‘Primal memories’: How radio plays are making an unlikely comeback
He came to fame with his on-screen work, but actor Ryan Corr is a big fan of audio storytelling – he says it allows an audience to do their own work to create the story.
The Packed to the Rafters star, recently seen in House of the Dragon and US thriller Catching Dust alongside Jai Courtney, is now lending his voice to the new Audible Australia “full-cast immersive audio experience” The Winning Formula.
Ryan Corr, Maddy MacRae and Tai Hara star in the latest Australian audio drama.Credit: Wolter Peeters
He says the audio-only medium allows the audience into a “private world” where one’s own imagination is required to “fill in the gaps”.
“It’s an opportunity to slow down and take in a long-form story and narrative from A to B, and not just have these bite-sized endorphin hits,” Corr said.
“It’s trying to bridge the gap somewhat between the TikTok audience and lessening attention span, and making that a more dynamic experience for the listener, and enabling them to do that in the busy lives that we lead.”
The new romantic drama set in the world of racing also features Home and Away star Tai Hara, veteran screen star Vince Colosimo, stage and TV actor Lucy Bell, McLeod’s Daughters alumnus Aaron Jeffery and podcaster and TikTok content creator Maddy MacRae, who has become a huge fan of audio entertainment.
The Winning Formula cast (from left): Aaron, Jeffery, Ryan Corr, Vince Colosimo, Maddy MacRae, Lucy Bell and Tai Hara. Credit: Wolter Peeters
“I walk my dog a lot, so that’s a really great time for me to be listening,” MacRae said. “They’re a really great way for people to listen to books because we’re all so busy.”
Meanwhile, the Audible Asia-Pacific head Leanne Cartwright-Bradford says audio dramas and books alike create an immersive experience “beyond words on a page”.
“Oral storytelling is often the first encounter many of us had with the imagined worlds of fiction as children, and with audio dramas, we’re tapping back into that primal memory,” Cartwright-Bradford said. “A great audio drama leans into its format, understanding how pacing, tone, characters and cadence can all be intentionally wielded to enhance the listening experience.”
The rise of podcasts and other audio entertainment has breathed new life into demand for audiobooks and audio dramas – full-cast radio plays complete with sound effects, a kind of cinema for the mind in digital form.
Radio dramas were a staple in the first years of broadcasting but were eventually eclipsed by the arrival of television. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia identifies the 1930s to the 1950s as the peak period for radio drama in this country, though it never really left the BBC.
The BBC enjoyed huge success in the 1980s with an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings and its original production The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which spawned bestselling books, a TV series and a 2005 movie starring Martin Freeman. Its soap opera series The Archers, first broadcast in 1961, is still being produced.
But the explosion of podcasting in the late 2000s spawned a new wave of audio drama production worldwide.
US zombie epic We’re Alive debuted in 2009, while podcasting was still in its infancy, and wrapped up in 2014 – it has now racked up 250 million downloads. Meanwhile, US horror audio drama comedy Welcome to Night Vale premiered in 2012 and has since spawned several spinoffs, all of which have amassed more than 330 million downloads.
Some audio dramas have even been adapted into TV series: perhaps, most notably, the paranormal conspiracy thriller Limetown, starring Jessica Biel and Stanley Tucci, the psychological thriller Homecoming, with Julia Roberts and Bobby Cannavale.
Australian audio drama creators are also thriving. Last year, the indie horror Hovering was picked up and distributed by US audio drama studio Realm, and just a few months ago the psychological thriller The Remains was crowned best fiction podcast of the year at the Australian Podcast Awards, amid a crowded field.
These are all available free of charge through podcatchers such as Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Over Cast or whatever other podcast app you’re using. Just look up “fiction” while you’re browsing, and if you’re already subscribing to Spotify, you can find many of them there too.
Although you will need an Audible subscription to access The Winning Formula and other Audible Australia original audio dramas, including 2019’s The Goodbye Party, starring Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road, Jack Irish) and Steve Bisley (Water Rats, Mad Max), and 2021’s murder mystery The Orchard, starring Eric Bana, there are a lot to choose from.
Since 2019, Audible has produced 37 multi-cast fiction Audible Originals in Australia, including multi-cast audio dramas, audiobooks and podcasts.
So whether it’s the free audible fiction available through your podcast app or the myriad options available through Audible, you’ll find something to keep you entertained while you attend to the demands of daily life.