Radio in Review: 'Short Cuts', Radio 4 - This English Life?

Now this is an interesting show, which isn’t to say it is necessarily completely accessible or enjoyable. It should be said that not everything works on this show; however it’s refreshing that something that is genuinely experimental is being played on Radio 4.

It’s a Falling Tree production and is described on the website as:

“A selection of brief encounters – true stories, found sound and radio adventures. A new series for BBC Radio 4, presented by Nina Garthwaite”

Nina Garthwaite

In some ways it’s like ‘This American Life’. Each week has a theme, such as “Divided We Stand” or “Misadventure”, with contributors who narrate tales and ordinary folk telling their own stories. However the style is distinctly British. The pieces bear a similarity to the Hackney Podcast, with a focus on captured sound and, unlike American public radio, usually lack the voice of an interviewer/narrator. The absence of the reflective narrator is used to good effect, creating personal relationship between the listener and the interviewee. Nina Garthwaite has a lovely youthful voice and she does is excellently job of linking the sometimes disparate pieces. The clip below is the introduction to the first episode, 'Misadventures'.

It’s a programme that’s willing to showcase experimental pieces, though it keeps them relatively short and accessible (in contrast to the often over indulgent experimentations found on Resonance FM). However some pieces can be slightly indulgent, having an excessive use on ambient effects, which distract you from the main story as opposed to complimenting it. This is particularly true with the first episode which overlays interview tracks with sounds of birds and other ambient nonsense.

Also, some pieces are a bit too experimental for my liking, such as the third piece from episode two, ‘All you need is a separation barrier’. It consists of someone reading a list of countries and the other nations they border on, all with annoying bleeping sounds and typewriter noises in the background. The piece is pretentious and it’s jarring to hear such an abstract art piece right after a fairly conventional radio story. Below is a short sample.

The pieces that came before were brilliant. A couple spoke about how they met and the adversity they faced when the man was forced into an arranged marriage to his cousin by his parents (a short sample is embedded below). Another piece was an interview with an old man who was a teenage fighter pilot during WW2, who spoke about his objections to the class system during the war and his love of singing. Both stories were lovely and simple, going largely without added sound effects, besides a few pieces of well placed music.

In short, I’m going to be keeping an eye on Shorts Cuts. This programme is helping the BBC catch up with the progress that has been made by American public radio.  It is willing to explore new ways of using radio to tell stories and provide space to an array of inventive producers.

Check it out on the Radio 4 website while you still can:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019m2pj

You can also find out more about the show on the Falling Tree site:
http://www.fallingtree.co.uk/broadcast_history/2012/short_cuts_misadventure