for radio brings together theoretical and practical aspects of radio writing. It deals with writing for all principal radio genres - short stories, plays, documentaries/drama documentaries, talks and features, adaptations/dramatisations, poems, and advertisements. It contains historical overviews of the genesis and development of each of these categories and attempts an analysis of the nature of radio itself. For the first time there is an attempt to isolate a 'radio language', a syntax and vocabulary guaranteed to produce pictures in the mind of the listener. This means radio can be taught as an academic subject as all writing - prose, drama and verse, can be tested as radio and examples for analysis are used from both broadcast and non-broadcast work.
Writing and Producing Television Drama in Denmark by Redvall, E.N.Offering unique insights into the writing and production of television drama series such as The Killing and Borgen, produced by DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Novrup Redvall explores the creative collaborations in writers' rooms and 'production hotels' through detailed case studies of Denmark's public service production culture.
One of the main resources will be listening to drama broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Students will be expected to listen to four radio plays broadcast during the first six weeks of the semester and discuss their thoughts on these plays.