Podcast #8 – 26/01/14

Podcast #8 – 26/01/14

008. It's Great to Be a Radio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #8 (4.06)

26/01/14 Wildsong (BBC)

Podcast #7 – 11/12/13

007. It's Great to Bea Radio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #7 (13.32)

11/12/13 Kindness (BBC) 0.58-3.15, Baba Yaga Saga (Gypsy Audio) 3.16-7.40, Julius and the Bront (BBC North) 7.41-13.00

Podcast #6 - 02/12/13

006. It's Great to Be a Radio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #6(21.14)

02/12/13 Eugene Onegin (BBC) 1.23-8.07, The House on Mulberry Hill (19 Nocturne Boulevard) 8.08-14.48, Frontier Gentleman, “Rosebud Creek” (CBS) 14.49-20.51

Podcast #5 - 26/11/13

005. It's Great to Be a Radio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #5 (16.46)

26/11/13 Tolkien and Lewis: The Lost Road (BBC) 0.21-5.58, Sophia Square series 2 (Radio Cardiff) 5.59-11.11, Machines (BBC) 11.12-16.26

Podcast #4 – 18/11/13

004. It's Great to Be a Radio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #4 (18.31)

18/11/13 Sorry, Boys, You Failed the Audition (BBC) 0.14-5.55, The Bullies- “House Calls” (Misfits) 5.56-9.28, Against the Storm (CBS) 9.28-18.18

Podcast #3 - 12/11/13

Finally, after a great many technical issues, I have podcast #3. Hopefully they'll come a bit quicker from now on.

See podcast #2

podcast #1

003. It's Great to Be aRadio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #2  (17.07)

12/11/13 Queens of the Coal Age (BBC) 0.22-4.19, Der Tickentocker (Cooperantem) 4.20-10.05, You Are There (“The Last Days of Pompeii,” CBS) 10.06-16.12

Podcast #2 - 20/10/13

See Podcast #1 

002. It's Great to Be a Radio Maniac Audio Drama Review Podcast #2  - The Organist's Daughter (BBC), I, Davros (Big Finish), Matrimonial News (Tyrone Guthrie)

Comments and constructive criticism (about the content and the recording) welcome.

Unfortunately, the quality on this was so poor that I decided I wouldn't subject you to it. Instead, I've transcribed my waffling in text, which is below. I hope the next eight podcasts won't require such extreme measures!

I Wanted to Be Usefrul

I Wanted to Be Useful was written by Thomas Oléron Evans and is my first experience with UCLU’s Radio Drama-making.  It’s the seemingly simple story of Garry Martins (Rob Beale), killed in a car accident on 16 February 2012, and taken to the corporate, bureaucratic headquarters of (St.) Peter (Stuart Moss) in some (simulation of?) the bucolic English countryside.  Like many of those who have found themselves knocking at Heaven’s door, Garry is being taken to account for his life.  Did he live it with some spark of genius that qualifies him for ascending to Heaven?  What does he need to say to convince the rather smarmy and quota-obsessed Peter that “being useful” is enough toward the criteria of having lived a good life?  It’s an enjoyable and thought-provoking piece.  

Red, Granny, and Wolfowitz

I’ve decided recently that anything from Misfits Audio is bound to be good.  Distorted Fables:  Red, Granny, and Wolfowitz is another example of their creativity and wiliness to experiment.  Like all of the Distorted Fables, Red, Granny and Wolfowitz is engaged in breaking the fourth wall and in offering very funny reworkings of classic fairy tales.  “Little Red Riding Hood” is forced through the meat-grinder of the Dragnet-like cop show, though everyone involved is rather incompetent.  There’s Metcalf Mahoney, the photographer, and deadpan Detective Mac Adams, investigating a disturbance in the house of Red’s grandmother.  Adams is joined by Detective Nicholls, a bizarre character to say the least.  Granny says she was attacked by a “furball,” which Nicholls interprets literally as something “the size of a softball, maybe slightly larger, soft to the touch, feels nice on your face . . .”  

Nicholls is directed to the wolf lying on the ground in Granny’s house. “His ID proves that this furball is you.”  Granny explains that the wolf has stolen her identity, while Adams implores the Dragnet-type music (which you thought was nondiegetic but was, in fact, diegetic) to stop.  While Red and Grandmother identify the wolf as, well, a wolf, Nicholls points out that “he could just be a mountain man with a long nose.”  Red explains that she was bringing some French crullers—“not the famous Parchesi player”—to her grandmother and being near-sighted, mistook the wolf for her granny. The wolf, when Red had figured out what was going on, tried to escape and ran smack into a wall. “You’ve been watching too many late night detective shows, ma’am.”  

Grandmother explains that she called Red the night before—“nights and weekends are free”—to ask her to come over with some strawberry tarts.  At that point, Adams accuses Granny of luring the wolf over (though I’m still unclear for what purpose) and feeding him mind-altering berry tarts.  At that point, the wolf wakes up and introduces himself as Special Agent Johnny Wolfowitz and says that “This was a simple training exercise.”  He explains that after this he was meant to go visit the Three Little Pigs to investigate their shoddy building practices.  Just when you thought the bumbling detectives were more obtuse than Stephen Fry in Gosford Park, Detective Adams realizes that Wolfowitz is lying and already ate the Three Little Pigs. 

I think what makes these works so funny is that all the characters act contrary to the situation.  You think you know what to expect, and when something completely different happens, you erupt into surprised laughter.  Furthermore, when you start to be convinced by Wolfowitz’s explanation, the detectives surprise you by revealing some aplomb under all that haplessness.  Furthermore, we should be impressed by the fact that Glenn Hascall plays both Metcalf and Wolfowitz and that KD Dehnert plays both Granny and Red!  Tom Chalker played Adams and Delvin Kenser played Nicholls. 

Leinigen and the Ants

I only learned about a month ago that the Fitzrovia Radio Hour, in addition to their live touring performances which pastiche (both affectionately and knowingly) old-time radio, recorded some of their early live performances (though not of their own material).  I wasn’t sure what to expect of these plays, which they’ve generously made available on their website; part of the charm of their original material is its rewriting of the genre as well as the visual element.  I’m happy to say that Leinegen and the Ants, an action-adventure script from the US, has translated very well in podcast format.  

Although I can’t verify it, I can imagine that the script would have come from something like Carleton E. Morse’s I Love a Mystery serials. It hasn’t got any parts for women, but one can see why a script like this was chosen:  it’s fun to act, and it’s even more fun to imagine.  We can only surmise, by the audience’s laughter, what kind of crazy stuff the cast was doing live to achieve the sound effects, but this detracts not at all from the experience.  

It concerns some British explorers in “the darkest heart of Africa.”  The manly Leinigen has been warned by his neighbor Carruthers that he needs to abandon his farm because a wave of man-eating ants are swarming by; “nothing of you [will] be left but a skeleton picked clean!”  Leinigen wants to stay and fight because, in his opinion, “Intelligence directed by right always makes man a master of his fate.”  Leinigen asks his African staff (that’s a euphemistic way of putting it) if they will stay and help defend his farm.  They will, if Leinigen ensures the safety of their wives and children further down the river.  Leinigen sounds a bit like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast:  “I knew the men would give me that answer.”   Carruthers’ masculinity impugned, he eventually agrees to stay and help Leinigen and his men.  They try various techniques to keep the ants at bay, including using dammed flood water, and a wall of petrol flame.  They watch a springbok covered by aunts, and Leinigen has to dive into ants heroically in order to save everyone else.  He will recover (somehow).     

Coconut shell horses and all, it would have been nice if Leinigen and the Ants could have seen Leinigen’s men heroically find the solution while brawny but not brainy Leinigen carried out their orders.