Because The Pictures Are Better
Among the crowd I hang out with there's an old saying that radio is superior to television because the pictures are better. This is the kind of nonsense that's designed to maintain our morale when we have our noses pressed against the smoked-glass window of a television production office, watching the beautiful people inside enjoy another "wrap party" .We tend not to have "wrap parties" in radio because, well, the output just keeps on going. Also, radio budgets rarely stretch to post-production catering, unless you count lukewarm tea and a packet of digestive biscuits.
In any case, the radio pictures are only better if you have a good imagination. Some people can turn on the wireless, hear the clip-clop of horses and are instantly transported to a world of highwaymen and princesses. Others can only conjur up the image of a bearded sound-effects man banging his coconut shells together.
So I've been handing out digital cameras and asking producers to take photographs of their work in progress. The snap above, for example, was taken during rehearsals for Free Falling - another new situation comedy heading your way on Saturdays. I've also been asking producers to send me an amusing anecdote to accompany the pictures. Clearly this is another area where tastes differ and the funny story I was sent to accompany this image had to be spiked on the grounds that it was too dull for words. In fact the words staged a mutiny and refused to appear on this page. They have a very strong union.
So here's a challenge for diary readers. Use your imagination and make up your own rib-tickling tale. Oh...and keep it clean please.
See...you're laughing already.
