This week I found myself writing for radio, and the difference between television and radio is enormous. I had not really thought about radio for a very long time. In fact, the last time I wrote anything for the medium was many years ago. I have found it such an exciting experience. All too often, there is a tendency to look down on radio performance as somehow archaic. We often form mental pictures of post-war families huddled around massive radios listening to Tony Hancock or The Goon show.
It all seems pointless working in a medium that, on the surface, offers only a part of a genuine entertainment package. In a superficial sense, it could be just the soundtrack, like a TV show minus its picture and only half of the whole.
Radio is, in fact, something very different from television or film and is more akin to theatre. With radio, for example, the listener must concentrate on the events unfolding and use their imagination to interpret the imagery suggested by the sounds and voices heard. It is like the fourth wall in the theatre.
Every member of every audience enters into an unspoken agreement when they take their seats. That agreement states that there is an invisible wall behind which the actors live their lives, oblivious that they are being observed. . radio asks that we act as eavesdroppers, listening to events out of sight. However, we can still become fully engaged. Television and film give us something very different. With these mediums, we do not need full attention; we can be disengaged and still follow on-screen events, as is our whim.
Quality film and TV will hold our attention and make us believe, even carry us along, making use of our emotions and leaving us touched. However, we are often only half the way there and leave the experience still wanting, not entirely satisfied.
Radio, like theatre, calls for our entire engagement. We must focus on the unfolding events and pay close attention or risk being confused by our wandering thoughts. Because of this, we invest so much if we are carried with it, providing it is quality, of course; otherwise, this medium will lose us very quickly.
I have been working on novels and screenplay, and switching to the radio has made me stop and think. The last few days have given me so much appreciation of how powerful and intimate perfect radio can be as a medium. From an actor’s point of view, I can see the sheer intimacy of using the voice to reach the listener and, just with words, paint pictures using the listeners’ imaginations.
I love the thought that with only voices, sound effects and music, we can be transported through time and space and experience anything the writer has created. The cast and crew were brought to broadcast. Writing in this medium has given me food for thought.