Radio documentaries and features: Invisible achievements

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute towards the development of a radio feature language a crucial link in the development of a radio feature critical culture. Using the work of radio producer Tony Barrell as afocus the author suggests that an almost complete lack of critical literature addressing the radio feature form has allowed radio makers a 'freedom" of sorts from the arguments surrounding the area offilm documentary, where demands for authenticity have dominated.. But does the "ephemeral" rather than "visual" nature of radio allow for wider interpretation of "documentary"? It is proposed that Barrell's radiofeature "hybrid" form be examined in the light of a new "postdocumentary" culture.