Audio Fiction (radio plays, fiction podcasts)

I've been wanting to listen to Orson Welles' stuff... Heck, I've even thought of doing my own - since you can do all the voices yourself, instead of depending on others who won't show up for a video shoot (or a radio show!)

Logan wrote: While I have discovered many more that I enjoyed since I last posted, a few BBC ones have caught my interest. I haven't read the book, but I enjoyed Robert Harris - Fatherland https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jmrk I alos enjoyed the first episode of Series 3 of Tracks very much (Chimera): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xr8 and I enjoyed the clone drama of Jenny Stephens's Jefferson 37 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jwfl, though nowhere near as much as Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let me Go, which is one of my very favourite modern novels, and I enjoyed the film version. BBC also made an audio drama of Never Let Me Go for its Dangerous Visions series, of which I have enjoyed quite a few (think Produce may have been the last I saw), but I haven't had the chance to listen to it. Generally when they put up or re put up a programme, it's only available for 30 days. Have also listned to the Last Movie by the creators of Rabbits, The Black Tapes and Tanis (Rabbits was my fave of those three). Going through the Orbiting Human Circus now.

 

I wasn't a big fan of audio fiction such as radio plays, dramas and comedies and fiction podcasts until fairly recently (though I was already listening to plenty of non-fiction podcasts). I was suffering from some eye issues, and so was finding it hard to read, and then started exploring many audio fictions. I'm still not keen on listening to narrated novels, but other audio fictions I really enjoy. I don't know anything about your tastes other than you don't like politics, Samui, so I won't try to recommend anything to you at this time.

I like sci-fi, so I was drawn to many of those.

Some of my favourite sci-fi dramas have been:

Within the Wires
Limetown
The Bright Sessions
The Message

And a ton of BBC ones, I check https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/categories every day. I have loved various Dangerous Visions ones, plus various others, and I have enjoyed a great many comedies that I discovered through there. That's my daily go-to site, and not just for fiction.

Loved the semi-improvised British Capital which is a Brexit style satire that I would recommend to fans of The Thick of It (politics can be fun) -- guess it was after hearing that that I really started to spend more time on audio fiction. https://podtail.com/en/podcast/capital/


Not really on-topic, but one audio series that I found very interesting is Caliphate (I binged it as I found it quite riveting): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/podcasts/caliphate-isis-rukmini-callimachi.html

I devote more time to listening to audio productions (both non-fiction and fiction) than I do with TV, books, music and other forms of entertainment these days. I like that I can get other things done while listening, and it gives my eyes a rest from my work which is done on the laptop.

I tend to listen to audio books rather than read whenever possible.  I am using my eyes 8+ hours a day at work not to mention afterwards for personal stuff and PA, so I relish the opportunity to close my eyes and listen.  Plus a good narrator can really make a book.  Some are the best are those narrated by the author

Haven't bought too many audio tapes (even on CD) for quite a while. That's probably a consequence of our YouTube and digital download world we now live in (elderly sigh....) I remember buying some great double cassette audio books - many of them BBC release. The Day of the Triffids, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Three Men in Boat, lots of BBC comedy sets - Fawlty Towers, Likely Lads, I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, On the Town with the League of Gentleman (very good, Logan), Harry Enfield, Agatha Christie Mysteries, Morse episodes - adapted for audio, The Goon Show, Hancock etc...etc....

However, when I worked over in the USA for a few months, I picked up an unabridged cassette set version of Stephen King's The Library Policeman from a Barnes and Noble store in Mobile, Alabama - and that was special! I worked with a young female engineer whose parents would send a 'best of' Radio 4's output cassette from the UK in the early 90s to keep her up to date with Blighty. It tells you how the internet has changed our lives these days, when the BBC is available worldwide at any time.



Edited by Squonk19 - August 21 2018 at 16:38

Logan wrote: I do recommend this non- Orson Welles radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds that I mentioned in my OP: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hdllz/episodes/player

^ Thanks, very much my cup of tea.

I listened to the Kraken Wakes on the BBC iPlayer Radio a while back, that was great. I remember seeing 'News from Nowhere' come up, but I missed it at the time. I love the BBC sci-fi dramas. A Comedy sci-fi that I forgot to mention that I really enjoyed was The Quanderhorn Xperimentations.

I don't know, at the least in North America, it surely must be the most famous radio drama broadcast. Not only is it the most talked about, written about, and, but I am sure it must have been very influential largely because of the reaction that so many of the audience had to it. It caused a panic with quite a number of people, although in something I listened to some time back about it, it as claimed that the panic was not as great as it is often remembered. Apparently, more people claimed to listen to that broadcast than were possible or at all likely (but that's often the case with famous events). Anyway, it was quite the radio event and cause quite the stir and many complaints (lots of people missed the opening, tuned in late, where it was made clear that it was a dramatisation and performance and obviously hadn't read the H.G. Wells novel).



I do recommend this non- Orson Welles radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds that I mentioned in my OP: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hdllz/episodes/player


Radio drama was already very popular when Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air came on in 1938, and when they did the Halloween broadcast, War of the Worlds. Audio Fiction goes back to the late 1800s and became very popular in the 30s and stayed popular into the 60s. The Shadow first made an appearance con the radio in 1930 in The Detective Story Hour In 1938 Orson Welles was the voice of the Shadow. It was the War of the Worlds that really made Orson Welles name, and after that he was too big a name for The Shadow to afford. I suspect that "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" might be the most famous line from radio fiction.

In the UK, there were many influential radio plays in the 30s, and there were many popular US ones before the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938, but that War of the Worlds has had a lasting impact on pop culture and I'm sure continues to inspire many radio dramas to this day such as two that I mentioned before, Limetown and Within the Wires (plus a host of similar ones that I have heard such as The Black Books, The Bright Sessions, and the rather Black Mirrorish The Big Loop).

Edited by Logan - August 17 2018 at 07:17

Edited by Atavachron - August 16 2018 at 13:21