At the age of four I became addicted. Every afternoon I would creep into my father’s study and turn on the old Roberts radio on his desk to listen to the day’s story during Children’s Hour. I’d sit motionlessly, absorbing the lives and adventures of the characters. At the end of the twenty minutes I’d feel quite dazed, like emerging from a dark cinema into bright sunshine, as my imagination continued working through what I’d just heard. I distinctly remember my distress on November 22nd, 1963 when all regular radio programmes were interrupted to broadcast the unfolding horror of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Would there not be a children’s story at all that day, I asked.
I began pretending to write my own stories whenever my father left out his typewriter. I had to kneel on his chair in order to comfortably reach the keys and with furrowed brow I’d invent a myriad of little people and tales for them to get involved in. Once I was able to read and write properly I’d be making up stories all the time, filling countless pads of lined writing paper and exercise books in careful large childish handwriting until all the drawers in my room groaned beneath their weight.
I quickly progressed to writing a radio play and during my late teens and early twenties penned half a dozen romantic novels. I read ferociously too, novels, short stories, non-fiction. I didn’t grow up with TV so radio has always been important to me. Now, as an adult, the delight of hearing a short story well read never fails to impress and frequently leaves me thinking about it long after the programme is over.
The short stories on BBC Radio 4 form an integral part of my listening pleasure every day and the station would, in my view, be much poorer without the current number of broadcasts. A number which has already been significantly cut over the last few years. I do hope Gwyneth Williams and her team of programme schedulers on Radio 4 will rethink the proposed reduction and consider the retrograde step it would be in terms of audience statistics. I believe there is a real danger that a significant proportion of those currently tuning in to the broadcasts of short stories could show their disapproval not only by seeking their story fix elsewhere, but by abandoning the network altogether if they feel it no longer fully meets their needs. The advice that short stories are now available on BBC Radio 4 Extra is short-sighted since not everyone has access to digital broadcasting.
Related links:
BBC Radio 4 & 4 Extra Blog: More on the Radio 4 schedule changes
National Short Story Week (November 7th - 13th, 2011)
No short story cuts on Radio 4 petition
Sarah Crown: Please, BBC, don't cut short your short stories (The Guardian)
Allan Massie:Why radio is the ideal home for short stories (The Daily Telegraph)
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