ABSTRACT
The BBC began transmitting radio plays from 1922. The chapter proves that early pioneers and experimentalists were preoccupied with the same issues, debates and concerns that worry radio and audio drama directors in the present day. Methods and techniques of writing for what was known as ‘the microphone play’ confirmed, identified, and consolidated the unique potential and special characteristics of drama that could only be listened to. This is a foundation chapter using newly researched history of radio playwriting to root and grow the branches of the succeeding themes covered in the book. Subjects covered include the problems with stereotypes, the importance of writing for the ear and not the eye, the work of British playwright David Pownall, and his dramatisation of the how the BBC created its first full-length production of a William Shakespeare play in 1923, BBC advice and guidance past and present, and analysis of how early practitioners applied what they believed to be the best writing and drama production methods for the radio medium.
