Between 1965 and
1970, Alan Ayckbourn worked as a Radio Drama Producer for the BBC, based
in Leeds. It is an aspect of Alan's career which is not widely
discussed, yet it undoubtedly played a significant part in his career
and had a huge influence on his work as writer, director and even the
practicalities of running a theatre when he became the Stephen Joseph
Theatre In The Round's Artistic Director in 1972.
> Alan Ayckbourn worked as a Radio Drama Producer for the BBC in
Leeds between 1965 and 1970.
“Radio was and still remains
the medium where the impossible can be made to happen once every
second. The only limitation is the speed of the listener's mind itself
in its ability to grasp events. And the average radio listener is
quick. I know.”
> He worked with Alfred Bradley, a highly respected radio producer
who championed northern writers and helped launch the careers of Alan
Plater, Keith Waterhouse, Alun Own and Stan Barstow among others.
“I was influenced by him.
Alfred’s strongest point was obviously his relationship with his
writers. And I suppose I learned from him a certain amount about how to
treat writers, and how to draw them out.”
> Alan joined the BBC after his first West End production, Mr Whatnot, flopped. Alfred Bradley
was in Alan’s agent office at the moment Alan rang her for advice and
Alfred told him to apply for a new post at the BBC.
“I joined the BBC with no
thoughts of writing again - certainly not for London or the stage.”
(which although a famous quote was not entirely true as by the time he
began working for the BBC, Stephen Joseph had already commissioned a
play for 1965 at the Library Theatre from Alan!)
> Alan's position at the BBC was created to cope with the huge
amount of scripts which had accumulated as a result of Alfred’s success
encouraging new writers, but which he had neither the time nor the
resources to produce.
“I didn’t know what the job
was when I applied to join the BBC. I thought I was going to be sorting
our Alfred Bradley’s filing.... When I got there I found that, far from
sorting out Alfred’s filing, I was going to be doing my own programmes
and running with a great deal more responsibility than I’d had in the
theatre.”
> Despite having no formal training as a radio producer, within his
first year Alan produced approximately 50 radio plays. These ranged
from 30 - 90 minute pieces and were predominantly for Radio 2 and 4
with occasional pieces for Radio 3 and BBC North.
“It gave me a great
opportunity to do far more plays - I did more plays in a year than I’d
done in ten years in the theatre.”
> During this period Alan also wrote for the comedian Ronnie
Barker’s ITV television show Hark At
Barker. However his BBC contract forbade him writing for other
companies, so Alan wrote under the pseudonym Peter Caulfield.
> Although very different mediums, Alan feels his work for radio -
particularly its tight deadlines - was an asset to him when he
subsequently devoted himself full-time to the theatre.
“As a director who was
previously from theatre, I learnt the virtues of speed and economy.
With two or three days to produce a finished product for broadcast, you
can't afford to hang about!”
> As a script editor, Alan read hundreds of new plays, the
responsibility of which - as Alfred insisted every writer deserved a
written response - demanded in Alan’s view objectively and articulacy,
which he felt fed through to his own writing.
“I’d already been working
with actors, of course, and I suppose I had learned the hard way about
directing them. But now I learned something about writers.”
> Alan initially earned £38 a week from the BBC - more than double what he
had been earning at the Victoria Theatre when he left in 1964.
“The job did come my way with
an astronomic salary. It was £38 a week: it was unbelievable.”
> During his tenure with the BBC, Alan still managed to write
several plays including Meet My
Father (later retitled Relatively
Speaking), The Sparrow,
How The Other Half Loves
and The Story So Far...
(later retitled Family Circles).
> By 1969 and 1970, Alan was juggling two jobs as he was employed as
the Director Of Productions at the Library Theatre in Scarborough
during the summer. Often his BBC secretary would pretend he was still
in Leeds but out of the office and Alan would ring back from
Scarborough, pretending to be in Leeds!
> Alan left the BBC on 23 June 1970 in order to concentrate on his
playwriting career. Within two years, he would accept the position of
the Artistic Director of the Library Theatre in Scarborough, a position
he would hold until 2009.
“Radio itself, I must say, I
went into without great enthusiasm, although I’d been a great listener
as a child. But once in, I found it was a magic place.”
> Despite working for six years with the BBC, perhaps surprisingly
Alan never wrote a play for the radio during this period or subsequently
- although he has frequently been asked to do so since.
“I think I was dealing so
actively all day with writers that felt first it would almost be
cheating to write my own plays for radio. And I wasn’t actually very
inspired to do so.”
Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd 2011
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Alan Ayckbourn (left) with Alfred
Bradley (right).
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