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Coventry Creates and Upload is about celebrating the local creativity in our area.
Upload is a show where anyone can upload anything, and we are delighted that this Christmas we can share Run Home Production's Upload of ‘Voices Out of the Air’ radio drama by Mark Carey. It tells the story of the first global communication: the first shortwave broadcast to the Empire, the 1934 Christmas Broadcast by the Â鶹Éç.

We'll be playing the radio drama and Rachel New will catch up with the creators to find out how they created this during lockdown.

It's 1934. The Â鶹Éç has come up with an audacious idea…
The plan is to broadcast, for the very first time, live on Christmas day. The estimated audience around the world will be 20 million people. As if this isn't challenging enough, the broadcast will take place from two locations, 125 miles apart: the Royal Estate at Sandringham and the tiny village of Ilmington.

The play follows the true story of how the Â鶹Éç produced the first ever live Christmas address, told through the eyes of a young radio engineer. In the course of the play, we also meet Spenser Flower and Walton Handy, two ordinary men from the Midlands who spoke eloquently to the world in a time when global communication was considered impossible.

Although a period piece, Voices Out of the Air has strong parallels with today's world. In the early 30s technology was changing fast, the monarchy was struggling to retain relevance and the stories of 'ordinary people' were being told.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the story of the 1934 Christmas Broadcast is that it has never been told before, until now.

CAST INCLUDES:
Richard Derrington - Adam Dalgliesh - 'P.D James' Mysteries', Mark Hebden - 'The Archers' (1980-1994)
Alison Belbin - Mrs Tulliver - 'The Mill on the Floss', Susan Garth - 'Middlemarch'
Miles Richardson - George Allen - 'The Crown', Colonel Chadwick - 'Outlander'
Josh Harper - Dec Lonsdale - 'Coronation Street', Alex Redwood - 'The Archers'
Keith Osborn - Sergeant Allbright - 'Father Brown', Marcellus 'Hamlet' (RSC/Â鶹Éç)
Mark Carey - Mr Lockwood - 'Wuthering Heights', John Rossiter - 'Home Front'

By Mark Carey.
Uploaded by Jack Richardson from Run Home Productions https://runhome.co.uk/voices