Your editorial on radio drama raises the question of whether it still matters (The Guardian view on radio plays: an underrated cultural resource that must be preserved, 19 January).
The answer must be a resounding yes. No other dramatic art form so directly demands that its audience is a creative partner; no other dramatic art form can take the audience anywhere, in any era; no other art form is so suited to our technologically sophisticated, culturally divided world.
In 2014, we ran the UK’s first international audio drama festival, sharing 30 plays from 12 countries, mostly the work of national broadcasters. In 2024, we have had 200 submissions from 26 countries on five continents, the vast majority by independent producers who will have distributed their work online. The 50 or so plays we choose to share with an in-person and online audience at the end of March in Canterbury will be in 23 languages and hugely diverse. With an English-language script to hand, these plays are truly a window into different cultures and a powerful international cultural connector.
Does radio drama matter? Yes, more than ever.
Melanie Nock
International Arts Partnership
• Your editorial is unnecessarily pessimistic about the state of audio drama. As someone who has written for this form for more than 20 years, I’d say we are in a golden age of opportunity for audio dramatists. We just need to think beyond the radio. When I began, the BBC was the only outlet for such work – then came downloads and everything changed. Now writers in this medium have many possible commissioners far beyond the BBC, and keen listeners around the globe. Increasingly audio drama is becoming a cost-effective way to test story ideas in advance of film development. The prospects for writers in this brilliant medium have never been better.
Helen Cross
Author, English Rose podcast drama
• As a writer who has written quite a number of plays, series and adaptations for BBC radio, it has been sad to see how the department has atrophied and the output has withered to half of what it was. It gave me my start as a professional writer. I am one of many.
Perhaps a good way to begin to spread the word about this much revered though little valued sector would be for the Guardian to have regular radio drama reviews, in the same way that it covers TV, films and theatre.
Moya O’Shea
London
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