ABSTRACT
Dialogue is the mainstay of sound story narrative and drama. It is the conduit for conflict, characterisation, and plot development. This chapter debates whether the imperative of a sound story is better achieved by dialogic imaginative exposition or the interception and interplay of first singular narrative. The chapter references Timothy West’s training script This Gun That I Have in My Right Hand is Loaded as an example of how not to write audio drama dialogue, distinguishing successful dialogue based on situation and character in the Dad’s Army British sitcom of the 1970s, model dialogue in Anthony Minghella’s Cigarettes and Chocolate, verse drama dialogue in Norman Corwin’s The Undecided Molecule, Giles Cooper’s Without The Grail, and Morten Wishengrad’s The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto.
