The Good Listener series of radio dramas, created by Fin Kennedy and Boz Temple-Morris has already had two previous outings in July 2015. Set inside GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters) a team of skilled operatives use high tech surveillance and apply intelligence, tact and experience to track three British Muslums who make their way to Syria. Henry, played by Owen Teale, must convince his superiors of the boys’ intentions in this tense thriller. The Good Listener, for that is what the series and the first episode are called, was followed by The Good Listener: Ghost in the Machine in which the team must plot an intricate pathway to gathering data from millions of phones across the globe. Tensions rise not only with the chance of being caught at any minute but relations within the team feeling the strain of battling computer a computer virus that is constantly monitored by their enemies.
Fast forward to autumn 2016 and series two of The Good Listener makes a welcome return with three plays with Fin Kennedy taking the writing credit for the first play Carte Blanche while Hassan Abdulrazzak and Anders Lustgarten wrote Private Lives and Quis Custsodiet Ipsos Custodes respectively.
Whilst fictional The Good Listener weaves real and realistic events and tactics into its plots along with a fair dose of office politics and modern day work related accountability. Carte Blanche sees the GCHQ team tightening security ahead of a G20 summit when they discover an immanent threat to the British National Grid. They must apply ever more subtle yet effective ways of assessing the threat and making sure terror is averted. The plays are thrillers and can and should be enjoyed on that level. Plots are well woven and intricate without being too complex in the way television can do spy thrillers such as Homeland or Spooks but observant listeners will see and draw justifiable parallels. There are evident references to current affairs – including the US presidential elections (can next week not arrive any quicker?) – which add a spicy interest to the plays that nonetheless stand on their own without the need for currency. Of more significance is the inherent debate on the ethics and morality of spying – a theme that runs through the series. There is enough about technology in the play to keep the geeks awake and interested and yet it’s not technical, complicated or jargon which would turn off and cause to turn off the ordinary listener or uninitiated.
The plays are at times humorous and that levity, although darkish, is needed to provide balance and relief. On his return to work after his father dies Henry gets a hard time from Gerry who says “I apologise if I’ve offended you.” To which Henry replies “You’ve not offended me Gerry. You’re too stupid to offend me”. There is some skilled audio humour and credit there must go to the director and producer Boz Temple-Morris and Alisdair McGregor.
Scenes are marked with technology-sounding jingles, not to the extend that they are sci-fi but sufficient and apt to lend a sense of speed, gravity and urgency to events. As you might expect from a series of plays dealing with listening spies the sound effects are excellent and enhance the listening experience. Of particular note is the fact that David is cursed with tinnitus, a significant stress in the life of a listening spy, and at times, the play’s sound effects replicate the sensations of tinnitus which is effective. It’s certainly a technique that draws us into the character of David and listeners will sympathise with his plight. Alisdair McGregor has given a level of detail and attention to the sound that has become lacking in some BBC radio productions of late. The BBC might do well to have a listen to what some, often amateur, productions are doing with audio drama on the internet and often with very basic and often free equipment.
The plays are littered with subplots and leitmotifs – David’s father, ghost hunting, Dostoyevsky – which of course is important when a play becomes a series. It does strike me that we are at the edge of characterisation with a few of the characters and that character development will be a crucial factor in the commissioning of a third series – which I think should happen. There’s nothing wrong with a play being more driven by the interpersonal dynamics of its protagonists but there must be, at least change, if not growth and development. Thank goodness Shakespeare had little else to do than write plays and aren’t we lucky he didn’t have social media.
The Good Listener series of radio dramas are tense and authentic. The acting is superb throughout the well-written and tightly directed series. They draw the listener in through plot and character and we are getting to know a group of likeable people and we feel the authenticity of their work, lives and relationships.
Highly recommended.
Radio Drama 