The Ditch

Evans, P (2010) The Ditch. In: Afternoon Drama, BBC Radio 4, 1 February 2010.

Item Type: Performance
Creators: Evans, P
Abstract: Tom Saunders, a wildlife sound recordist, goes missing, leaving only a collection of recordings and a notebook. These fall into the hands of his radio producer, who tries to piece together what has happened. His quest leads him back to the disturbing aural landscape of Slaughton Ditch, where an obsession with hidden sounds has terrifying and fatal consequences.
Official URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qbvg9
Date: 2010
Event Location: BBC Radio 4
Note:

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.

Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Date Deposited: 12 Mar 2013 12:33
Last Modified: 11 Oct 2022 17:22
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