This weekend saw the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, one of the two most famous radio plays ever written (the other being Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds). It is also the 90thbirthday year of Radio Drama on the BBC. But those weren't the only anniversaries celebrated at the third BBC Audio Drama Awards.
June Spencer collects the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2014 BBC Audio Drama Awards
This year June Spencer marks an amazing 70 years of acting in radio drama. She first appeared on radio in 1943 and has become known to millions of radio listeners as Peggy Archer, first playing the matriarch of the Ambridge clan in the pilot episodes of The Archers in 1950. June is the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Audio Drama Award, presented by Director-General Tony Hall. In her speech June graciously remembered her many colleagues past and present, including Arnold Peters who played her late husband Jack Woolley.
As Head of Audio Drama for the BBC, the awards occupy a corner of my brain all year round, a corner which gets bigger the closer we get to January and then becomes all-consuming. This year I managed to persuade Lenny Henry to be our Master of Ceremonies. Lenny has a long history with the BBC, and more recently with radio drama as writer of the dramas Corrinne Come Back and Gone and Miss You Still. I spend much of January inviting supporters and contributors to be award-givers: most of them are delighted to be asked but they’re also very busy people so I’m delighted when they say yes. This year, they included Fiona Shaw and Stephen Tompkinson (each of whom also judged a category), writers Howard Brenton and Mark Ravenhill and actors Philip Glenister, Alison Steadman and Jessica Raine.
You can read a full list of winners, see photos and hear clips from the ceremony here.
You can also hear a selection of nominees and winners on Radio 4 over the coming weeks:
• Billions (winner of Best Audio Drama – Single) will be repeated on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 11th February 2014 at 2.15pm.
• The Sleeper (nominated for Best Audio Drama – Single) will be repeated on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 8th February 2014 at 2.30pm.
• The Gestapo Minutes (nominated for Best Audio Drama – Single) will be repeated on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 12th February 2014 at 2.15pm.
• Sketchorama: Absolutely Special (winner of Best Scripted Comedy with an Audience) will be repeated on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 10th February 2014 at 11pm.
Listen to June Spencer interviewed on Woman's Hour after receiving the award
Read more about June's award at The Archers blog