{"id":48429,"date":"2024-03-25T14:26:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T13:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2014750"},"modified":"2024-03-25T14:33:21","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T13:33:21","slug":"rosamund-pike-on-winning-a-bbc-audio-drama-award-her-love-for-the-medium-and-why-you-wont-hear-her-in-the-archers","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/rosamund-pike-on-winning-a-bbc-audio-drama-award-her-love-for-the-medium-and-why-you-wont-hear-her-in-the-archers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosamund Pike on winning a BBC Audio Drama Award, her love for the medium \u2013 and why you won\u2019t hear her in The Archers"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I’m not really a guest appearance kind.” <\/p>

By David Crawford\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 25 March 2024 at 13:26 PM<\/p>

\n\n

On Sunday night at the BBC Radio Theatre in London, Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya presented Rosamund Pike with the Best Actress gong at the BBC Audio Drama Awards, for her starring role in the podcast drama People Who Knew Me<\/a> adapted by theatre writer Daniella Isaacs from Kim Hooper\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n

She played New Yorker Emily, who uses the horror of the 9\/11 attacks as an opportunity to flee a difficult family situation and set up a new life in California as Connie Pryne, bringing up a daughter, Claire, on her own. Yet 14 years later, when she receives a cancer diagnosis, she realises she must confront the life she ran away from, if only for the sake of Claire.<\/p>\n

Talking to Radio Times<\/strong> backstage in Broadcasting House, Pike says of the award: \u201cAudio is a very personal passion for me, I grew up travelling with my parents on long car journeys and the thing that got me through those journeys was a box of 16 tapes that contained a whole book. And it was an illustrious panel of judges for this award; it\u2019s very meaningful when the people on the judging committee are all actors and that this show moved them enough to vote for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking further about her early years, when she first became aware of audio drama, Pike reveals that Margot Boyd, who played Mrs Antrobus in The Archers from 1984 to 2004, used to live in the next block of flats over from her childhood home. \u201cShe was my first real contact with a real actress, so she was my idea of what an actress looked like.\u201d And like for many of us, The Archers is emblematic for her: \u201cThe music and hearing that was I suppose what everyone thought of as audio drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rosamund\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Rosamund Pike in People Who Knew Me<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Given her early associations with The Archers, would she follow in the footsteps of the likes of Queen Camilla, Princess Margaret, Sir Terry Wogan, Dame Judi Dench and, er, Rylan, and make a guest appearance in Ambridge? \u201cI\u2019m not really a guest appearance kind. I feel there is sort of leaders and there are followers and I think I prefer to be the leader. I like to set the tone rather than try to catch up to it, and that\u2019s generally in life, in all things, that\u2019s not just about work.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she may not be turning up for a pint in The Bull with Eddie Grundy, her love for working in audio is apparent: \u201cI love the free rein the imagination gets. It\u2019s a bit like the performance is the equivalent of the rehearsal room for a play, where you can be completely the person in your head but it doesn\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t yet look like the person. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve got a spot that day or you\u2019ve got a bruise. It\u2019s that freedom I love. With People Who Knew Me, I can play the character in her 20s and 40 because I can make my voice sound younger, but I can\u2019t make myself look like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s quick to squash the idea that not having to be in hair and make-up for hours and worry about facial expressions makes playing a role in an audio drama any easier: \u201cYou\u2019ve still got to find the character within yourself, and there\u2019s actually more care of whether your voice sounds \u2018clicky\u2019 or whether you have a cold, which I did have during part of People Who Knew Me, because suddenly you\u2019re hyper aware of every little way it changes your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rosamund\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Rosamund Pike, Daniella Isaacs and Hugh Laurie recording People Who Knew Me.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

While many people may be aware of singers and actors drinking warm honey and lemon drinks to protect their voices, Pike shares another trick of the recording booth \u2013 always have a supply of green apples. \u201cIf your voice is a bit sticky, take a couple of bites of a green apple and the high quantity of pectin cuts through that stickiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writer Daniella Isaacs also directed the drama and the way she recorded, eschewing the traditional radio drama set-up of actors in front of microphone stands, scripts in hand, in favour of the actors wearing headset mics and using tablets for scripts so they could be mobile and as naturalistic as possible, was something that Pike enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have critiqued audio drama in the past for being slightly stilted, but the modern technology means we can be very free. Daniella wanted it to sound like eavesdropping and it was the first time I\u2019d done an audio drama where you could embrace somebody or somebody could cry into your shoulder or you could eat a baguette and all that sound would be captured. She wanted to hear mouth noises, sniffs, chewing, snivelling, breathing, catches of emotion, voice cracking. She encouraged us to play and live the scenes. It certainly was [liberating].\u201d<\/p>

At a time when radio drama budgets are increasingly feeling the squeeze, Pike sees the virtue in what you can do with sound versus a visual medium: \u201cI think what\u2019s brilliant is when a story that is big can be contained within the audio space. So this [People Who Knew Me] with 9\/11 and all the huge things that happen in it, it would have been a very, very expensive television production, and we were able to do it and make it real for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

On collecting her award, Pike said she was surprised that the drama would be broadcast on Radio 4 in the Book at Bedtime slot, as she thought it a harrowing listen and was worried it would disrupt listeners\u2019 sleep. Speaking backstage she revealed the effect the role had on her: \u201cThe way I feel about Connie\/Emily, when I got to the end of [listening to] the story, I found myself right back there, feeling her feelings again. [By the end] I sort of got choked up, because it feels like something I\u2019ve lived and inhabited.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the power of audio drama.<\/p>\n

Full list of winners at the BBC Audio Drama Awards<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Best Original Single Drama<\/strong><\/p>\n