Postmodern and Traditional radio dramas

In this essay, I will be critically evaluating two different radio

dramas, one being postmodern and the other being traditional.
A traditional radio drama usually consists of a strong story line,
this means there would be multiple characters and a narrator.
Traditional radio dramas follow a normal structure e.g. a
problem appears and the characters need to spend time solving
it. Postmodern dramas are nearly the opposite of traditional
radio dramas because the character/ characters in postmodern
raise a question rather than traditional where there answering
the question. You could say postmodern are more engaging
with the audience because the audience could answer the
question that is asked in the drama. The traditional radio
drama that I will be evaluating is The Archers this radio drama
is set in a town called Ambridge. Its a series drama which
follows the everyday life of a family and the issues they go
through. In the episode I watched it appears the married
couple need figure out what they are going to do with their son
Henry, see if his step dad will adopt him or not.
The Postmodern radio drama I am critically evaluating is The
Blind Mans Confession. This Drama would go under the horror
genre. This is about a man that was driving, listening to load
rock music, and accidentally crashes into a police car, luckily he
was still conscious he walks over to the police car to discover
he killed the cop driving the car. Hes then startled upon a
criminal who has a gun, the criminal then points his gun
towards the mans head. You then hear a gunshot,
automatically assuming the criminal has murdered the man. It
ends of with the man in hospital unaware of his injuries, Im
confident this postmodern drama is flashback on his own
experience. This is because if it was not then the story would
have proceeded when the gunshot went off, but because it did
not I am assuming it is a flashback. In the drama the narrator
speaks in first person (the narrator is also the main character)
directly to the audience, this is so we feel connected to him,
and he helps us paint a picture of what the scene looks like in
our heads.
The characterisation in the postmodern drama is simple; we
can easily tell when the main character is speaking because as
the audience we have connected to his voice (we know what it
sounds like). This also helps us understand when he is in fear,
as his normal voice would have changed. The characterisation
is a part of the drama where the audience understand whos
talking from there voice, e.g. the audience will be able to
understand roughly there age, gender, ethnicity, and social
class.
The words used in the postmodern radio drama explain to the
audience what is happening, (all the radio dramas used this
technique because there are no visuals for the audience to look
at). So for an example when the man that is riding the bike
says soaring over a big black forest, this allows the audience
to know his location, meaning that the audience can actually
paint a picture in there head to what they think is happening.
The use of fades in the postmodern drama adds suspense to
the drama, they audience will be thinking what has just
happened (can also make the audience more engaged). The
main part this happens is when the bike rider crashes and a
man holds a gun to his head, and shoots the gun. This makes
the audience think, has he been shot? Is he dead?
Dramatic reconstruction is where a story or an action has been
reconstructed and used to show the audience and help them
understand what someone has been through. There isnt a
dramatic reconstruction used in The Archers but pretty much
the whole of the blind mans confession is a reconstruction
(cause its all one big flashback).
The narrative structure in the blind mans confession is a
structural framework, which tells you the order of the
narrative through the narrator, and how he presents it to the
audience. The Blind mans confession is a nonlinear narrative,
because we start at the end of the drama, the story is told
through flashbacks. The Archers is a linear narrative because
its a traditional soap drama.
It is obvious that the postmodern radio drama The Blind Mans
Confession is based outside as you can hear the natural
sounds, e.g. the wind, rain and the thunder. Not only do we
have proof its outside because of the sounds, we also know its
outside because at the beginning when the actor says soaring
over a big black forest. I also know he is definitely riding a
bike because at the start of the drama we are informed, we are
also supported by the sound effects of the bike, the music
added onto to the drama when he was riding the bike, makes it
seem exiting, the narrators voice is also deep and powerful, this
helps us investigate the characters age and help us paint a
picture in our heads to what he looks like. We are not told his
name but the narration is in first person so we feel connected
to the character either way, just before the crash (1.27)
happens the loud rock music stops playing, this automatically
triggers the audience into thinking something has gone wrong.
The silence makes the audience wait in anticipation making the
scene more dramatic as they wait for the reveal of the incident
this time being the sound of the car braking and the crash. Just
as the crash happens the audience are unsure the injuries
faced, or even death! However, when the sound finally fades
into him talking with the sound of his heartbeat in the
background we know he is alive, but not too sure if he will
survive.
Direct speech happens at the start of the blind mans
confession. This is where he is riding his bike through the
forest, he is describing, and explaining what is happening in the
moment to the audience (through the flash back). This is direct
speech because he is telling the audience everything little thing
thats going on.
We can tell The Blind Mans Confession is a flash back because
when the man is talking on the bike, he wouldnt be describing
what he sees at the time, he would just be riding the bike
silent. He also says The only thing I didnt account for was the
other car, this shows at the time he thought nothing of the car,
but now hes ok and looking back at the incident he now takes
the car into account.
The titles and credits can be used to finish the drama. At the
end of the blind mans confession, he sums up the plot and
refers to himself as the writer, director and editor. He also
mentions where it was originally published.
At the start of the drama, the narrator seems confident, as it
proceeds his voice changes and the uncomfortable nervous
emotion emits from the depth of his voice. It sounds like he is
sad after reflecting on the previous evens he has encountered.
This makes the drama sound more believable and therefore
more gripping to the audience. At 9.18 when he says My eyes
shut there is dead silence showing that he has become
unconscious from his injuries.
The ending of The Blind Mans Confession is a cliff-hanger, I
should have known better than to fuck with God (referring to
something said earlier in this episode). This makes the
audience wonder what is going to happen next.
Both the blind mans confession and the Archers are around
13:00 minutes long. Which shows a small similarity between a
postmodern and a traditional drama. The Archers is
broadcasted every day, this is why the duration isnt long, it
helps the audience catch up on the drama without having to
listen to a long piece. The Blind mans confession is a trailer
so it gives the audience a glimpse of the drama, the blind
mans confession is a single play radio drama and the actually
length of the drama is a lot longer that the trailer, its almost
like a movie radio drama. This bring in audiences that want to
listen to a one stand radio drama.
The Archers is the traditional drama I listened to. Traditional
dramas usually conflict realistic events, such as family
problems and events (general life). This is something the
audience can relate to. However, the conversations they have
tend to relate more to an older generation rather than children/
teenagers. There Archers is a series drama, so every episode
that goes by the audience get closer to each individual
character, and the story gets bigger and more problems arise,
this means there are more solutions involved. To keep the
audience interested each episode ends with a small cliff hanger
making the audience come back for more to find out what has
happened and what has changed. The episode I watched had a
cliff hanger on the 28th of December, it was Debby and Richard
realised they liked each other, but Elizabeth loves Richard too.
Well there grownups, they can do what they like (12.04). This
hooks the audience into the series and makes them want more.
The audience rely on the characters to say the name of the
character there talking to; to understand what is being said to
who, or what is being said about someone an example of this is
Robert, that flag should be up now, you can find this quote in
the audio at 2.30. The main difference of accent is the gender
of who is talking, there accent is rather upper class and posh.
The Archers uses good placement of chronological
development, for example, when the radio is on playing in the
background, it is based on real time.
The drama is set in the county side in England; this was obvious
to tell from when the drama started, because of the distinctive
accent from Debby (1.29), there accent sounds as if they have
had a high level of education, which is strange for a family live
in the country not the city. We know its set in the country
because they were talking about their father being a framer
(1.55).
The opening sound/ music to The Archers is rather fast and
happy, this creates an overall theme throughout the episodes.
The sounds are used in traditional dramas to accurately
describe the scene without visuals, so if the characters are
outside there will be the sound off birds or wind 1.42. When
the couple were in the park with their son Henry, you can hear
people shouting in the background, this is to paint an accurate
picture in the audiences head to help them imagine what the
park was like; this is an example of aural signposting (aural
signposting has also been used to help the viewers understand
what might happen later on it the episodes). The mother of
Henry shouts after him when there in the park, this gives a
viewer an idea of how big the park is. In traditional dramas,
music is normally played at the start and at the end of the
drama, this is completely different to postmodern dramas, this
is because in postmodern dramas they inflict emotion with
music. Traditional dramas created emotion through the
characters actions and voices. In addition, flashbacks are not
used in traditional dramas; it is all about what happens there
and then, whereas postmodern dramas usually/ sometimes use
flashbacks.
The target audience for the Archers would most likely be
women in their fortys (and older). The creators of The Archers
have created there drama to be important for its target
audience, they have done this by creating real life scenarios
that happen is that gender and age range. (In the drama, they
talk about things the target audience would talk about).
The Archers uses a very traditional approach to radio drama;
they use more than one character and usually have to solve
problems that arise, whereas postmodern dramas are
modernised and tend to do what the writer would like to do.
In conclusions The Archers and The Blind Mans Confession
are two completely opposite dramas. I feel like they capture
different target audiences attention very well, traditional
dramas are more for the older generation and postmodern
dramas capture a younger generation, just because both areas
may not understand there opposite areas. Postmodern tend to
be action packed whereas traditional dramas are more relaxed
and easy to understand, but with a hint of mystery. Each
dramas rely on sound effects to help describe a set/ place/
scene, but traditional dramas tend to not use music to show
emotion, this is what postmodern dramas tend to do, like at the
start of The Blind Mans Confession where there was loud
music and the guy was talking deep to make it sound really
exiting, this doesnt occur in traditional dramas. Traditional
dramas usually use music at the start and end (this is what
The Archers did), also like a popular TV show, the reason why
they do this it so that the audience remember the tune
making them remember the drama. Both dramas use silence
to build suspense.