BBC Trust radio review

09 February 2011
Posted in Radio

Writers' Guild disappointed by 'complacent' attitude to drama

The BBC Trust service review of Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7 has concluded that the challenge for all three stations is gradually to extend their ‘core appeal of audiences without jeopardising their distinctiveness.’

There is relatively little criticism of the stations in the report and, while the Writers’ Guild’s submission to the review process is cited a number of times, little or no account seems to have been taken of the objections raised.

On last year’s decision to axe the Friday Play, for example, while objections from the Guild, the Voice of the Listener and Viewer and RadioCentre (the trade body for commercial radio) are noted, the report concludes that ‘the members of the creative community that we spoke to felt that the loss of the Friday Play would not unduly affect Radio 4’s ability to deliver a range of high-quality and distinctive drama.’

Speaking after publication of the service review, Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett said that the approach to Radio 4 drama in particular was ‘remarkably complacent, with serious concerns simply brushed aside. While more thought seems to have been given to comedy, no particular conclusions are reached.’

Corbett continued: ‘The vandalism of axing the Friday Play, and the inexorable year-on-year drop in the number of hours of radio drama produced, are both glossed over in a few lines. The Guild will continue to campaign for these dismal trends to be reversed.’

Drama on Radio 3 is defended in the review. In its submission the Guild pointed out that the kind of cutting-edge drama often found on the Radio 3 is increasingly rare on Radio 4, and though the review does not explicitly accept this it does say that the Trust expects ‘Radio 4 to maintain a wide variety in terms of subject matter, formats and the tone of its drama.’

On comedy the review asserts the importance of finding new talent. ‘We believe that having a healthy mixture of established and new comedy in both the early and late evening slots is important to the overall Radio 4 offering. We encourage Radio 4 to continue to take risks and generate fresh and new ideas with its comedy programming and accept that some of the new comedies may not always succeed.’

Radio 7 receives a great deal of praise in the review. ‘Evidence from our audience research, public consultation and Audience Councils reveals that listeners have a great affection for Radio 7. In our public consultation, the majority of respondents thought that the speech programming on Radio 7 was of very high quality, with comedy and drama praised most often... although there was some concern about the level of repeats.’

The review accepts that the amount of original drama and comedy Radio 7 is required to generate is too small to be properly assessed, but argues that even on this scale it provides important opportunities for new talent. 

The review confirms that Radio 7 will be rebranded as Radio 4 Extra to help build audience awareness of the station. Given that the rates paid for work on Radio 7 are so much lower than for Radio 4 the Guild has expressed concern about cross-promotions and will continue to work to improve the rates paid. 

Another big change put forward by the review is in output for children. A review of services for children in 2009 found that awareness and reach of radio content for children was very low. A new three-part strategy is outlined in the trust review:

1. Family-friendly content for older children will be on Radio 4 Extra.

2. CBeebies pre-school audio will be available for download from the CBeebies website.

3. The BBC will explore opportunities to make children’s radio archive available to commercial third parties to breathe new life into content that may not otherwise get airings.

Commenting on the strategy, the Guild’s Executive Council representative for children’s writing Jayne Kirkham, who has lobbied extensively on children’s media, said that the move to making programming available online was to be welcomed. ‘The issue,’ she continued, ‘is not where content will be found, but how much the BBC will actually commission’. 

Perhaps the review’s most significant announcement for the long-term is the Trust’s approval of the creation of what are termed ‘permanent collections’ for Radio 3 and Radio 4. These will be online archives focussing on ‘knowledge, culture and arts’. While drama and comedy programming have not yet been included, the Guild expects that they soon will be added.

‘It looks odd on the face of it that the first significant announcement regarding the BBC’s plans for an online archive do not mention drama or comedy – likely to be the most popular categories,’ commented Bernie Corbett. 

‘We know members of the Writers’ Guild can’t wait for their past achievements to become available permanently and after lengthy negotiations we have just agreed a ground-breaking new system that will enable the BBC to open up its archives either free as a public service or behind a paywall to generate much-needed revenue to finance new projects. 

‘Once the loose ends have been tied up, and agreements are in place with all groups of rights-holders, we expect scripted drama and comedy to be the mainstay of a world-beating digital archive.’