# Any recommendations for good radio dramas?



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Cast your mind back to 1983. National Public Radio released a dramatization of "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and my local NPR station broadcast all five hours of it. It was an awesome production, with three original cast members (Mark Hammill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams) and sound-alikes for Han and Leia. John Williams' original music was used. Sound effects were by Ben Burtt, who did the sound effects for the movie. The whole production was VERY professional and VERY immersive. It was fully authorized by George Lucas, who sold the rights to the School of Performing Arts at the University of Southern California for one dollar. It was not EXACTLY the same as the movie as it used the extra time to delve into the backstories and off-screen side stories of some characters.

I taped the broadcast on my cassette deck, and over the years, have listened to those tapes a few more times. In 2003 I dubbed them to CD-R, in an MP3 format so the whole show fit on a single disc. I don't often have five hours to kill, but when I do I'm never disappointed. Always hear something new.

Last weekend I was listening to it again, and got to wondering: what other Star Wars productions had been done?

Turns out the first movie, 1977's "A New Hope," was done with the same cast in 1981, and 1983's "Return of the Jedi" was finally completed (after many tribulations) in 1996 at half the length (3 hours 15 minutes) and Anthony Daniels as the only original cast member. All three productions were released as a boxed set of 15 CDs.

After being wowed all over again by TESB, and newly by ANH and ROTJ, I began to wonder if there were any other similarly-immersive radio dramas out there. I poked around inthe BBC archives -- seem to be mostly table reads, very somnambulant -- and "Hitchhiker's Guide" (which was too juvenile). I revisited Orson Welles and Amos & Andy and The Bickersons and Buck Rogers & cetera but these old radio series are a little too dated and not enough like a real movie for your ears. Star Wars spoiled me.

So... any suggestions?


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Have you looked at Audible? Not free of course. Groups with which I’m involved have uploaded several performances to them. If you’re a baseball fan, I can strongly recommend_ Pafko at the Wall_, which became the tour de force, opening chapter of Don De Lillo’s _Underworld_. It’s performed by Tony Shalhoub, Zachary Levi, and Bilily Crudup. Audible has play readings as well. They actually own an off-Broadway theater.

And if you’re a Pink Floyd fan, you might want to check this out. It’s by Tom Stoppard, who has a number of radio plays to his credit. Pinter too if you’re a fan.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Prime Minister's Question Time. 😉


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

jegreenwood said:


> And if you’re a Pink Floyd fan, you might want to check this out. It’s by Tom Stoppard, who has a number of radio plays to his credit.


Hmmm, not quite sure how the Floyd fits in here -- it feels superfluous -- and I wonder if it was properly licensed? Anyway thanks for the recommendation; I'll look into other Stoppards.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

It is of course a radio comedy rather than "drama", but I absolutely love the BBC production of the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The radio serial predated the book of the same title. I was a teenager when I first listened to it in the late 1970s on the BBC World Service. I have been in love with it ever since.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

NoCoPilot said:


> Hmmm, not quite sure how the Floyd fits in here -- it feels superfluous -- and I wonder if it was properly licensed? Anyway thanks for the recommendation; I'll look into other Stoppards.


It was broadcast by the BBC and is available on Spotify, so I’m pretty certain it was properly licensed.

By the way, Syd Barrett is a character in Stoppard’s play, _Rock ‘n’ Roll._


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

The Goon Show



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show#The_Beatles


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## Great Uncle Frederick (Mar 17, 2021)

Anything by Alan Bennett.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Great Uncle Frederick said:


> Anything by Alan Bennett.


Including _Beyond the Fringe._ Some of it is dated, but a lot of it is timeless. A bit of it shows up in _The Crown._

On a similar note - _At the Drop of a Hat._

The Brits do much better with radio drama and radio adaptations than the Yanks.


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## Great Uncle Frederick (Mar 17, 2021)

Recently repeated on BBC Radio 4 and on iPlayer for 16 more days: 'Cocktail Sticks'.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

jegreenwood said:


> On a similar note - _At the Drop of a Hat._


Yes, I have all of Flanders & Swann's "radio farragos" in a boxed set, and they're wonderful, but they're not the immersive radio movies-for-your-ears I was inquiring about.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Great Uncle Frederick said:


> Anything by Alan Bennett.


Such as? BBC iPlayer doesn't seem to work here in the colonies, and YouTube has only some Alan Bennett diaries (yawn) and "An Englishman Abroad," which is just another table read. No production values whatsoever.

So, recommend me something specific I can look for?


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

NoCoPilot said:


> Such as? BBC iPlayer doesn't seem to work here in the colonies, and YouTube has only some Alan Bennett diaries (yawn) and "An Englishman Abroad," which is just another table read. No production values whatsoever.
> 
> So, recommend me something specific I can look for?


Did you listen to _Darkside_?






The Goon Show drove the BBC effects department crazy with its demands.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Great Uncle Frederick said:


> : 'Cocktail Sticks'.


Found a copy here: Drama - Cocktail Sticks - BBC Sounds

It's not really a "full production" -- more a table read with occasional music and the clinking of some glassware. The weaving back and forth between reality (present day) and fantasy (conversing with his deceased dad) is entertaining, but the microscopic focus on family dynamics is a bit myopic for my tastes. And the accents are occasionally indecipherable.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

And how could I have forgotten this:


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Ah yes, Firesign. The one and only. Regnad Kcin.

There are some full-done BBC radio dramas out on YT, though I'm not sure the subject matter will be all that interesting to me. I'll be investigating.


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