The Influence of Features

Abstract

Radio’s influence upon dramatic writing in Britain since 1945 has been considerable but it should not be thought that this was always the consequence of conscious intention on the part of the writers or of deliberate policy on the part of the BBC. During the period from 1945 until 1953, when television at last superseded radio as the mass entertainer, most of the important inventive work was written for features rather than drama. Peter Black remarks that in 1946 only three plays were written for radio and that there was only one play in 1947 and two in 1948.¹ Radio drama thrived at this time as a national repertory theatre supplying its audiences with a repertory of stage plays for which there was tremendous public demand. The only dramatic innovations at this time were contributed by writers of serials like The Robinson Family, Mrs Dale’s Diary, The Archers and Dick Barton. The serial had been an American and Australian innovation and The Robinson Family had been introduced during the war by Alan Melville as a propaganda vehicle on the BBC’s Overseas Service. Mrs Dale’s Diary, which was the inspiration of Jonquil Anthony and Ted Willis, had the objective of mirroring the provincial life of the middle class while Godfrey Baseley’s The Archers was to give townsmen a whiff of life on the farm.