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The Guardian - UK

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Kate Maltby

Sorry, Dame Judi, BBC Radio’s job is to find listeners, not train playwrights

Radio BBC Radio Radio 3 Joe Orton Radio 4 David Benedict Judi Dench United States

A black and white photography of Joe Orton pictured sitting on the steps outside his Islington home in the 1960s. — Joe Orton, author of Entertaining Mr Sloane, was one of the many playwrights who have been nurtured by BBC Radio. Photograph: George Elam/Daily Mail/Rex

The luminaries are incandescent. The unions are on the warpath. Dame Judi Dench has been activated. The BBC broke with broadcasting tradition last month, axing the last remaining drama slot on Radio 3.

The Beeb has broadcast original audio drama since Christmas 1922; since then, its radio departments have nurtured the careers of writers from Tom Stoppard to Benjamin Zephaniah. Successive cuts in recent years had already left long-form drama siloed in Radio 3’s 90-minute slot at 8pm on Sundays, Drama on 3. Now that slot has been canned for good.

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