Lend me your 84 million ears: Exploring a special radio event Shakespeare's King Lear on BBC World Service radio

Abstract

On 15 October 2006, the BBC World Service claimed a historic first in the history of British radio Shakespeare: a live recording of King Lear at the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. The one-off show was subsequently broadcast to 42 million listeners around the world in December 2006, 400 years after the play was first performed on stage. The special nature of this radio theatre tells us much about the power of radio to determine cultural content on a global scale in the highly competitive mediascape of the twenty-first century. It also offers a focal point from which to consider Shakespeare as a cultural signifier across the history of British public service radio. Based on personal experience of the production process and interviews with production personnel, this article examines the different meanings attached to a programme that was promoted both as a national cultural event and an internationally significant adaptation of Shakespeare.