Audio gongs

No red carpet was rolled out on Sunday night when the first ever Audio Drama Awards were presented to best actor (David Tennant), best actress (Rosie Cavaliero), best drama (The Year My Mother Went Missing)…in a Hollywood-Lite ceremony at Broadcasting House. No tears were shed as the winners sought desperately to find the right words — not too smug, neither too self-immolating. There were no cheesy jokes from a rancid comedian as compère (David Tennant took on the role formerly reserved for Ricky Gervais). But at last, after 89 years of plays on the BBC, the extraordinary fact that at least once a day it’s possible to have a front-row seat in the most intimate of theatres-in-the-round and be taken out of your life and dumped in another is being grandly celebrated.

It’s impossible to keep up with the BBC’s output of new plays. Many excellent productions go unheard (11 this week, and that’s not counting the comedy series, the book adaptations, The Archers, the repeats on Radio 4 Extra). The writer gets paid (not much) and is lucky if anyone notices their work. The cast gets paid (not much, but enough to keep them going while ‘resting’ from active service). The production team might get a pat on the back from their BBC bosses, but who knows their names? Worst of all, many plays never get a second broadcast, so that all that effort disappears, after just 45 minutes of air time. The huge creative resources built up by the BBC have often been squandered — only last year the World Service lost its drama department. Why could it not have been saved and its expertise shared out among the other stations? Wouldn’t it be great to hear some young voices writing plays for output on Radio 1?

Until now there were few rewards for the writers, and little recognition beyond a 6pt credit in Radio Times, except for the Tinniswood Award and Imison Award, both of which have been going for more than a decade and which were also announced last night and presented by the playwright David Edgar.