''Drama'' (formerly ''Afternoon Theatre'', ''Afternoon Drama,'' ''Afternoon Play'') is a
BBC Radio 4 radio drama, broadcast every weekday at 2.15pm. Generally each play is 45 minutes in duration and approximately 190 new plays are broadcast each year. More or less three-quarters are self-contained dramas. The remainder are short series of 2 to 6 episodes. As well as original drama series, the ''Afternoon Play'' has included a number of adaptations of popular works such as ''
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' is a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana and featuring the character Mma Precious Ramotswe. The series is named after the first novel, published in 1998. Twenty-two novels have been p ...
''.
History
In one form or another, the ''Afternoon Play'' has been a feature of afternoons on Radio 4 since its launch in 1967, although the strict 45 minute format was not enforced until the reorganisation of Radio 4 by
James Boyle in 1998, whereby the play directly follows the 2.00pm repeat of ''
The Archers''.
Several ''Afternoon Plays'' were amongst programmes held in 20 underground radio stations of the BBC's
Wartime Broadcasting Service, to provide public information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a
nuclear attack
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear wa ...
.
The strand was retitled in February 2012, to bring it in line with BBC television's "Original British Drama" branding.
[Scott Matthewman]
A play by any other name
", ''The Stage'', 13 February 2012
Listening figures
In May 2009 it was announced that the listening figures for the ''Afternoon Play'' fluctuated between 800,000 and 1.1 million, making it one of the most popular outlets for new dramatic writing in the world. Monday's ''Afternoon Play'' is usually the most popular play of the week, and Thursday's is usually the least popular.
References
External links
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{{BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 programmes