The Ditch

A radio drama (BBC Radio 4)

As with Owls, I had been researching a script for a documentary about Orford Ness in Suffolk and became intrigued by the strange, wonderful and disturbing atmosphere of the place. I began field research into the unrecorded emotional response to place which links to archive accounts of its history and ecology. I was also interested in research into unexplained or paranormal investigations linking phenomena with place and thought this had interesting potential for creative writing. I have since developed this area of research further. Through the BBC Natural History Unit, I secured a commission to write The Ditch as a radio drama about a sound recordist who went missing in a fictitious place on the East Anglian coast and left recordings of Electronic Voice Phenomena as clues to his disappearance into the landscape. As far as I’m aware, this is the first radio drama and piece of landscape-based writing to tackle these subjects. Again this was a creative collaboration with sound recordist Chris Watson and NHU Radio producer, Sarah Blunt. The Ditch had roughly a million listeners on Radio 4’s Afternoon Drama slot and won the BBC Audio and Music award for 2010 which helped to support my research field and consolidate a style – eco-gothic - for future projects.