Don Haworth: one of our best radio writers. His work has a very wide range - comedies (Events at the Salamander Hotel, We All Come To It In The End), comments on the morality of war (The Navigator's Log, Talk of Love and War), inverted folk tales (Dragon), philosophy (A View from the Mountain) and even a play where all the speaking parts are taken by plants (On a Day in Summer in a Garden). I have listed his plays and written about some of them; see Don's page .

During the 1980s, Don Haworth was interviewed by Bernard Palmer on the subject of his radio plays. My information is that this was broadcast in New Zealand, and I was recently given a recording. Don talked about the special problems which face the radio writer, and how one might go about solving them.

For copyright reasons I cannot post the recording.

However, it is now nearly 25 years since the interview, and Don Haworth died about three years ago, surprisingly without any mention by the BBC, and no repeats of his plays. The interview will never be broadcast again, and so far as I am aware, has not been officially archived.

His work is of the very highest standard, and so I am assuming that no-one will mind if I post the main substance of the interview on the following pages for the benefit of his fans. I am hoping that Radio 4 Extra will be able to repeat some of his work from time to time.

If anyone owns the copyright of the interview material and regards my use of it as a copyright infringement, please get in touch with me using the 'contact us' button; I do not know how to contact you.

Right - let's go....

next page


INDEX

0. This page: The Art of the Radio Writer..
1. Introduction to Don Haworth..
2. Action and Location..
3. Talk of Love and War..
4. Daybreak..
5. Cuts and Music and Sound Effects..
6. A View from the mountain..
7. Difficulties of writing for Radio..
8. Rhythms of speech; On a Day in Summer in a Garden..
9. Autobiography: Figures in a Bygone Landscape..
10. Lancashire Childhood ..
11. Attention not affection..

Back to top