What drama

One sphere that podcasts have so far not much penetrated is drama. Audible.co.uk is itching to develop its own brand but so far has limited itself to producing audiobooks read by a galaxy of stars. Recording plays is expensive, requires an understanding of studio techniques and a cast of actors who have learnt how to play to the microphone, not an auditorium. Only the BBC has as yet the necessary experience and resources, with its own repertory company and team of spot-effects experts and sound designers. We can only hope that stunts like The Biggest Weekend — the BBC’s attempt to put on a Glastonbury experience for the masses, with Radio 3 on bank holiday night turned over to tunes from Strictly Come Dancing and Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi — won’t deprive drama of its necessary funding.

This week on Radio 4 it was possible to hear Ian McKellen, Joanna Lumley and Alfred Molina at full throttle in a specially commissioned drama series by Michael Frayn. Not to mention five short stories from William Trevor, the Irish writer who measures out meaning with the lightest touch, read by Niamh Cusack, Hattie Morahan and Dermot Crowley. Also worth catching up with on iPlayer was a cleverly realised translation of a Charles Dickens novel to the current Syrian conflict. A Tale of Two Cities: Aleppo and London (directed by Polly Thomas) has been dramatised in three parts by Ayeesha Menon, who first adapted for Radio 4 the novel on which Slumdog Millionaire is based and also created The Mumbai Chuzzlewits. Now she has translated lines from Dickens — ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ and ‘revenge and retribution take a long time. It’s just the way it is’ — and applied them to the situation in Syria over the past seven years since the violence began with students daubing graffiti on the walls of the university in Daraa.