GREATEST SHOW AND AUDIOGO

AudioGo  has acquired the audio rights in Stephen's second Dr Who novel for the Target range, THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY following the success of Bonnie's version of PARADISE TOWERS.

It's scheduled for release on August 1st. No word yet on who's going to be the reader. I must say I'm intrigued as I can think of at least four excellent candidates from the original cast, all still very much around.

UPDATE 4th JUNE: The reader is Sophie Aldred, one of the aforementioned candidates and obviously an excellent choice!

GREATEST SHOW

For the first time I've been catching up via Google on some of the debates on GREATEST SHOW although obviously I'd read the Amazon reviews (see my previous blog). I was rather pleased to realise after all these years that there's actually quite a lot of (not unqualified) affection for GSITG out there as well as some really interesting and intelligent posts. And, of course, some fans who still hate it with a vengeance. But then everybody's entitled to their opinion. Oddly the only comments that irritate me are the ones where Ian Reddington's wonderful performance as Chief Clown is quite rightly praised with the additional remark "despite not having many lines." As if it'd been better if he'd been given more lines. When I was writing the script, I realised the image I had in my head of the white-faced, spangle suited clown was so powerful that to give him too much to say or too much to explain would seriously detract from his visual presence. Ian was fantastically inventive and convincing but I think the comment should really be "because he'd not been given too many lines."

GERONTIUS SCRIPT ON AMAZON

The script of my radio play about Cardinal Newman, GERONTIUS, which won the Tinniswood Award for best radio drama script in 2012 is now available via Amazon -

ALICE ON RADIO 4

My favourite comment so far on the ALICE broadcast is from Sarah Vine in The Times - "Stephen Wyatt's new dramatisation is as charming as it is bonkers."

Lots of other nice comments from press and from chums so feeling pretty pleased (and relieved) with how it's been received.

THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY

The talk Rob Orledge and I gave at Gresham College earlier this year on our reconstruction of Debussy's Devil in the Belfry - with extended musical extracts from the world premiere - is now available via You Tube

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

From the BBC webpages -

Alice Through The Looking Glass

Lewis Carroll's fantastical story collides with Radio 4 in Stephen Wyatt's dramatisation. Alice crashes through the mirror onto a giant game of chess and an adventure begins.

This magical world is set out like a giant chess board and Alice discovers science, maths, poetry, riddles, and wordplay. This is a new drama that offers the listener more than meets the ear and features a host of much-loved Radio 4 personalities including Jenni Murray, Roger McGough, Jane Garvey, Eric Robson, Jim Al-Khalili, Pippa Greenwood, Peter Donaldson, Kirsty Young, Andrew Marr, Evan Davies, Garry Richardson and Melvyn Bragg.

The main cast include Lauren Mote as Alice, Julian Rhind-Tutt as Lewis Carroll, Carole Boyd as The Red Queen, Sally Phillips as The White Queen, Nicholas Parsons as Humpty Dumpty, Alistair McGowan as Tweedledee & Tweedledum, John Rowe as The White Knight, Robert Blythe as The White King, Ben Crowe as the Messenger, Patrick Brennan as the Guard and Stephanie Racine as Pudding.

Producer/Tracey Neale for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Saturday 22 December

2.30-4.00pm

BBC RADIO 4

BONNIE READS PARADISE TOWERS

The first chance I've had to sit down and listen to Bonnie Langford's reading of Paradise Towers in full. I'd sampled it before so I knew she'd done a good job. But this time I was really struck by the sharpness and wit of her characterisations and her expert pacing of the narrative. And, to be honest, her reading is in some ways closer to my original conception than the televised version. I found myself agreeing with David J.Howe's comments in the notes -

"Wyatt creates and maintains an effective world, one which benefits from the written word rather than the limitations of television presentation."

So warm thanks to Bonnie and the AudioGO production team, headed by David Griffiths who've also done a great job.

KRAZY KAT'S BABA YAGA

Have been in rehearsals with Krazy Kat Theatre this week working on the script for BABA YAGA THE BONY LEGGED, THE WITCH. The show is well up to KK's usual high standards and the puppetry is magic.  Opens the Mill Studio, Yvonne Theatre, Guildford on Saturday 17th. See Krazy Kat website for further details.

WRITING : RAISING THE STAKES

This is something I've written for the book about Radio Drama Claire Grove and I are working on - which is a note to myself as well as to other readers of the book.

Raising the stakes

This is a difficult area to discuss but it’s surprising how often we don’t exploit our ideas as fully or as boldly as we should. We worry about being “obvious” or “melodramatic” and leave everything as a much lower emotional level than we should.

When we first start exploring our characters and themes through writing about them, we often make interesting discoveries, sometimes half way through a scene, but we don’t necessarily build on them.

If you want your audience to care about your characters, then you have to make them feel there’s something important at stake. If a character gets told off mildly by his or her boss for being late to work, then it’s probably not that compelling a scene. But what if the job is at stake and the boss issues a final warning? Or if the two characters had been having a secret affair and this mild spat uncovers that?

If a character is being teased because they appeared on a television documentary and made a bit of fool of themselves then we ought to ask – should they have made a complete fool of themselves? What’s the biggest impact this humiliation could have on their life, their family, their relationships?

Sometimes we feel it’s not “likely” that a character with an important piece of information should knock and enter just when that piece of information is needed. But that’s often what strong and compelling story-telling needs. The characters bump into the very person they don’t want to meet. The meal he cooks for her isn’t just mildly disappointing, it’s a culinary disaster. If the dog goes missing, don’t necessarily let it be found again too soon, there may be more mileage in the extended anxiety of its owners. If the characters take a boat trip, they might get mildly seasick or they might get caught in a howling gale? Which is going to have more impact?

I’m inviting you to think boldly about what you’ve created in your first draft and to seize the opportunities to make your play bigger, bolder, funnier, more exciting. It really is true that we get frightened and think – no, I can’t do that, it’s too much, it’s not likely. Give it a try. Raise the stakes.

 

LOOKING GLASS RECORDED

Just spent three very productive days in the studio recording THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS with my producer, Tracey Neale. A very talented cast plus a succession of "guest"  Radio 4 voices.

LOOKING GLASS broadcasts on Radio 4 on 22nd December at 2.30 pm.