Recording Machines: Radio Plays
Recording technology is relatively new. It isn't very long ago that people who wanted off-air recordings had to use disc cutters and aa large fraction of their wages. You'd only get a few minutes of recording. This was the forties.
Then came wire recorders and early tape recorders......the cassette appeared in the sixties, and improved greatly over the next two decades. Following this came CD, homemade CD, minidisc, DVD and mp3......
There are several plays where recording machines play a central part
in the plot. As a slight digression, I was interested to watch Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" a couple of weeks ago. Good play, but the best bit for me was the scene including a demonstration of a wire recorder - look out for it if you watch the film. There's a free CD going around from one of the newspapers.
Stewart Parker's "Radio Pictures" - a TV play about making a radio play - is also informative if you want to know how radio plays are made.
Here are some radio plays where recording machines are central to the plot:
2003 When Louis met George, by Paul Farley
1996 Potted History, by Andrew Dallmeyer
c1990 Elgar - the last recording, by Douglas Slater
1991 The Machine, by Tony Bagley
1975 Omega Point, by Bruce Stewart
NOTES
When Louis Met George....2003
5 Feb 03, afternoon play. It's 1943. Just before dawn breaks, deep in the basement of Broadcasting House, two of the most famous writers to have worked for the BBC meet for the first time.
During their chance encounter, George Orwell and Louis MacNeice debate the effect of the war on their writing and their work for the Corporation.
So who recorded their conversation? And why have the tapes suddenly turned up in 2003?
"When Louis Met George" is the first radio play by Paul Farley, winner of this year's Whitbread Book Award for Poetry.
POTTED HISTORY....1996
Ruben has invented a machine which can listen to pots. Now he needs someone to steal some from the museum. R4, 55m, 19 Dec 96. There's more about this play on the Science Fiction Plays page.
Elgar - the last recording ....c1990
Final years of Elgar's life. Some interesting scenes where Elgar is in touch with the recording engineers and the orchestra from his hospital bed, if my memory serves correctly.
THE MACHINE....1991
R3, 22 Jul 91. Giles Cooper Award Winner. A hundred and fifty years ago, someone invented a recording machine ... stars James Bolam. Interesting, unusual fictional tale.
OMEGA POINT....1975
See Bruce Stewart's page. A recording has to be deciphered, and everything takes off from there.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
Above plays known to exist in VRPCC collections
