Independent
Radio Drama Productions
started in 1987 and soon became one of the world's leading independent
producers of radio drama. IRDP was a non profit making company and
was run by directors Tim Crook, Richard Shannon and Marja Giejgo.
IRDP's ambition was to promote the value of radio drama and to expand
opportunities for writers new to radio. IRDP ran festivals and competitions
which resulted in the production and broadcast of many plays by new
writers who would not otherwise have had the chance to hear their
work aired on the radio. In 1996, IRDP received a nomination at the
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards for 'Developing and
Fostering New Writing' in recognition of this work. The Woolwich
Young Radio Playwrights' Competition was awarded the Daily Telegraph
/ ABSA award for Best Youth Sponsorship in 1991. For details of
other awards, visit our Awards
page.
National
Public Radio:
The prestigious National Public Radio network often transmitted IRDP's
work throughout the United States. NPR exclusively commissioned original
productions of Sherlock Holmes stories starring Edward Petherbridge,
and Dracula starring Kenneth Haigh, and it also broadcast many
of IRDP's dramatisations including Pride and Prejudice, Mutiny
on the Bounty, Heart of Darkness, The Secret Agent,
Tartuffe, Frankenstein and many others.
Actors: The company was privileged to work
with many of Britain's leading actors such as Bill Paterson, Siobhan
Redmond, Peter Guinness,
Tony Armatrading, Clive Wedderburn, Nerys
Hughes, Leslie Grantham, Don
Henderson, Gerard Murphy,
Carmen Munroe, Beth Goddard, David Yip, Colin Baker, Edward Petherbridge,
Kenneth Haigh, Tony Booth,
Simon Fenton, Daniela
Denby-Ashe, Danny Newman, Frances
Tomelty, Aden Gillett,
Lisa Coleman, Toyah Willcox,
and hundreds of other superb actors.
Music: Specially recorded music featured
prominently in many of IRDP's productions, from Purcell performed
by harpsichord maker and player Anne Tucker in The Diaries of Samuel
Pepys, Paganini performed by violinist Robert
Gibbs in Mutiny on the Bounty, various pieces for the harp
played by Nicola Broke in the Thames River Guide, Scriabin,
Prokofiev and Chopin performed by Leo
de Bono in Frankenstein, various violin pieces performed
by Michiko Ueno and Robert
Gibbs in Sherlock Holmes, Haydn performed by the St
Margarets Trio in Pride and Prejudice, through to specially
commissioned compositions: Alan
Gibbs composed haunting music for Heart of Darkness and
a Tartuffe suite for Molière's play, and Leo
de Bono created stunning piano pieces for Dracula and The
Last Days of Oscar Wilde. All of these musicians are well known
in their own field and it was always a great pleasure and privilege
to be able to work with them.
MAGICAL MUSIC BOX: In 1993, IRDP was asked by Marshall Cavendish Partworks Ltd to produce
stories on tape as part of the MAGICAL MUSIC BOX series introducing
young children to classical music. This involved 52 issues, each comprising
a high quality illustrated magazine telling a story as well as including
factual information on classical composers, and a tape or CD featuring
music alone plus the story from the magazine dramatised and produced
with a complex web of sound effects and music by the chosen composer
for each issue. The series took several years to complete. The drama from Issue 4 -
The Wizard's Spell - won both a Gold Medal and the Grand Award Trophy
for Entertainment Programming at the International Radio Festival
of New York in 1994.
Theatre: IRDP had a theatre subsidiary which
developed a number of innovative stage projects and experimented with
the symbiosis between theatre and radio. On Air Theatre Company presented
four full short theatre plays at the Cambridge Theatre in London's
West End in April 1994, followed by a two week run of Hello?
by Dale Smith at the Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington in September
of that year. Richard Shannon's full-length play - Sabbat -
was presented at the Tristan Bates Theatre in May 1995. At the same
time, three winning plays in the Woolwich Young Radio Playwrights'
Competition were presented to a full house at the Cottesloe Theatre.
In January 1996, Tim Crook directed Dale Smith's first full-length
play - The Kissing Game - at the Tristan Bates Theatre. On
Air pioneered the use of surround sound, and Tim worked with Battersea
Arts Centre's artistic director, Tom Morris, to create a virtual reality
sound design for a production of Samuel Beckett's play All That
Fall at the BAC in March 1996. In September of that year, Tim
and Richard directed Restless Farewell by William George Q
and Freefall by Elizabeth Berry, again at the BAC. These productions
featured surround sound and computer digital projection.
Anglo-American
Radio Drama Company:
IRDP also had a US sister company incorporated in New York - the Anglo-American
Radio Drama Company. Charles Potter, an experienced and award winning
radio drama producer was the President of the company. AARDCO's first
production was a commission from National Public Radio for a drama-documentary
commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day Landings. It was
narrated by former British Prime Minister, Lord James Callaghan. The
company also received a grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities to develop 'The Innocents Abroad' project which sought
to celebrate the engagement by American writers with the European
experience. The company also had a grant from the British Council
to dramatise Tom Taylor's play Our American Cousin which was
the play President Abraham Lincoln was watching in Washington DC when
he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
