How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development- PDF

80 Chapter Five: Character Development
The writer’s first instinct should be against including a narrator except at
the beginning and end of the drama. A narrator slows the action and breaks
the sense of reality of the story. There are a few occasions, however, when a
narrator—if skillfully employed—can be used in a serial drama. There are
three approaches to narration.
1. The first-person narrator. The major character of the serial introduces
his own story in narrative form and then slips into the role of a character
to bring the tale to life. The first-person narrator is both the teller of the
tale and a participant in it.
In the serial drama, The Doctor’s Diary, an elderly doctor looks back over
his life, recounts some of his adventures, and passes on valuable information
and lessons to the listening audience. Each episode of the serial opens with
the doctor’s narration, as illustrated here:
EXAMPLE
4. DOCTOR:
(as narrator)
It was an extraordinary adventure really. I had never been away
from my own home before, and I was still quite young...barely
twenty five years old. And now the whole responsibility of the
health care of this island was to be on my shoulders. (FADING
OUT) I remember well the day I arrived...
5. MUSIC. DRAMA THEME MUSIC UP :05. CROSS FADE TO FX AND OUT.
6. FX. SOUNDS OF BUSY HARBOR. CAR HORNS. PEOPLE SHOUTING.
ETC. FADE UNDER SPEECH.
7. ELDER: (OFF SLIGHTLY) Ah, doctor, we are so happy that you have
arrived. (ON) We have been waiting for you. There are so many
people ill on our island.
8. DOCTOR: I’m happy to be here, sir. My name is Doctor Lakut. Dr. Leos
(as character) Lakut.
After the doctor’s opening narration, the story shifts to dramatic form,
and the doctor becomes a character in the serial. He will go back into the
role of narrator as required, however, to explain the passage of time, the
movement from one place to another, or the relationship of a past event to
present time.
After the listeners have heard—in dramatic form—the doctor’s
experiences with a bad outbreak of cholera on the island, the doctor switches
back to the role of narrator.