A winning night
How the BBC Audio Drama Awards brought out the best
The backdrop to last night’s BBC Audio Drama Awards was troubled. The axing of the historic Drama on 3 slot on a Sunday evening on Radio 3 had led to protests, petitions, articles in the press, the Controller of the network under fire.
I’ve been a judge for the awards for a few years now and the ceremony has always been a tremendously positive occasion. But as I strolled towards Broadcasting House I did wonder whether the mood inside would quite match the dazzling sunshine and blue skies of the first day of British Summer Time.
It was clear from early conversations at the reception that the cuts issue was on people’s minds. A number of attendees were sporting badges bearing the slogan SAVE RADIO DRAMA! Everyone was there to have a good time, of course, but when Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, stepped up to the podium to make her welcome speech, there was possibly a keener sense than usual of, well, what’s she going to say? Will she address the elephant in the room?
Answer: Yes she did, with the announcement of a new monthly 90-minute drama slot on Radio 4 that “will focus on new dramas and original adaptations of classic stage plays”. Radio 4 has always been home to 45-minute and hour-long dramas but the continuation of 90-minute dramas — ie the length of the soon-to-be-gone Drama on 3 — was, though not without provisos, extremely welcome news, and it meant, I think, that people would enjoy the actual awards perhaps more than they otherwise would have done.
Whether any category winner was planning to take the opportunity to raise the cuts issue in their victory speech, I’ve no idea. But if so, Ms Moore would have headed them off at the pass, and the only really direct reference to it was made by one of the awards presenters, Paterson Joseph, who oversaw the Imison and Tinniswood Awards. And as it turned out, those awards produced two of the most joyous moments of the evening.
The winner of the Imison Award was Isley Lynn for her play Tether. Like the Tinniswood, the prize is worth £3,000 (they were the only two financially remunerated awards of the evening), and at the end of her acceptance speech, Isley announced — to general astonishment and wild applause — that she wanted to share her prize money with all the other writers on the shortlist. Would they please let her have their bank details? Wow. Hats off.
There was certainly a theme of financial constraint running through the evening — as in the budgets available to make audio drama, and as in the rewards on offer to writers. The topic provided awards host Miles Jupp — who did a brilliantly warm and funny job, I thought — with any number of gags, mostly against himself.
The Tinniswood award winner was Edson Burton for his play Man Friday. He told a lovely story of growing up in Jamaica with him and his father listening on the radio to episodes of Steptoe and Son, a relationship that bore similarities to that between Burton senior and junior.
I liked that Burton paid such heartfelt tribute to his producer, Mary Ward-Lowery, which was also the case with other winners, and lovely to witness. There was Al Smith — writer of the gripping ambulance call centre drama Life Lines — speaking warmly of producer Sally Avens as she stood alongside him, likewise Gary McNair, whose re-working of Robert Burns’s Tam O’Shanter was one of the most enjoyable things I heard on Radio 4 last year. Evidently from what Gary said, the success of the drama owed much to the work of his producer, Kirsty Williams, who was also up on stage.
Burns, Gary confessed, wasn’t one of his favourite poets. He said he actually preferred — in all seriousness — the classically derided William McGonagall, which drew surprised laughter.
The category I co-judged was Best Actor, the prize going to Sean Bean for his performance as Creon in Pauline Harris’s tremendous adaptation of Antigone (also directed by her). Jonathan Keeble, who played the Prologue-Chorus in the production, collected the award on Bean’s behalf and was very funny about how he (Keeble) had appeared in “about 900 radio dramas” and never won anything, and here was his friend Sean winning the big prize at only his second attempt.
Other personal highlights: Ashley Storrie collecting the best stand-up award on behalf of her late mother for Janey Godley: the C Bomb; genius of sound Eloise Whitmore winning for Best Use of Sound for Restless Dreams; and the Outstanding Contribution award that went to the CIA drama Central Intelligence, which I reckon was the best drama I heard on Radio 4 last year. Leading cast member Kim Cattrall went up on stage and sprinkled some stardust on the evening but left the speaking honours — quite rightly — to the director and all-round radio titan John Scott Dryden.
I’ve left the most moving moment of the evening to last. That was when Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens of Dead Ringers fame presented their tribute to Bill Dare — one of the greats of radio comedy production, who tragically died in a road accident a few weeks ago — “a shock we are still recovering from”, Jon said. Dead Ringers was just one of a string of outstanding credits to Bill’s name over many decades, but talking to Jan Ravens afterwards it felt like perhaps his greatest legacy was the opportunities Bill always gave to up and coming writers.
Those writers might go on to huge careers — maybe on TV, which is always thought of as something you “graduate to” from radio. But you know what was the best thing I heard last night? It was Ashley Storrie quoting her mother. “For her radio was never a stepping stone. It was always a destination.” Spot on, Ashley.