''Afghanada'' is a Canadian

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

which aired on

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of C ...

and

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially lau ...

. The 103 episode series began on November 3, 2006, and concluded its sixth and final season on December 30, 2011.

Overview

The half-hour episodes were broadcast on CBC Radio One Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. local time (3:30 p.m. Newfoundland Time) and 11 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. Newfoundland Time), and on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 159 Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and 3 a.m. Eastern Time. ''Afghanada'' was created by

Jason Sherman Jason Sherman (born July 28, 1962 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter. After graduating from the creative writing program at York University in 1985, Sherman co-founded What Publishing with Kevin Connolly, which prod ...

, Andrew Moodie, Greg Nelson, and

Adam Pettle Adam Pettle (born 1973) is a Canadian playwright, radio producer, and television writer, most noted as the showrunner and executive producer on the CTV and Ion Television hospital drama '' Saving Hope''. Biography Theatre Born in Toronto in 1 ...

. Other writers contributing to the series are Paul Aitken, Nicolas Billon, Dave Carley, Bruce Clark, Abigail Kinch, Hannah Moscovitch, Barbara Samuels, Emil Sher, Greg Spottiswood, Bobbie Theodore, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, Brendan Gall and Saul Levine. The executive producer of Season One was James Roy. The producer of Season Two was Bev Cooper. The executive producer of Seasons Three, Four, Five and Six was Gregory J. Sinclair.

''Three Canadian soldiers have been shipped out to
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and are based deep in the heart of the conflict:
Kandahar Province Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzga ...
, where the Taliban insurgency is fiercest. Every day, Canadian soldiers on the ground confront the chaos and violence of life "outside the wire". They don’t have the big picture; they’re not interested in the policy. They’re just trying to help the people, protect each other...and survive.''CBC Radio
Afghanada
cbc.ca. Retrieved on: November 12, 2007.

''Afghanada'' was initially a four-part experiment in radio drama but grew into a six-season project with a 15-person crew and an audience of between 300,000 and 600,000 a week on radio and online. The show used serving officers as consultants and benefited from hundreds of story ideas contributed from serving soldiers in the field to relay a sense of battle conditions and experiences.

Cast

The members of the cast of ''Afghanada'' are: Billy MacLellan as Private Lucas "Chucky" Manson, Jenny Young as Sergeant Patricia "Coach" Kinsella, and Paul Fauteux as Private Dean "The Machine" "Deaner" Donaldson. These actors portray the young Canadian soldiers at the core of the story. Additional cast members are: Michael Spencer Davis is Major Campbell, Trish Fagan is Hannah 'the Healer,' and Jordan Pettle is Master Corporal Jakes.

Remembrance Day Special 2007

This special, produced before a live audience at the

Canadian War Museum The Canadian War Museum (french: link=no, Musée canadien de la guerre; CWM) is a national museum on the country's military history in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum serves as both an educational facility on Canadian military history, in ad ...

, aired on CBC Radio One on November 11 at 1:05 (1:35 NT), 4:05 PT.

Awards

''Afghanada'' won the

Canadian Screenwriting Award The WGC Screenwriting Awards (previously Canadian Screenwriting Awards) are administered by the Writers Guild of Canada, and are awarded to the best script for a feature film, television or radio project produced within the Guild's jurisdiction, ...

in the Radio Drama Category from the

Writers Guild of Canada The Writers Guild of Canada is an organization representing more than 2,500 professional writers working in film, television, radio, and digital media production in Canada. Members of the Guild write dramatic TV series, feature films, Movies o ...

in both 2007 and 2008. The Remembrance Day Special won a Gold Medal, for Best Radio Drama Special, and a Silver Medal, for Best Writing, at the 2008 International Radio Festival of New York.

Merchandising

The first four seasons of the series have been collected and sold in CD format by the CBC's merchandising arm, CBCShop/boutique SRC. However, the final two seasons were distributed exclusively through iTunes. All six seasons are available through iTunes.

Notes

External links

''CBC Afghanada site''
{{CBC Radio Dramas 2006 radio programme debuts CBC Radio One programs Canadian radio dramas War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)