''Drama'' (formerly ''Afternoon Theatre'', ''Afternoon Drama,'' ''Afternoon Play'') is a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

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 ...

, 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 ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural sett ...

''. Several ''Afternoon Plays'' were amongst programmes held in 20 underground radio stations of the BBC's

Wartime Broadcasting Service The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war. It is unclear if the ...

, to provide public information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a nuclear attack. 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

* {{BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 programmes