Gordon House Radio Plays

Having joined the BBC in 1972 as a Studio Manager, and worked in Radio Sport, and Children’s Television, Gordon House became Head of the BBC World Service Drama team in 1985. He held this job for sixteen years, during which time the Unit won over thirty national and international awards - many of them plays directed by Gordon himself. In 1998 he won the Writers’ Guild Special Prize for services for his work with new writers. His 2001 production of “Alpha” by Mike Walker won the Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Drama Production, as did Gregory Whitehead’s “The Loneliest Road” in 2004. He was a founder member, and ex-Chair, of “The Worldplay Group” a radio association of drama directors from broadcasting stations around the world, which initiated a yearly season of international radios dramas broadcast on BBC World Service, ABC, CBC, RTE, Radio New Zealand and Radio Television Hong Kong.

From April 2001 – March 2005 Gordon was Head of BBC Radio Drama – a tenure which culminated in the Department winning its largest ever number of awards in a single year.

Gordon has now retired from the BBC, teaches Radio Drama at ALRA, and is an Executive Director of Goldhawk Essential. He has recently returned from Guyana where he was the drama consultant for a new Aids-based soap Opera, Merundoi. He continues to produce occasional radio plays – most recently Alan Bennett’s “Lady in the Van” (with Alan Bennett and Dame Maggie Smith) and Peter Souter’s “Goldfish Girl” which won a 2009 Sony Award.

Other details:

"For many years I worked as a producer in the Drama Department of the World Service. There wasn't much money around so we couldn't commission more than a handful of plays each year, but what we could do was make radio adaptations of some of the world's great stage plays, and as part of our brief was representing United Kingdom culture to a world audience, that gave me the chance to make radio productions of work by Britain's finest dramatists; from Shakespeare to Sheridan, from David Edgar to David Hare. But the dramatist to whom I was most indebted through twenty great years was Alan Ayckbourn." (.......taken from GH's intro to the BBC7 repeat of "Just Between Ourselves" in 2004.)

Ten Tips for Radio Dramatists

by Gordon House
Executive Producer
BBC World Service Drama

1. Tell a good story. Radio Drama thrives on cracking good narratives. Whether you're writing a tragedy, a comedy, a deeply personal piece of autobiography, or a play to change the world, a strong storyline will keep your audience listening.

2. However, don't make the story too complicated, with too many themes, characters and plotlines.

3. Get under the skin of your characters. Get to know them really well. Each will have his or her own individual speech mannerisms. Don't have them all speaking in your tone of voice.

4. Don't - in the interests of furthering the plot - have characters telling each other information they already know!

5. Use the four building blocks of radio drama: speech, sound effects, music and silence. Decide exactly what 'sound picture' - a mixture of these four elements - the listener needs to hear in each scene. Will a scene be enhanced by having music under it? Will a pause between speeches add to the dramatic effect?

6. But if in doubt, keep it simple - the play stands or falls by the words you have written; not the number of music or sound effects cues.

7. Vary the pace and length of your scenes, as well as their background acoustics and 'location'. A radio play which has six ten-minute scenes, each set in a dining room, is likely to be less effective than a play which varies its scenes and settings.

8. Presentation is important. Script Editors (and play competition judges) are better disposed towards neatly-typed, professionally presented manuscripts. Type all directions and sound effects in capital letters (e.g. HAMLET'S GARDEN. HAMLET IS DIGGING FOR POTATOES. IT IS RAINING.) and dialogue in lower case. Leave a space each time a character speaks.

9. Enjoy writing your play. If you enjoy it, the chances are that other people will, too.

10. Feel free to ignore some of these tips. All the best playwrights break 'rules' from time to time. But have a good reason for breaking them.



Some radio plays produced / directed by Gordon House:


MARMALADE FOR COMRADE PHILBY....2009
Comedy drama by Christopher William Hill, R4 30 Jul 09, afternoon play. A novelist finds that his French translator has reworked his latest spy novel as his autobiography. Will he own up or not? After all, spies generally get the pretty girls. Cast: Patrick Bradyn ...... Bill Nighy, Hannah Olrod ...... Penelope Wilton, Delphine Barbret ...... Rachel Atkins, Ken ...... Geoffrey Whitehead, Lottie ...... Claudia Elmhirst, Barlow ...... Adrian Scarborough. Original music by Lucinda Mason Brown; produced by Gordon House. Production company: Goldhawk Essential for radio 4.

This was a good comedy with an excellent cast. It attracted some interesting comments on the BBC messageboard. I'm editing and reproducing some of them below:

m.f.: .....I suspect the writer knew who was going to play the parts. It just felt right.

l.r.m.:...........Loved it, suppose the resolution was that he goes for the money and fame plus the wishes of the woman who loves him and never mind the consequences or indeed the truth.

...and finally: .........

...... this is director Gordon House. Thanks to all who have fed back comments on "Marmalade".

I thought there were a couple of points raised that were worth further discussion. It was indeed a fabulous cast, and we were very lucky our first choices were all available at the same time. But contrary to m.f.'s suggestion, no writer can ever be sure beforehand who will be cast in a radio play. Actors (and their agents) rarely accept a radio part more than 2 or 3 weeks before a recording, in case a more lucrative film, tv or stage offer should come their way. Radio Drama is some way down the economic pecking order!

That said Christopher (the author) and I always wanted Bill Nighy in the leading role (we had both worked with him before) and were very lucky to catch him between films. He has always been a terrific supporter of Radio Drama.

As for the resolution, l.m.f. is absolutely right - at the beginning of the play Patrick reads the opening para of his novel in the third person - in the final speech he reads it in the first - thereby letting us know that he will take the money/fame/sex option and to hell with the consequences!

Just Between Ourselves....1983
by Alan Ayckbourn, adapted by Richard Wigmore;. with Peter Vaughan, Jennifer Piercy, Nigel Anthony, Frances Jeater and Hilda Kriseman

first broadcast on the World Service in 1983, rpt. Radio 4, 12 Feb 1984 (Afternoon Theatre) & BBC7, 19 June 2004, 12:30 - 14:00, introduced by Gordon House:

..................."I've lost count of the number of Alan Ayckbourn's plays I've produced on radio, but one of the first I ever worked on was "Just Between Ourselves", a play where each scene takes place on the birthday of one of its five central characters. This is a play in which a man literally drives his wife mad. The scene in which this deeply depressed woman begs for help and he, quite incapable of understanding what she is talking about, asks her to draw up a list of household jobs to be done, is one of the bleakest scenes in the history of English Theatre. Just Between Ourselves is a great play, but shorn of the comforting laughter a theatre audience produces, it beggars belief to call it a comedy, particularly on radio."

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