HOW TO RECORD A RADIO PLAY IN LOCKDOWN | FEATURE
Cardiff playwright Rhiannon Boyle was set to break into radio last year after her debut scooped an award – before being scuppered for months by plague laws. Here, she recalls how they eventually did it…
In 2019, my debut play Safe From Harm won the BBC/NTW Wales Writer In Residence competition. As part of the prize, it’s commissioned to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4. I’m super excited.
It’s due to be recorded in a state-of-the-art studio in the brand new BBC Central Square building – the first ever audio drama to be recorded there. The BBC Writersroom team plan a big press release. They set out to secure some hugely talented, well-known actors. The date is set – Tue 24 and Wed 25 Mar, 2020. What could possibly go wrong?
Then, of course, the pandemic forces us into national lockdown and the recording of Safe From Harm is pulled. I’m gutted. It’s proposed that the play is recorded remotely, but this is hugely disappointing. I won’t get to meet the wonderful actors face to face, bounce ideas off my amazing director or watch the talented sound technician work the desk. There’ll be no press. No spotlight. No buzz. Nothing. It’ll just be me, my laptop and the dog, in my kitchen in Whitchurch.
But time passes and I get perspective: it could be worse. I could be a frontline NHS worker, I could be jobless, I could be on a ventilator, I could be made to teach maths to my children… oh hang on, that one did happen.
Months pass, lockdown is eased and we set a new recording date. I’m excited again. We hold our breaths, cross everything and finally the big day arrives.
So, what does recording a radio play remotely, in lockdown, look – or sound – like?
Actors from all four corners of Britain have been cast. Some are down the road in Canton and others are in London, yet we all meet on our laptops on a very snazzy platform called Pre Rec. Only the main actor, director, assistant and sound engineer are allowed in the Central Square studio, socially distanced and adhering to the rules of course. Actors recording at home are couriered state of the art, high-tech microphones, and have been sent instructions on how to make soundproof recording studios in their house. Basically, they are to situate themselves in cupboards, wardrobes or any other small space, and surround themselves by duvets and pillows.
Instructed to wear headphones to cut out background noise, once we’re all hooked up it feels like we’re in the same room together if I close my eyes. The microphones are amazing and hugely sensitive, picking up everything from the actor’s gurgling stomachs to my jangly bracelet. Everyone warns their families, partners, children and pets to be quiet because they are recording. No radios on; phones on silent and a note on the door telling the Amazon guy not to knock.
The assistant and I set ourselves up on WhatsApp chat. Normally in a recording studio, the actors can’t hear the team in the booth unless a button is pressed – this way, the team can discreetly discuss any notes that need to be passed on to the actors. On Pre Rec, however, we can all hear each other all the time, so I text the assistant and ask her to feed back notes to the team in the booth. Those notes are then fed from the director to the actors in the studio. It’s strange at first, but it works pretty well.
The play takes two days to record. The actors are amazing. It’s a real challenge, performing dialogue when you can’t look in the eyes of your co-actor – yet they nail the text with ease, delivering lines which are palpable and realistic. We pull it off, undeterred even when we have to retake due to the Cardiff ironmongers shouting “AAAAANY OLD IROOOOON!” in the street, or when someone’s neighbour decides to rather noisily hang a shelf.
If this pandemic has taught us creatives working in the media or the arts anything, it’s that the show must go on! Was recording Safe From Harm the experience I had envisaged? Definitely not – but did anything turn out the way we imagined it would in 2020? Anyway, I’m certain this is not the last radio play I’ll write. There’ll be other chances to record in that shiny new studio, I’m sure.
Safe From Harm airs on BBC Radio 4 on Wed 20 Jan at 2.15pm and will be available on BBC Sounds for 30 days. Info: here
words RHIANNON BOYLE