Pilgrim on BBC Radio 4: Dark Fantasy, Public Service Broadcasting, and Transmedia Possibilities

Abstract

ABSTRACT While much scholarship has focused on BBC radio drama of the first half of the 20th century, very little to date has dealt seriously with the first decades of the 21st century. Sebastian Baczkiewicz’s Pilgrim debuted on BBC Radio 4 in 2008. This article argues that Pilgrim is emblematic of well-made, popular Radio 4 drama of the 21st century. I argue that it achieves this through how it responds to current BBC public purposes and presents itself as culturally British (or English). Furthermore, its transmedia possibilities are enacted through the careful re-purposing of English folklore and the use of flexi-narrative.