The BBC is launching a monthly 90-minute play slot starting later in the spring on BBC Radio 4, which will focus on new audio dramas and original adaptations of classic stage plays. These will sit alongside the very best of the recent archive.
The news was announced at the annual BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony at Broadcasting House in London last night (30 March 2025) by Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore.
It follows months of campaigning by WGGB and sister unions and the audio drama community, following the announcement earlier this year that the broadcaster was planning to axe all audio drama from Radio 3.
In January, WGGB – alongside the Society of Authors and Equity – launched a petition, which has now reached over 10,000 signatures, calling on BBC Director-General Tim Davie to rethink the broadcaster’s damaging decision to remove all audio drama from Radio 3, effectively wiping out the only platform for 90-minute full-length radio plays in the UK.
Our members have written to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy MP and on World Radio Day in February took to social media to share videos of why audio drama is so important to them and the wider audio drama ecosystem, and why we must Save Audio Drama a the BBC.
WGGB welcomes the BBC announcement last night and the fact that the broadcaster has listened to the outcry from our members and others in the audio drama community. We welcome the news that the 90-minute play, rather than consigned to history, will now find a permanent home on Radio 4. We are however still concerned about the cuts to audio drama at the BBC and its impact on our members and this is something we will continue to raise as a matter of urgency with the broadcaster in our regular forum with them.
Thank you to our many members who have taken part in our campaign.
WGGB Audio Co-Chair Nicola Baldwin said:
“We are very pleased that BBC Radio 4 will be introducing a new 90-minute play. Last night’s announcement belongs to the hundreds of writers, actors, producers – and thousands of listeners – who have campaigned to #SaveAudioDrama at the BBC, who believe that making free-to-listen, high-quality, full-length audio available to anyone anywhere in the UK is a core responsibility of the BBC’s Public Service mission. As this year’s Tinniswood-shortlisted plays demonstrate, audio drama transports us into the world of a story for a fraction of the production cost of film and television. We are delighted that new listeners are discovering BBC audio drama through our campaign and hope Radio 3 will, in time, also rejoin The National Theatre of the Airwaves.”