A presentation on the history of radio adaptations of Jane Austen's novels

1. Jane Austen on Radio
 Medium-specific characteristics of
radio plays
Conventions of a Jane Austen radio
adaptation
How the above determine the ways
in which a novel is rewritten

2. Radio Drama’s Medium-Specific
Characteristics
a) Language: Emphasis on dialogue
to create and sustain situations
b) Voice – used to cover the idiolect
of a character; hence emphasis
given to intonation,
pronouncing: verbal ‘music’

3. Radio Drama’s Medium-Specific
Characteristics (2)
 c) Noise – sound-effects assume more importance,
as well as a way to denote setting
 d) Music – not only connoting an atmosphere but
suggesting certain emotions
 e) Cutting and Fading – helping to structure a
radio piece as well as denoting changes of setting
 f) Mixing – the use of different acoustic signals to
generate meaning, for example, when footsteps get
louder to denote the approach of a character into
the scene

4. Listen to this extract from Emma
 Note the use of sounds to set the occasion
 Cutting and Fading to denote the arrival of
the horse and cart
 Music to define Emma’s accomplishments
 Mixing behind Mr. Woodhouse and
Emma’s dialogue – the crackle of the fire,
the rustle of clothing

5. What can radio drama do that
television and film cannot?
 Focus listeners’ attention on the voices
and/or words
 Create situations with a minimum of sound-
effects
 Create an atmosphere of intimacy which is
especially useful in one, two or three-
character exchanges (the basic structure of
any radio adaptation)

6. Listen to an extract from Pride and
Prejudice:
 Note the overlapping sound
 Note also the use of ‘Jane Austen’ as a
narrator. She becomes a character in her
own drama; listeners can either trust or
question what she tells us. Hence radio
drama is very good at stressing ‘point of
view technique’

7. What radio drama cannot do
 Create large crowd scenes
 Focus on nuances of character through
nonverbal means (cf. the close-up on film)
 Suggest a change of time-location (e.g.
updating Pride and Prejudice to Clueless)

8. What strategies can adapters employ
instead?
 An emphasis on contrasting tones of voice
to denote character, to show differences of
age, experience, interior reflection, etc.
 An emphasis on what is NOT said as well
as what it is said – emphasis on pauses,
silences, caesuras: as in this extract between
Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy in Pride and
Prejudice

9. Why are classic novels adapted for
radio, especially on the BBC?
 Since 1922 the Home Service (now Radio
4) has regularly broadcast the Classic
Serial, as part of the BBC’s wish to inform,
educate and entertain.
 Books are adapted into 3, 4, or even 8
episodes & broadcast in 60-minute
segments on Sundays at 3 p.m. and with a
Saturday repeat at 9 p.m. (currently)

10. Casting
 Theatre actors and stars in leading roles
 Members of the BBC Radio Drama
Company (founded 1940), with specific
‘radio voices,’ appearing in different
adaptations
 Hence listeners are offered the pleasures of
familiarity when they hear actors in an
Austen adaptation

11. Style
 Classic Serials are intended for middlebrow
audiences – unlike material on BBC Radio
3, the arts and culture channel – like
Masterpiece Theatre
 Writers should focus on “story, story, story,
with characters who follow through from
episode to episode.” Hence the decision to
create ‘Jane Austen’ as a specific character

12. Mode
 Passages lifted verbatim from Austen’s text
spoken direct by the narrator to listeners –
as in this extract from Mansfield Park:
 These are used to set the scene as well as
comment on the preceding action

13.  Most exchanges conducted as one- or two-
person dialogue: partly for the sake of
economy & partly to focus attention on
character and story, as in this extract from
Sense and Sensibility
 Sound-effects set the scene

14. Outcomes
 Classic Serials should be narrative-driven,
“getting the audience to fall in love with a
character is as important as getting them gripped
by the story” (BBC Guidelines)
 By this means classic serials can prompt reflection
on the relationship between characters and their
author, especially in Austen. “We want the listener
to be able to see how characters affect their
creator” (Michelene Wandor).

15.  Or sometimes, we are asked to reflect on
the character’s status as narrator/
communicator to listeners, as in Emma,
where the eponymous central character
advances the story after having accepted
Mr. Knightley’s suit:

16. Radio drama lets you fall in love
with a character, but also prompts
questioning of their motives and/or
actions. This is why Austen proves
so enduringly popular as a subject
for commissioners & listeners alike