Speechification

In quiet corners of the BBC remarkable things happen. Here’s an example from Radio 3. It’s a play, written by Stephen Phelps (a veteran of investigative TV) about the Piper Alpha disaster that tells the story of the critical ninety minutes from the first failure to the final explosion, in real time, twenty years after the disaster—to the second. As an experiment I think it’s a total success. Tense, moving and terrifying: high octane stuff, structured like a movie. It’s genuinely spine-tingling and left me thinking about it for a long time after it had finished (MP3).

And thanks to the people who offered copies of the programme from their archives in response to my appeal.

Two New York gems. A really lovely afternoon play (you don’t hear that very often round her do you?) called Imagining Them from Judith Kampfner and a glorious RadioLab. Kampfner is an unusual creature: transatlantic radio talent. She makes programmes for the BBC and for Public Radio via an independent production company grandly called The Corporation for Independent Media.

The play, which is in three parts—written and performed by Wendy Spero, Meg Wolitzer and David Cale—is so New York it hurts. It really stood out from the schedule this afternoon (it originally went out in February last year). The short RadioLab is an aural treat recorded by Ben Rubin on the open outcry trading floor at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Now, pay attention: here’s an MP3 of Imagining Them and here’s one for the RadioLab show. Only Imagining Them will show up in the podcast and the RadioLab might go away at some point because I’ve linked to the MP3 at the WNYC web site. You could get an MP3 of your own by subscribing to RadioLab’s podcast, which I would recommend. And while you’re at it you could make a donation to WNYC funds here. And while I’m going on and on: the credits below are for Imagining Them.

Rather enjoyable, this late-night audio dérive across Hong Kong. Reminds me a little of the collaboration between Jeff Noon and David Toop a while back, in its combination of found sounds and narrative, yet also includes oblique fragments of interview. So it hovers somewhere between a documentary and an impressionistic collage. Also, apparently part of some wider narrative piece, involving videos to be remixed. Intriguing.

The Night Air: The Hong Kong Agent [mp3]

Journey Into Space was the original BBC sci-fi series, a hit on the radio in the fifties, running eventually to over 60 shows. It’s also been a late night stalwart for BBC 7, always there for the lonely insomniac, making for dreams populated by theremin and booster rockets. The Saturday play last week was a specially written new episode, taking the story 30 years forward, into 2013. David Jacobs is splendid as Jet Morgan, he somehow has exactly the right voice for someone who’s been entirely alone in a spaceship for thirty years and is perfectly fine with it. MP3 here.

Anthony Powell’s Dance To The Music Of Time seemed to be being dramatised on Radio 4 for most of the 70s and 80s. Only interrupted by Fame Is The Spur. And, now it’s back again, 6 hour long episodes broadcast on Sunday afternoon and repeated on Saturday evening. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, on the surface it’s another tale of posh people having tragic and lethargic lives as publishers, writers, successes and failures, with occasional sex and soldiering. But it’s slyer than that, it roams over the twentieth century with jokes, telling phrases, and characters who you end up really liking. You want to know what happens next. Basically, it’s a superior soap opera. But very superior. You can hear programme one here.

My wife put me on to this one. She’s one of those people who likes to have the World Service on all night. Consequently we dream about Congolese politics and tense UN general assembly sessions… Anyway, it’s a play (you don’t get many plays round here do you?) and it’s a good one. Part of the World Service’s World Drama series.

It’s quite cinematic: the passage of a hundred years, an ironic voiceover, a clever narrative structure and a genuinely engaging story, knitting together the adoption of Morse code in 1906 and a turbulent family history up to the present day (which I kind of think must be based in fact: haven’t done my research on that yet). Don’t ask me why it’s presented by Robin Lustig. (MP3, Real).

Pic by thparkth.