Radio Drama Analysis - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is a science fiction comedy radio series written by Douglas Adams. It was first aired in 1978 in the United Kingdom by BBC radio 4. It was then aired in the United States in March 1981. The drama was known for being ahead of its time in relation to its use of music and sound effects, resulting in the radio drama winning a number of awards

After Listening to this clip from the famous radio drama, over all I felt that it was very outdated. I thought this because the beginning of the drama is very informative and uses formal language. I found it extremely hard to engage myself throughout this part of the drama as I found the old fashioned style very boring. A convention that was used in this drama was the introduction music which was played at the beginning of the drama. The music was very upbeat, but still old fashioned. The music in the introduction caused me to come to a conclusion of what the radio drama is about. Although the music was serious to some extent, it was also upbeat and give the impression of happiness and power. If the same style of music was to be used in a new radio drama production now, I don't think it would be as successful as it was. This is simply because this style of music will not interest the every day listener of today.

Many sound effects are used within this drama which makes it very successful.

• Voices have been transformed to give the effect of a "speaking computer" or a "futeristic voice". By doing this it makes it clear to the audience what is happening, who is speaking and helps them understand the overall story.
• Sounds such as screams are very loud and very powerful to have an effect on the listeners
• noises such as breathing and grunting have been very exagerated. It almosts makes me feel that I am in the same room as the characters. It also helps me visualise what is happening in the drama.

A narrator is used within this drama to help tell the story. Although I think this is helpful to the audience, I also think that this narrative style is very old fashioned and outdated.

Background music is also used throughout the drama to help add atmosphere to the story. I think this works extremely well as it helps set the mood of the drama and what is happening. It also indciates to the audience of the up coming events that may occur.

It takes a little while to be introduced to any characters, but when we meet them we can instantly make some assumptions on the character. At 4:52 in the video above we meet a character who is well spoken. They speak clearly, standard english and have a tone in their voice which suggests that they have some kind of authority or power. The character is also polite using words such as "Good Evening", this suggests to the audience that this character is friendly.

The performance of the characters within this radio drama is very important. As the listeners have to rely on what they hear to help them understand the story, it is very important that the characters reactions and emotions are made very clear either through their performance or other techniques.

The time it takes for stories to unfold is quite long considering that the 26 episodes was spread out over many years.

In conclusion, I dont think that this radio drama would appeal to many people today. The entire drama is outdated but many of the conventions have been taken and used in existing products, such as the background music. I found the drama very hard to follow as I found the narrator not very interesting. At some times I think it was unclear what was going on in the story. While generating my ideas for my own radio drama, I will take all of these points into consideration.