Bridging Political Modernism Between Descriptive Phonographs, 1920s Political BBC Radio Drama and the 1930s Agitational Radio Features

Abstract

This chapter provides insights on some key questions. What links the three key phases of analysis in the book: phonograph descriptive audio drama; political radio drama by Reginald Berkeley in the 1920s; and the left-wing political feature makers at BBC Manchester in the 1930s—focusing on E.A. ‘Archie’ Harding, D.G. Bridson, Olive Shapley, and Joan Littlewood? How does the recurrent theme of modernism occur in the innovative sound dramas created by Russell Hunting, the radio drama plays for the BBC of Reginald Berkeley, and the radio features of the BBC Manchester group of left-wing iconoclasts? Why is there a constant tension of political dramatic imperative present in their work and what is the relationship between innovation in sound radio form and political purpose? In particular, the second and third phases involved direct censorship of high-quality plays written specifically for the radio medium as well as publication arising from a negotiation between agitational contemporaneity and institutional containment. The research journey is analysed including the struggle through freedom of information litigation to gain access to Security Service files on the surveillance of left-wing writers and producers.