U14 - Radio Drama Analysis: BBC Radio 4, Blood and Milk

BBC Radio 4, Blood and Milk

Chosen Programme

The name of the BBC Radio 4 programme I have chosen to study is ‘15 Minute Drama: Blood and Milk’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09czn81). BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. BBC Radio 4 broadcast speech based news, current affairs, dramas and factual information programmes. The audience for the drama Blood and Milk are mainly women over 45 years old, of a British/white ethnicity who live in the UK and Wales (as the drama is set in London and the main character is Welsh). The audience can access this programme in many ways. A radio is usually the main way an audience accesses the programme but other ways include the internet and the ‘BBC Sounds’ app.

Purpose

The purpose of Blood and Milk is to entertain and educate the audience. This thrilling series is set in 1890s Whitechapel where welsh farm girl Megan Evans comes to London to visit her brother who is running the family's dairy business - but her brother is strangely unwelcoming. This may entertain the audience as they may want to know her brothers’ true identity. An example of how it entertains the audience is shown through the dialogue when Megan says “Where would he go? Samuel has no one but me, no home but the dairy! Someone has forced him to leave. I know it”. This may engage the audience and create a dramatic atmosphere as Samuel has gone missing and Megan is anxious.

This drama may also educate the audience as it involves a historical element. In 1900 over half of London's milk came from Welsh dairies. One of those dairies, on the Commercial Road, was owned and run by the writer's family. Therefore, part of the writer’s purpose is to help educate the audience on how these dairies were run. An example is shown in the quote “I’ll need space for 30, 35 cows, couple of horses to pull wagons…” This tells the audience what animals Megan will need to operate the business.

Mode of Address

The mode of address in this drama is indirect as none of the characters talk to the audience. The main character, Megan, talks to other characters in the drama which allows the audience to interpret what is going on. The characters in the drama create a friendly and conversational tone most of the time. This is also encouraged through the characters’ accent, such as Megan’s welsh accent. An example of this mode of address is shown at 3:00, where Megan and Mr.Jones are having a friendly conversation and she asks if he is selling his dairy and they also talk about how their families are doing.

Scheduling

The drama ‘Blood and Milk’ has 3 series each containing 10 episodes. Each episode is 15 minutes long. It is scheduled Monday to Friday at 10:45am and is then repeated in the evening at 19:45pm. This allows the show to reach a wide audience as some people may prefer to listen at different times. The first episode of the series is on a Monday and the series finishes on the following Friday. You can also catch up on the series by going on the BBC Radio 4 website or the BBC Sounds app.

Content

The content in this radio drama is mainly dialogue, music and sound effects. When the drama starts, there is theme music that continues for around 6 seconds before it goes into the first scene. This is shown at 0:00 to 0:08.This theme music starts at the beginning of every episode. Then there is dialogue that introduces the audience to the radio drama and allows them to become familiar with it. It also helps the regular listeners to recall what happened in the previous episode. With the dialogue, there may be sound effects such as rain or the sound of people talking in the background. An example is shown at 4:12, where there is the sound of seagulls, waves, and the walking of footsteps in the background of the characters’ dialogue. This tells the audience that the characters are at the beach.These sound effects create a certain atmosphere (in this scene, it creates a calming atmosphere) and will help the audience to identify where the characters are as well as their movements. After a few minutes, it changes to the next scene. This is shown through the use of music. The soundtrack used in this drama is the same throughout the whole episode/series. When the drama finishes, the theme music is used (13:32).

Meaning

There are several meanings created in this drama. An example of how meaning is created in Blood and Milk is by the sound effects used. Sound effects are used to create an atmosphere that will help the listener’s imagination create a realistic world. An example of a sound effect used is at 7:10 where there are sound effects of people talking in the background of Megan and Dora’s conversation. This tells the audience that they are out in a public place.
The way the characters speak through dialogue also creates meaning. It highlights the characters’ personality and mood. It also influences the audience’s perception of the character. An example is shown through one of the characters when they say “Stay out of Whitechapel … and go back to America” whilst assaulting another character (can be shown through sound effects of punches and the character yelling in pain) at 7:47. This mans low pitched and threatening voice tells the audience that this character is crooked and malicious.
Music is also important when creating meaning as it highlights a certain atmosphere in the drama. At 0:58, mysterious music is used to end the scene. This creates a dramatic atmosphere and will make the listener want to listen to the next episode.

Staff and Resources

The staff of BBC radio 4 includes the actors and the crew. There are five actors for ‘Blood and Milk’: Bettrys Jones plays Megan Evans, Trystan Gravelle plays Luc Evans, David Horovitch plays Samuel Singer, Brian Protheroe plays Moses Lipski and Alice Haig plays Annie Riley. These actors are needed to record the dialogue. The director of Blood and Milk is Marc Beeby and the writer is Gregory Evans, who create the storyline for the drama and are heavily involved in the production process. Several resources are needed to make this radio drama. This includes a studio and radio/sound equipment such as a microphone and computers. It can either be recorded in a studio or at a location, which can make the drama seem more real. After recording is done, it then needs to be edited. You will need to gather all of the audio tracks and turn them into an actual audio drama. A post production tool such as Audacity, Reaper, Audition and ProTools are used to do this. These are editing programmes which edit audio. The radio drama is then ready to be aired on BBC Radio 4.