44 Scotland Street to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4

By DAVID ROBINSON
Published on Thursday 23 February 2012 12:48

ALEXANDER McCall Smith’s “daily novel” of life in Edinburgh’s New Town, first published in The Scotsman, is to be turned into a radio series for the BBC.

The adaptation of 44 Scotland Street, written by McCall Smith, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from Monday, 30 April at 10.45am, during Woman’s Hour, with repeats at 7.45pm.

It is expected to attract an audience of about one million.

The scripts for the five 15-minute episodes will be based on the first book in the series, written for The Scotsman eight years ago. If the first batch prove popular, other books in the series could be adapted.

The project is led by radio drama producer David Ian Neville, who asked McCall Smith whether he would be interested in writing a radio version in October last year.

He said: “I’d seen 44 Scotland Street in The Scotsman and read the books and wondered why we hadn’t already done something on them for radio. 44 Scotland Street might seem very local and particular to Edinburgh, but actually there’s a universal quality to it.”

McCall Smith had written two plays for Radio Scotland even before the worldwide success of his No1 Ladies Detective Agency books. He has now written 22 radio plays based on his Botswana-set series.

“The 15-minute dramas are slightly different,” said Mr Neville. “Not everyone may hear all five of them yet the listener has to be able to work out what is going on even if they only catch one episode.

“But then the same thing applies in a newspaper too.”

One of the ways in which the radio version of 44 Scotland Street will differ from the print one will be the enhanced role that Mr Neville suggested be given to Domenica MacDonald, the freelance anthropologist who lives at the top of the stair above Irene and Stuart Pollock and their prodigiously gifted six-year-old son Bertie. In the radio version, Domenica will also be the narrator.

While critics throughout the world – and even in Glasgow – have warmed to the charm, wit and wisdom of the series, won’t it too gently-paced to be compelling drama?

“You don’t need big story movements for good drama,” Mr Neville pointed out. “Sometimes those dramas can be the most engrossing. Think of Alan Plater or Jack Rosenthal, those masters of gentle, moving stories. There’s something of that in the way in which Alexander McCall Smith deals with his characters.”

McCall Smith said writing radio plays is “relatively straightforward once you have grasped the convention that the listeners can’t see anything and that none of the scenes can go on for hours. It’s really just a question of cutting and reducing things to a smaller compass”. He added: “David has been hugely helpful and I am grateful to him for giving me the chance of looking at Scotland Street from a slightly different angle and seeing whether I could bring those voices – which from my mail I know mean a lot to many people – to life in a different medium.”

Mr Neville, who is a playwright himself, as well as an experienced radio drama producer, has an excellent track record in adapting much-loved novels: in 2009, for example, he produced Gerda Stevenson’s version of Sunset Song, also for Radio 4.

He is in the process of casting for the lead roles in Scotland Street – where of course the actors needn’t have the slightest physical resemblance to the fictional characters. On Radio 4, 44 Scotland Street’s Bruce Anderson, for example, needn’t even be remotely good looking.

“It’s odd,” he said. “I used to work on The Archers, and I could be in the studio for hours on end directing the cast, and yet a couple of days later I could have the radio on and instead of seeing their faces I’d be visualising the world of Ambridge as I had always imagined it myself.”

At the end of April and the start of May, a million people in Britain will be doing just the same with a certain address in Edinburgh’s New Town.

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gus1940

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 09:03 PM

If BBC Scotland could escape form their fixation with pumping out rubbish about Glasgow Low Life and made this a TV series to be proud of it would be a significant step forward. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naturally it suits their political agenda to portray the norm in Scotland as non-aspirational low life - it's part of the Too Wee, Too Poor, Too Stupid propaganda angle.

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Sally Longlegs

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 05:11 PM

Wee Bertie is brilliant. I have read them all and never fail to laugh.

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9

Mark Bishop

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 02:06 PM

4 toblerone. Err yes, that is how Botswanan and Kenyan Africans talk. Their mannerism is to repeat what you said to show that they understand what you are talking about. It also avoids offence by blurting out something that is irrelevant and not thought out. You might like to travel there to see what I mean and possibly adopt that mannerism. 1 Charles, you obviously are not au fait with Radio 4 listeners. They tend to be educated and well read. It might help to listen to it a bit more yourself to understand the attraction. I enjoy Radio 4. The plays, news bulletins and things like The News Quiz, Sorry I haven't a Clue and Just a Minute are quick witted and swear free. It might be a tad too intellectual for some people, but it's like playing a game of eg Tennis. No matter how bad you are at playing, if you play with someone who is of a higher skill, your game improves. I'm sorry if that analogy was too deep for you.

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Niebiosa tam sa naprawde nieskrzydlowe ludzie tam

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:23 PM

Alec ,get the pints in for yer pals !

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Niebiosa tam sa naprawde nieskrzydlowe ludzie tam

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 11:16 AM

Why is this a "top" story ?

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Cynicus

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 11:13 AM

"Only the select few listen to BBC Radio 4......"-#1, Charles Linskaill ==================================================== Thank you, Charles, I always think of myself as one of a select few -although I never thought listening to TODAY had much to do with it! ==================================================== Congratulations on knowing the terminology, I thought you would refer to The Home Service. (Incidentally, I frequently listen to The Third programme as well).

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The Ayrshire Bard

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 10:23 AM

#1 Charles Linskaill Charles, you really should try and get out more often, preferably beyond your favourite shop, Poundland. I'm afraid that 44, Scotland Street will be a bit beyond you as the characters seldom venture out of the New Town and have never been known to venture beyond Valvona and Crollas in Elm Row.

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toblerone

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 08:24 AM

Pity, MCCall Smith is writing the screen play. His last effort at radio version of his books (the number 1 detective agency) is legendary for the sheer awfulness of the script. Basically every character just repeats (very slowly) what the previous character has just said.

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Hector the Lessor

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:03 AM

I used to enjoy "Dick Barton, Special Agent" on the radio. Well along with Tommy Handley, the Goon Show and Valentine Dyall, the Man in Black. Totally tremendous. They do not make radio programs the same way as they made them in the good old days.

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the keeper

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 06:13 AM

The Morning Drama on Radio 4 has a daily audience of between 850,000 and 1,000,000. The "select few"? Go and get educated instead of spraffing pash on here.

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Charles Linskaill

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:27 AM

BBC Radio 4, expected to attract an audience of about one million, a more than a slight exaggeration, Only the select few listen to BBC Radio 4, I'm surprised they have an audience.

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