The radio drama The Archers is part of a series and comes under the genre of

soap. It is aimed at older audiences due to the topics covered, characters and
music used throughout. This contrasts against the Blind Mans Confession. This is
a horror drama, it is a completely different story. It is more emotional and
dramatic. The story follows a man who crashed his car and as a result became
blind. The Archers is more family friends, something that isnt so sensitive, an
easy listen. Where as The Blind Mans Confession may not appeal to all viewers.
In the radio drama The Archers, the words that the characters used help the
audience get different impressions as to how educated each character is. For
example, we hear 5:05 I am transformed by the pool of beauty. Another thing,
which backs this up, is the characters accent. It helps us identify the characters
background, as well as the variety of voices making it easier to differentiate
between each character. I think this is effective, as it helps us pictures the
characters more, as if we could see them in real life. In the drama there are no
narrations, it consists of speech from each character. Although, they do narrate
what is happening if it is not clear enough through sound. Kirstys just pulled
into the car park this helps the viewer understand that a new character is about
to enter the scene. I believe this is effective as the it makes the viewer seem like
theyre really there listening to the drama in person, making it more life like. The
way that words is spoken helps the viewer to picture what the subject is like, for
example, some of the actors speak very well spoken. I believe this is effective as
it helps us to grasp what the character looks like, acts, as well as their
background and education. The music played at the beginning of the episode
helps set the scene and get the viewer into the show. Whereas at the end, we
hear the same music, but it signifies the end of the episode. It is played for
sixteen seconds at the start, and twenty seconds at the end. I think this works
well as it draws the viewer into the beginning of the drama, preparing them to
watch, and at the end it is a good, clear way of signalling to the viewer that the
drama has ended. There is not any background music other than when they are
rehearsing in the theatre, and this helps the viewer to understand the location of
this scene, this is first heard at 3:40. The ambience is set through background
music, for example, we can hear glasses clinking in the background of a scene
when they are in a pub, and this is heard at 8:43. This is effective as it helps the
viewer understand that they are in a pub, as it is not stated during the scene.
Additionally, when the location is a theatre, we can hear people building the set,
this is heard at 2:14. Aural signposting, which is when things are signified to the
viewer through sound that may not be clear through dialogue. For example, we
hear a door opening and closing which signifies that a character is leaving or
entering at 2:45. This is highly effective because the viewer knows there if
someone has entered the scene before the characters tell us that. Additionally
sounds can help set the scene, for example at 1:02, we can hear birds chirping,
which helps us to realise that theyre outdoors, which is effective as this hasnt
been signified in any other way. Additionally in the same scene we can hear the
sound of the characters walking through what sounds like hay, this tells us that
they are on a farm. Silence is used between characters speaking to help show
that it is an awkward situation, for example at 12:14; we can hear pauses
between dialogues. This is effective as it helps signify something to the viewer
without having to say it.
A cliff-hanger ending is used in this radio drama. The show is part of a series,
meaning that there will be an episode after. At the end of the drama, we hear
two characters having an un-finished conversation about something
controversial that has just happened at 12:25. This is effective as it makes the
viewer want to watch the next episode to find out the end of the conversation. At
6:44, we hear the sounds fade in and out slightly. This is effective as it helps
signify to the viewer that the scene is changing. At, 12:30 we can hear the
females characters tone of voice change, she also becomes quite passive and we
can tell that current events are bothering her. In this radio drama, there is no
clear chronological order. We know that everything is happening the same day.
The personality of characters, location and background music are things that all
suit the target audience. The target audience for The Archers is aimed at ages 45
plus. It is aired in the middle of the day when retired people would be at home.
Mood is created through music, the opening and closing music helps set the
scene. The duration of shows from this series are all around 15 minutes. The
narrative structure isnt clear, but we get the idea that everything is happening
in one day due to the fact that it isnt a soap and each episode is in a day. The
plot developed through this day and is carried through from episode to episode.
The Archers has a slow developing plot as its carried out daily and could take
months to conclude a story. Chronological order is when everything happens in
the right order. This means that everything that happens within the show is in
chronological order, leading through each episode. I think this is effective as it
keeps the format of the drama simple and easier for the viewer to understand.
Everything is also set to the current date, which means that the show becomes
to feel more realistic to the viewer. The narrative structure of this drama is a
multi-strand, linear and follows the style of realist. I think this works well as this
allows it to fit into the genre of a soap, meaning that the drama can be carried
out as long as the production company wanted it to. It is aired weekly on BBC
Radio 4 and uploaded to iPlayer so it can be viewed anytime.

The blind mans confession uses speech that help set the scene in the story, it
helps the viewer visualise what is happening. My pulse quickened 1:10. This
helps the viewer visualise how the driver is feeling in the drama. This has been
spoken in a fearful way which helps the viewer to understand his emotions. I
think this is effective as it means that this helps the viewer visualise what the
character looks like as well as his actions. The main voice in the drama a clear
voice and English accent. This is effective as it makes it easier for the viewer to
hear and makes it more relatable as it was aired in England. The character is
narrating what was happening, rather than conversations between characters. I
think this is effective as it helps the viewer visualise what is happening more as
the narrator can go into more detail. The use of sound effects such as thunder
and rain throughout helps set the scene, it also adds a certain ambience to the
drama, making it more visual. I like the use of woshy background noise as it
helps set the scene. We hear another character at 6:00, the narration stops and
we hear conversations between characters. This is effective as now that the
scene has been set. We still hear narration throughout, towards the end which
then ends the drama. Science is used between scenes slightly, but normally
there is just quite background noise. When dialogue gets dramatic, 9:45, the
background noise cuts out and we can just hear the sound of the narrators voice.
We hear music which is being played in the car at the start of the drama, I think
this is effective as it helps set the scene and mood of the drama, as well as
telling us more about the characters personality. A flashback is when you talk
about something in the past and why something might be happening in the
present. The whole of the drama is recorded as a flashback, until the end of the
drama were the main character is in the hospital. I think this is highly effective as
through out we can hear what the narrator was feeling, also making it more
dramatic/emotional. There was also dramatic reconstruction in the drama, in a
scene where we see a conversation between the main characters which had
already happened in real life.
Fades are used to help differentiate between scenes. I think this works well as
everything sounds quite similar in the drama. But when we start to hear speech
from other characters and the narration stops, the audio fades in and out. Direct
speech is used. The narrator throughout is talking to the viewer. I think this
works well as it helps the viewer to feel like they are there with the narrator. I like
this as it also makes it more personal. Titles are used in order to identify the
production and acknowledge who produced it. This is used at the beginning and
end of the Production. I think this is appropriate to the target audience, as its
quite dark so aimed at older viewers. Its more engaging than things than soaps
so the people who listen would have to pay attention as a lot goes on at once.
Dramatic reconstruction is used in the whole drama. It helps the viewer to feel
like they are there with the narrator, it also makes it more emotion/scary. The
drama style is horror, this is clear through the use of background noise, dialogue,
location and characters. The duration of this show is 12 minuets, it is a one off
drama. The narrative structure is clear. We start with dialogue to set the scene
before we meet other characters, he describes the car crash. Then we hear
interaction with other characters at the scene, then concluding with the narrator
crying showing emotion and how he feels about the situation. The narrative
structure of this drama is a single strand, non-linear and realist. I think this works
well as a single strand as it means that the viewer can get all the information
needed in one episode. The non linear structure allows the use of a flash back,
making the drama more dramatic and interesting. The plot develops quickly due
to the nature of the storyline and the fact that its a one off episode.
When comparing these two dramas against each other, we can see how different
they are. They contrast a lot against each other. To begin with, the both have
different narrative structures. The Archers follows a linear, realist, multi stand
drama. Which works well for this type of radio drama. Although, the blind mans
confessions follows a non-linear, realist, single strand drama. Which I think works
well also with this style of drama. The Blind Mans Confession is a lot more
dramatic regarding words, voices, music, speech, ambience and sounds. It has
been scripted to be highly descripted. The narrators voice isnt like you would
normally hear him talk as he is trying to show emotions such as fear and sadness
through the tone of his voice. I think this works really well as it leads the viewer
to emphasise towards this character. Where as in The Archers, there isnt a
character who has the main focus on them, there are many characters
throughout. Although this works better in The Archers, something like this
wouldnt work in The Blind Mans Confession, it would be a lot harder to follow the
story line. Regarding conventions of both dramas, they do both use different
things. Flash backs and direct speech are only used in The Blind Mans
Confession. This works well for this drama as it makes everything more
emotional and dramatic. Also allowing the director to leave out elements of the
story that he may not have wanted to feature or shorten them. The Archers
doesnt use these conventions, although they do use aural signposting,
characterisation and chronological development in order to create clear story
line, and show everyday situations.