One of the aims of this coursework is to produce a radio play. I have below a link to a website with some radio scripts with various genres.
http://www.simplyscripts.com/radio.html

Radio 4 produce radio dramas, and below is the link for 'The Archers'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

The Archers is a different sort of soap - mainly because its on radio and its been going for over 50 years. – the Archers is a story of countryfolk. The scene is a fictitious village called Ambridge, its near Birmingham but the county is also fictitious – Borcetshire. Its a contemporary drama in a rural setting set in a county town nearby called Borchester where some people from Ambridge go to work. The soap is centred on a farming family called the Archers and there are dozens of them around Ambridge. They can be quite irritating at times as most of the characters are quite well-heeled and a bit out of touch with poorer folk. Some have migrated to far flung places like Africa but most stick around their home village.

The target audience for this drama is the older generation as they are addressed through the characters and scenarion as the drama features characters the target audience can identify with.
The Archers is based around a farming community, who are nature lovers.
The first pilot of the soap was broadcast in May 1950 – as petrol rationing ended - and it was originally designed as an entertaining way to give out information on farming issues. It’s now the world’s longest running radio drama serial, going out six days a week on Radio 4, at 7pm. And, although farming still plays a central role, there’s much more to The Archers these days than turnips and milk yields. In recent years, we've heard, among other things, of extra marital affairs, rape, breast cancer, suicide, dementia, eating disorders, domestic violence and racism. In the latest plotline, the gay chef, Ian, and his partner, Adam, are divided over the prospect of becoming surrogate fathers, hence broadening its audience.


Representations of social groups of the countryside are they are a very close community. They can rely on each other for support through hard times for eg if someone is grieving for a lost one. They also are responsible as they volunteer to hold and take care of local projects such as fundraising or protesting. They have strong beliefs for protecting their community and their countryside, for eg prevent the council from putting up housing estates. This creates their overall collective identity.


Shown on Radio 4, which is instituted by the bbc. The production team for this drama are:

Editor: Vanessa Whitburn
Senior Producer: Julie Beckett
Producers: Kate Oates, Rosemary Watts
Programme Manager: Michael Harrison
Archivist: Camilla Fisher
Technical Broadcast Assistant: Sonja Cooper
Audio Assistant: Cathy Bassett
Broadcast Assistants: Sally Lloyd, Sarah Morrison, Jane PritchardWeb Producer: Keri Daviesproducers/directors



Vanessa Whitburn joined the BBC in 1974 as a studio manager, working in London as a sound technician for the BBC World Service and network radio programmes. From 1980 to 1985, Vanessa was Senior Radio Drama Producer for the BBC in the Midlands, directing and producing several Classic Serials for BBC Radio 4 and new plays by top dramatists such as Anthony Minghella, Caryl Phillips and Michelene Wandor.
Vanessa also worked on BBC television programmes, ranging from drama The Onedin Line to arts documentaries.
She was producer of Channel 4's flagship soap opera Brookside from 1988 to 1990, and returned to the BBC as a freelance, where she directed a BBC Two documentary called Moving Home about the move of Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet to Birmingham.

So it can be said, that when Whitburn was appointed editor of the archers she had many years of experience behind her.




Codes and Conventions of radio dramas that the Archers follows:
Sunday 18 April 2010-Kenton and Jim get into party mode

-12 minutes 56 seconds long-
-Structure; is set up...struggle...resolution. You can reverse this if the set-up is more dramatic and explosive than the resolution.the play is regarded as a series of phases
-Dialogue; sets the tone of the play and creates the type of atmosphere so you feel part of it, more realistic.
-Speech must help the plot move in some direction, increasingly involving the listener as it does.
- silence used to show the changing of scene-3/ 4 seconds
-6 scenes
-A variety of sounds used- cow mooing to show the presence of the farm
-Sound Effects used:
mobile phone ringing used functionally
gates openiing when the cow is released to show
milk falling into pan- to show Josh milking the cow
footsteps from the shed to the barn

The Archers breaks away from following the convention of using only 6 characters within an episode, as this episode uses roughly 8-10 characters. Furthermore, Archers is longer than the average length of a drama therefore gets away with useing slightly more characters without it becoming confusing.

Digital Techhology Skills Audit

I am very familiar with publisher as I have been using it for many years now, mostly in secondary school to make posters, invitations and leaflets. I can easily create a text box and change its size, insert text and use word art, and also very confident with changing the colour, size, highlighting the text. I can format layers well, as well as rotating and changing order of objects.
Photoshop I have only become familiar with over the last 2-3 years, however I am very confident in adding and deleting backgrounds, changing the opacity of an image and also adding/deleting layers.
I have used a camcorder before however I am not very confident with it. I can set up a tripod and load the tape and use the functions on a camera. I also have edited a piece of film, but I am a bit slow at editing a length of film, not quite mastered it yet, it’s still a learning curve for me at the moment.
Video editing also not my strong point, I can capture footage, cut it and move it to a different place, and also I can add effects but my skills are limited for that. I can’t change time and speed, remove or add sound or rewind images.
As part of my work experience at a radio station, I learnt how to work the radio decks. I know how to cue a song, and make a playlist.