Why are the likes of Willy Russell still prepared to write for plays for BBC Education?
On Friday, a 30-minute Willy Russell play goes out on BBC, and is expected to get disasterous viewing figures. Fewer than half a million people will watch Terraces, a story about how residents of a Liverpool street gang up on the one man who refuses to paint his house the colour of the local football team It should be said, though that the size of the audience relates not to the quality of the play, but to the fact that it’s being broadcast not in the evening – but at lunchtime. Friday at 1pm is the berth allocated to Scene, the drama flagship of BBC Education. Unseen by the nation’s grown-ups, unnoticed by all except watching sixth-formers and video recorders, Scene each week puts out an original half-hour drama – and has been doing so for the past 27 years. Whereas the Wednesday Play has fallen by the wayside, Scene has carried on, and can claim the biggest names in theatre as its past alumni. Tom Stoppard, John Godber and Edward Bond have all done work for Scene, and this season – s
