Why not? Creating drama on BBC Radio Gloucestershire

Next week (Monday 7-Friday 11 September, 2015) mystery drama 'Visitors' will be broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire. The production involved local actors alongside well known faces from TV, including Emma Samms who makes her radio drama debut as writer and director. The series was also a first for established presenter Claire Carter, who took the opportunity to fulfil a long term goal of producing a radio drama. Here she gives an insight into her experience:

There I was sitting next to Emma Samms in a studio that’s become my second home. She shouts: “Ok, can we go for a rehearsal take, please?” This is my cue. Jon Culshaw smiles at me: “Ready for the scene, Claire?” He cracks a joke in one of his many voices. Ready? More like ‘how on earth did I get here?’

For a long time I’ve wanted to produce a radio drama. Many people have asked me why and maybe I was silly for thinking that the answer was fairly obvious. Millions tune into The Archers every day and we can all remember powerful items on the radio we’ve heard over the years, but above everything else, is it not fun and entertaining to lose ourselves in a story that takes us away from our own reality? Is it not even better to say you’ve been the one to create it? I've always loved radio and seen entertaining others as a passion; radio drama has always been a goal.

Now, had you said Emma Samms would be involved in this master plan I’d have laughed you out the studio. (Yes, yes of Dynasty fame but can I please draw your attention to the evil scientist Adrianna in season two of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, my all-time favourite show. Call me young but I’m working with a lady who has shot the world’s most famous superhero with a kryptonite bullet so I really don’t care.) I’m not sure what I was expecting working with Emma. A diva? Someone who would just see me for the novice I am, get the job done and go? Nothing has come close to this. Emma is a talented, true professional who above everything else cares. Cares about her writing, the characters and how they lift off the page. Cares about her actors and how she can help them, about the audience and how she can entertain them. Beyond that, I don’t think Emma will ever realise just how much I’ve learnt from her.

When she asked me to play Eve Harris in Visitors I applied the same rule I’ve used since the start of my career: when a great opportunity arises say yes and then panic about how to do it later. But she was so patient in talking me through my lines and directing me in exactly the same way she did Jon and I can’t tell you how much that means to an amateur. I was cast as a tree in my school nativity, for heaven’s sake.

Then there’s Lisa Maxwell. If you’ve not seen her on Loose Women then know that all you need to do is spend five minutes with her to feel like you’re ready to invite her round for Christmas. “If you want me on your Lunchtime show, Claire, just drop me a line. Anything you need, hun.” She treated me like a friend so it was definitely less awkward when I asked her for a selfie.

The celebrity element is one thing but do you want to know what I feel the secret has been to this project? Comradery. At times I was in a local radio studio surrounded by stars of television, actors with a dream, Gloucestershire estate agents and NHS workers who act because it’s the hobby they love and BBC colleagues I am proud to call my friends. We pulled together under Radio Gloucestershire’s roof and raised it.

I have no idea what’s next but I know it’s not the end. Emma and I are already thinking about future projects but to be honest we need to make sure this one is finished first (nothing like working to a deadline!) I will never forget the ten months it took to produce Visitors. The table readings, the late nights, recording my office door to create sound effects and the (what sometimes felt like) endless editing sessions.

But most of all I will remember how we gave local radio another chance to stand up and say “Hey!? Look at me and what I can do!” Yes, it’s a part of the BBC that doesn’t have the largest budget so maybe that’s why we don’t hear more drama being done on county stations but sometimes you don’t need the biggest boat in order to make a splash. It’s about creativity and time, willingness and support, working together and having a boss that isn’t afraid to say ‘yes’.

So is there a future for drama being done on local radio? Why not?

Claire Carter is a presenter on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

• Visitors will be broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Claire's show at 12.30pm from Monday 7 - Friday 11 September
• Read more about BBC Radio Drama on the About the BBC blog