In search of recs for audio/podcast drama

April 20, 2023 8:37 AM

I've written a short story which I would like to adapt into an audio drama script. But I've never written an audio drama script, so I'm interested in listening to examples of good audio/podcast drama so I can start learning what works. What are your audio drama recommendations? As a bonus question, I'd also like to hear about any 'how to write an audio drama script' resources you may know about, whether that's a book or a website or a podcast.

I live in the UK, and obviously BBC Radio 4 produces a lot of scripted audio drama - almost too much to know where to start, really. That's why I'd like to hear specific recommendations for scripted audio plays that have stood out to you. Anything on Spotify or streamable via BBC iPlayer is easy for me to access.

(I'm more interested in actual audio plays, ie dramas with multiple characters talking to each other in different settings, than I am in fictional works which mainly take the form of a single speaker narrating a story to the listener through, for example, the conceit that you're listening to them record diary entries.)

posted by damsel with a dulcimer to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: No podcast recommendations but I have a how-to article for you!
posted by babelfish at 8:50 AM on April 20, 2023

Best answer: Cabin Pressure is by far my favorite scripted radio play series! You can find most of them on Spotify. John Finnemore also posted extensively about writing them on his blog (here’s a link to one category with a lot of these posts, he also did a series of posts called “Farewell Bear Facts” that don’t seem to be centrally linkable). You might start with the episode “Douz”.

The Bert Coules adaptations of Sherlock Holmes are also huge standouts and he wrote a book about writing them (which I haven’t read) called 221 BBC. But I think only the original sequel series (“The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”) is available on legal streaming right now as opposed to Soundcloud, etc.
posted by peppercorn at 9:15 AM on April 20, 2023

Best answer: This may sound silly, but I particularly enjoyed the Tintin radio dramatisations ("The Adventures of Tintin"), if they're still up on BBC Sounds. (They were on fairly recently, but unfortunately it may have been more than a month ago.) I usually struggle to tell characters apart by voice alone, and Tintin's characters are all very distinctive: different accents, different attitudes, different ages, different manners of speech. Whoever adapted them also did a very good job of translating visual jokes and action scenes to audio.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:24 AM on April 20, 2023

A couple of BBC ones that stood out for me:
Lovecraft Investigations which launches from different Lovecraft stories but is in no way a reading of them. The sound effects were really well done, voices distinct and mostly non-mumbly (though ok, sometimes the sound effects did interfere a bit).

The Dark is Rising, an adaptation of the classic Susan Cooper book. Again, great job with distinct voices (even of several young male voices, Will being a seventh son) and good sound effects and music. The actor voicing Will did tend to get a bit one-note shouty in tense scenes but that may just have been me. Also it's good to have examples of what doesn't work!
posted by Athanassiel at 2:46 PM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Could you tell us if your script is comedic or dramatic/serious in tone? My recommendations would differ!
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 3:05 PM on April 20, 2023

Response by poster: Fire, water, Earth, air - It’s a science fiction drama.
posted by damsel with a dulcimer at 11:01 PM on April 20, 2023

Oh, yes, I also thought The Dark is Rising was outstanding. Conveyed the atmosphere very effectively.

(Watch out for the earworm though. Very catchy theme tune.)
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:34 AM on April 21, 2023