The BBC is launching a monthly 90-minute play slot starting later in the spring on BBC Radio 4.
The show will focus on new audio dramas and original adaptations of classic stage plays.
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 the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), 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.
Campaigners 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 says it welcomes the BBC announcement last night but adds that it is still concerned about the cuts to audio drama at the BBC and its impact on its members.
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.”
Full List of Winners of the 2025 Audio Drama Awards:
• Best Original Single Drama: The Invitation by Katherine Chandler, produced by John Norton, for BBC Audio Wales & West. Special commendation for Nearly Light by Kit Withington, produced by Jelena Budimir at Naked Productions for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Original Series or Serial: Life Lines by Al Smith, produced by Sally Avens at BBC Studios Audio London for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Adaptation: Tam O’Shanter by Robert Burns, adapted by Gary McNair, produced by Kirsty Williams for BBC Audio Scotland. Special commendation for Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, produced by Mary Peate and Jessica Dromgoole at Hooley Productions for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Actor: Sean Bean for his role in Antigone, directed by Pauline Harris at BBC Studios Audio London for BBC Radio 3.
• Best Actress: Cecilia Appiah for her role in Oleanna, directed by Gary Brown for BBC Studios Audio Salford. Special commendations for Michelle Fairley in Hello, I Appear to Have Killed My Husband, directed by Kirsty Williams for BBC Audio Scotland, and Kate O’Flynn in Spores, directed by Nicolas Jackson at Afonica for BBC Radio 3.
• Best Comedy Performance: Rosie Cavaliero in The Train at Platform 4, produced by James Robinson at BBC Studios Audio for BBC Radio 4.
• The Marc Beeby Award for Best Debut Performance: Mae Munuo in Tribe of Two, directed by Jesse Fox at Afonica for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Sitcom or Comedy Drama: Rum Punch by Travis Jay, produced by Daisy Knight at Avalon for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Stand Up or Sketch Comedy: Janey Godley: the C Bomb Series 2 by Janey Godley with Ashley Storrie, produced by Richard Melvin at Dabster Productions for BBC Radio 4. Special commendation for Munya Chawawa’s Election Doom Scroll by Munya Chawawa, Matthew Crosby, James Farmer, and Joe McArdle, produced by Jo Maney and Ben Wicks at Expectation TV for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Use of Sound: Restless Dreams, sound by Eloise Whitmore, produced by Eloise Whitmore and Polly Thomas at Naked Productions for BBC Radio 4.
• Best Podcast Audio Drama: The Skies Are Watching, written and produced by Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto at Goldhawk Productions for BBC Radio 4. Special commendation for Central Intelligence by Greg Haddrick, produced by John Scott Dryden and Emma Hearn at Goldhawk Productions, and executive-produced by Howard Stringer and Jeremy Fox, for BBC Radio 4. Central Intelligence also received an Outstanding Contribution Award.
• Best European Drama: The Fall of Lapinville by Benjamin Abitan, produced by Chloé Asous-Plunian for Arte Radio, France.
• Imison Award: Tether by Isley Lynn, produced by Fay Lomas at BBC Audio Wales and West for BBC Radio 4.
• Tinniswood Award: Man Friday by Edson Burton, produced by Mary Ward-Lowery at BBC Audio Wales and West for BBC Radio 4.