The Spy (BBC Radio 4, 2012): Creating Historical Ambiance through Music in British Radio Drama

McMurtry, Leslie

Abstract

Immersion into a storyworld is important for audiences, and one way to create a sense of immersion is through the use of music. Media depictions of historical periods make powerful impressions upon audiences, and historians often contest the way history is represented in media like television and radio. Nevertheless, this chapter argues that historical ambiance created through evocative music, rather than one hundred percent period-accurate music, both fits within the production paradigm of current BBC radio practice and economically and effectively helps immerse listeners in an ‘authentic’ historical storyworld. The Spy, a BBC Classic Serial from 2012 based on the 1821 novel by James Fenimore Cooper, is the case study used to illustrate this claim.

• Publication Date: Nov 21, 2023
• Deposit Date: Mar 5, 2025
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Pages: 293-309
• Series Title: Word and Music Studies
• Series Number: 21
• Series ISSN: 1566-0958
• Book Title: Word, Sound and Music in Radio Drama
• Chapter Number: 12
• ISBN: 978-90-04-54959-3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004549609_014