Anatomy of a gamechanger : BBC Radio 4’s Life and Fate

McMurtry, LG

Abstract

Before the broadcast of a series of radio plays on BBC’s Radio 4 in September 2011, few people in the UK would have heard of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. The ubiquity of the Radio 4 adaptations in 2011 meant that not only did many more people know the book by name at
least, but perhaps they were among the millions who downloaded the plays from iTunes. There were many elements to Life and Fate as a production that were unique, including its structure, the role of star casting within its production, its approach to adaptation, and its approach to genre-within-marketing. This paper explores the progression within BBC Radio 4’s drama department in the context of Life and Fate. As BBC radio drama evolves to respond to its audience(s), what kind of audience did it seek to reach with Life and Fate and how successful was it in doing so?

Citation

McMurtry, L. (2012). Anatomy of a gamechanger : BBC Radio 4’s Life and Fate. Rádio-Leituras, 3(2), 67-95

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 13, 2017
• Journal: Radio-Leituras
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 67-95
• Publisher URL: https://radioleituras.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/sumario-4/
• Related Public URLs: http://www.periodicos.ufop.br/pp/index.php/radio-leituras/index