Task 3

Postmodern- The blind mans confession

I am going to analyse two radio dramas in this assessment; one being a
postmodern radio drama and one being a traditional radio drama. A postmodern
radio drama is produced in the late-20th-century where developments have been
made in culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, economics, architecture,
fiction, and literary criticism. A traditional radio drama is one that keeps up with
old, traditional conventions of a radio drama.
In the postmodern radio drama of the blind mans confession it starts with aural
signposting through sound of cars driving around a racing track and tires
squealing and cheering tells you that they are at a car racing track. The
squelching sound of footsteps tell you that the man is travelling around, these
setting sounds make it easier to follow the story as it allows you to imagine what
is happening and where they are. Aural signposting is used further so you can
tell they are outside by the sound of rain, thunder and wind and the cars engine
when the car pulls up to them as he is about to shoot him tells you that someone
new has entered the scene. You can hear sirens from the police and ambulance
at the scene of the crime, helping them. These dramatic sounds from the sirens
create a serious and emotional mood because it reminds you of the people that
have died. Then you hear the sound of water and coughing and spluttering and
rain as the character gets out of the water. There are splashing sounds of the
characters footsteps in the mud. More sounds include thunder and heavy rain
which suggest that the character is walking in a storm. From the characters you
can hear a narration from the main character and screams and cries from
someone being tortured. You can hear a shot gun which tells the man is holding a
gun to his head and the gun shot which tells you that he had shot the person in
the car that drove near them.
Aural signposting isnt used as frequently in the traditional drama; the Archers
because the programme is focused more on what they say by having the sound
mostly talking between the characters as the theme isnt action like the blind
mans confession, it is more of a drama. There is some aural signposting to
confirm what they are doing, e.g. you can hear rustling as the character is
preparing food in the kitchen and hear a faint noise of children talking and
laughing whilst they are talking outside the school.
Music is used in The blind mans confession with quick, loud, rock music
playing in the background. This makes it sound like an exciting, action packed
drama. Similarly, in The archers it also starts with the classic and recognisable
upbeat and cheerful music. This tells the listeners what style of radio drama it is
because the upbeat music tells you it is quite a cheerful drama, whereas in the
postmodern drama uses loud, fast and dramatic music to start with which tells
you it is going to be a fast moving, dramatic story. Unlike the archers it doesnt
start with positive music because this gives the audience an idea of how the
drama is quite dark and depressing.
Furthermore, the postmodern radio drama; the blind mans confession starts
with a narrative from the main character introducing his story and engaging the
reader by setting the scene and making you want to continue listening to his
story. The archers goes straight into dialogue because it is a traditional radio

drama so doesnt need much introduction to the characters and setting as most
people are already familiar with the archers, therefore it doesnt need an
introduction as from the theme tune you can distinguish the programme. In
contrast, the blind mans confession isnt very well known so needs introducing
and therefore a narrative. I have noticed that modern productions use narrative
from characters to create more tension and feel more connected to the main
characters and what they are feeling as in radio productions you cant see their
faces and expressions which makes it harder to follow dramas.
I have noticed that the postmodern radio drama; the blind mans confession
ends with a proper ending as the story finishes. This is because that particular
radio drama is single, unlike the traditional drama I looked at which has multiple
episodes every week. This was The Archers which continues each week so
ends on a cliff hanger. For example it ends with the character saying It would
make sense if I adopt Henry, this makes the listeners want to watch the next
episode to see what happens and whether he adopts Henry. This is very a very
conventional technique of a traditional radio drama with multiple episodes
because they need people to want to listen to it further and this technique grabs
the listeners attention. In the postmodern drama they dont need to make
people want to hear more because there is only one episode of it so they end it
by finishing the story to satisfy the listeners.
Words and speech is used in the archers to tell the whole story because the
whole programme is based on dialogue as without speech you would have no
way of telling what is happening because it is all about people. Contrastingly the
blind mans confession doesnt rely quite as much on words because there is a
lot of aural signposting. However, both productions use speech because in radio
dramas speech are the only way to properly reassure the listener on what is
happening, the narrative used in a blind mans confession confirms what is
happening and makes it easier to follow. Without words used in either
productions, it would be very confusing and boring as you cant see what is
happening.
Voices are used in the dramas to distinguish who is in the scene; you have to
listen out to the different characters voices to know who is talking because
otherwise there is no way of finding out who is in the scene. In the blind mans
confession there are only two characters so it is easy to distinguish between the
two characters, I found it more difficult to tell which characters are talking in the
Archers, but you can listen to see if they are male or female but the voices seem
to be quite similar, I thought they should make voices more different so it is
easier to follow.
In the blind mans confession, silence is used to create tension when he thinks he
is dying because it makes the audience believe that the main character might
have died as you dont hear anything. This silence is very effective and it leaves
you wondering what could have happened to him, silence makes you panic as
you associate silence after gun shots with death. The Archers doesnt have a lot
of silent pauses because it doesnt need to build too much tension because the
genre isnt an action like the blind mans confession, it is more of an everyday
cheerful and uplifting drama so doesnt have too many dramatic scenes.
The two radio dramas have completely different ambiences. For example, the
traditional drama; The Archers has a very positive and cheerful atmosphere

which differs greatly to the blind mans confession which has a dark, scary and
tense ambiance because it makes it more dramatic. This modern drama has to
be dramatic because otherwise the ambiance wouldnt suit the story.
The duration of the Archers is quite short (only thirteen minutes long), this is to
keep it interesting as there is an episode every day. Its target audience of older
people who might have jobs might find it more difficult to find the time to listen
to a long drama every day, so keeping it shorter makes it possible for them to
continue watching each episode. The programme might lose interest if it was too
long as a shorter drama keeps it exciting.
The blind mans confession is also twelve minutes long, it is a very fast moving,
dramatic and thrilling drama, so keeping it short and quick maintains the
viewers attention so that it doesnt string out too much and become boring.
With radio dramas, you dont see anything so only relying on sounds can get
tedious, consequently making the productions a sensible duration time will make
them easier to listen to.
None of the radio productions used flack backs. This might be because it is very
hard to achieve the technique of communicating a flack back to people listening
to it. When you watch a programme, often a flash back has a particular transition
to tell people what it is or alters the clip to black and white or a different colour
to the rest of the film. Since you cant show a flashback visually, it becomes
difficult to show through sound so this might be why there wasnt a flashback
example in both productions I reviewed.
The archers is quite appropriate to its target audience. I researched the
audience demographics of The Archers on radio 4 and found that it was primarily
older men and women, starting from about 40. The highest figures were people
over 65 watching it. I think the Archers is appropriate to its audience because the
main characters are a similar age to the audience which might make it more
relevant to the listeners as they could find that they relate to some of the
scenarios mentioned in the episodes. For example, family or work problems and
the issues mentioned arent really dramatic and unrealistic. This makes them
enjoy the story more because they understand it better, maybe from their own
life experiences and they might feel more connected to the characters because
they see the characters in themselves. The people aged 65 and over who watch
Archers usually have been listening for years and therefore think they know the
characters well enough, similarly to how they know their family so would want to
hear what they are doing and listen to the programme every day.
I gathered that the target audience for the blind mans confession was the
younger audience, e.g. teenagers and young adults because it is very exciting
and fast moving. As a teenager, I thought it would appeal to my age group and I
found it thrilling to listen to. I think it is appropriate to this age group because the
main character seems to be quite young and reckless which some might be able
to relate to and it almost teaches a lesson about car safety. The drama ends with
the phrase Happy Halloween which appeals to younger people who tend to
celebrate Halloween unlike the older generation.
The Archers uses fade transitions at the end of scenes to communicate to the
listener that the programme has progressed in time or has transitioned into a
different scene. For example at 3.06, the scene transitions into the next by using

a fade. Contrastingly the blind mans confession doesnt use fades to transition
into a different scene except for the last part where he talks about living without
his eyesight. The fades are used to show progression on time and when you think
he might have died, the sound fades out to create tension, then fades in again to
reassure the audience that he is still alive.
Characterisation makes it clear to the listener who is talking, characters need to
be very different so that you can tell them apart from each other. In the Archers,
it is easy to tell the male characters from the female characters, but some of the
female characters sound similar which makes it more difficult. They are
presented with different personalities and characteristics to make it easier as
they should differ as much as possible and the characters often have different
accents. Likewise, in the blind mans confession the men are very different which
is so that you can distinguish between the two people talking, however there are
only three people talking throughout the whole drama. They have different
voices and characteristics.
Narration and direct speech is where they talk directly to the audience to explain
what is happening, this is very important to tell a story when you cant actually
see whats happening. In the traditional drama; The Archers, there is no direct
speech or narration, there is a lot of speech from the characters instead which
usually gives you enough detail about what is happening. In the blind mans
confession, narration is used a lot to explain what is happening, this makes
listening to it a lot easier as it is quite eventful and there are some action scenes
which need explaining. At the end you cant see that he has lost his eyes so it is
required that the character tell the audience what has happened.
Chronological development varies between the two dramas; in the blind mans
confession, the story starts after the event of the man introducing his story, then
it goes back into the past, before the incident and he tells the story from the
start in chronological order. In the Archers, the episode develops in chronological
order, this is because the Archers isnt mean to be dramatic or confusing to
listen to, it is meant to be easy to listen to, whereas the order of events in the
blind mans confession makes it more dramatic which relates to the genre.
Titles and credits are used in the radio dramas to inform the listeners who helps
to create the production and to tell the listeners the names of the actors. This
gives everyone credit for their work where it is due. The titles and credits are
read out at the beginning of the blind mans confession and at the end because
when listening to it you cant read the credits. The Archers doesnt have any
titles or credits, I think this is because the episodes are shown everyday so it
wouldnt make sense to read out the actors and producers in every episode. In
addition, the Archers is so well-known that it doesnt need introducing because
the theme song is so recognised that people automatically associate that theme
tune with the programme.
Dramatic reconstruction is where a scene is recreated using sound, for example,
The Archers doesnt use this style because it is set in present day and isnt
someone telling a story or looking back and narrating a memory theyve had.
However, the blind mans confession uses dramatic reconstruction because it is
him retelling a story from his past by using sound.

The narrative structure of the Archers is that it is a typical structure form, e.g.
start, middle and end as it doesnt include any flashbacks or future clips. The
Archers develop the plot in chronological order, for example, the episode starts
with them preparing for a community event, then it ends with them at the event
and shows them progressing with each characters own problems, like the couple
dealing with their new child; Henry. This structure of the Archers makes it easy
to follow and keeps it quite sensible which fits into the style of radio drama and
because it is aired every day, switching the order of events could confuse
listeners who arent used to that structure.
The blind mans confession uses a non-chronological order of events and not a
typical narrative structure because it starts with the ending as the man
introduces the story from after it has happened, then the structure switches to
the beginning, middle and back to the end. This structure makes the production
quite dramatic because you know something bad is going to happen to the
character which creates tension as we hear him talking about his experience in a
very negative and remorseful manner. The plot develops after the start where he
is talking about it in the present time and switches to talking about it in the past
tense and the story starts from the beginning to develop further so you hear a
detailed anecdote of his experience. This way of developing the story makes you
feel more engaged with the character as you hear it from his point of view when
he narrates the story and the interactive use of sounds makes you feel like you
are there.
The style of the radio drama; The Archers is an everyday family drama about
peoples lives in a community in England. Unlike the blind mans confession, it
isnt dramatic and intense because it is one that appeals to families that they
would watch every day. The Archers creates a happy and cheerful mood, from
the friendly characters and positive theme tune and the blind mans confession
creates an anxious and scary mood.
In conclusion I found that traditional and postmodern radio dramas have many
similarities and differences. For example, I found that they both use the typical
conventions of radio dramas, such as aural signposting, characters, words and
speech, music and have similar duration times. However, because both
productions have contrasting target audiences they have to meet them
differently. E.g. the Archers meets its older target audience by including older
characters, keeping the story relatable and not embellishing the plot too much.
The blind mans confession meets its younger audience target by making the
story fast and exciting to appeal to the age group more. They differ in narrative
structure, e.g. the Archers is in chronological order whereas the blind mans
confessions structure is; end, beginning, middle, end. This is to suit the genre,
making it more exciting but scary. Overall, I think I preferred the postmodern
production because I found it more exciting to listen to and it was targeted more
at my age group. I enjoyed the structure, use of aural signposting and plot but I
did find the Archers quite interesting because it was uplifting, yet it had some
serious themes and I felt more connected to the characters in the Archers than
the postmodern production because the whole production is based entirely on
people and I could see how it would appeal to the older generation.