LO2

Radio Drama Ideas

#1 – A divorced man lives in a flat on his own. To compensate for not having a wife or any friends, he owns five strange but friendly talking animals. The animals consist of an obnoxious crab, a responsible turtle, a racist badger, an intelligent Meer cat and his most loyal companion; the loveable dog.

#2 - Two friends travel around the country in their caravan. The caravan is very shabby and breaks down in a different city every week. Each week would include the two guys trying to fix a problem with the terrible vehicle.

#3 - A dim-witted policeman is on the right road for the sack unless he bucks up his ideas and stops letting criminals get away. As he walks home from work one night, he notices a dog in an alley way. Suddenly the dog begins to speak to him, at first the policeman is confused but due to his lack of intelligence, a talking dog is nothing to worry about. He begins talking to the dog, he tells the dog of his misfortune at work and how he’s almost certainly going to get fired. After a long walk home, the policeman makes a deal with the dog. If the policeman lets him into his flat and live there, the dog will help him solve crimes and stop criminals. They agree and become best friends, solving crimes in very unorthodox manners.



Treatment for ANI-MAN

Blurb:

Howard, a lonesome simpleton from New York, returns home from his awful office job to discover four strange zoo animals living in his small flat. There was a Crab, a Badger, a Meerkat and a Tortoise. After the Zoo next to Howard’s flat caught fire, several of the animals escaped and fled the flaming wreck that was once the zoo and four of them broke into Howards flat. At first Howard is angry and confused – however after some convincing from his dog (oh yeah, the dog can talk) he is persuaded to allow the animals to stay until the Zoo is reconstructed.

Howard was very keen to ensure some flat rules were applied before the four got too settled. He quickly realised that none of the animals were going to take much notice and reminded him of his ex-wife; rude and consistently uninterested.

In Howards absence while he was at work, the animal’s chaos that will eventually result in them getting in a spot of trouble. Only when Howard has returned can they begin to fix all the problems that occurred during the day. How long will Howards patience last with the Communist Badger, Castro, the intelligent Meerkat, Gunther, the wise Tortoise, Rufus and the obnoxious Crab, Sargent Snips?

Character Biographies:

Howard – He is a simpleton New Yorker who has recently divorced his wife. He has a terrible job that is going nowhere, his supervisor is always promising pay rises and promotions but he never sees them. Being the push over that he is, there’s no wonder that he is persuaded by four small animals to live in his small flat.

Snoop (The Dog) – He is Howards only real friend. He is the only animal in the house that didn’t come from the zoo. Snoop almost acts as Howard’s conscience in several situations, and has stood loyal to him in hard times including his divorce.

Castro – He is a very reserved badger and likes to keep himself to himself. And due to his communist beliefs it makes it harder for the others in the flat to get along with him. He is always reluctant at first, but will occasionally be found helping out Howard in tough times.

Gunther – Gunther is a very important member of the gang. He can often be found staying up late completing Howard’s overdue paper work. Without Gunther, Howard would probably be unemployed and in a mild state of insanity. Like most Meerkats, Gunther runs out around in a hectic manor for no reason.

Rufus – He is the oldest character at 110 years young. He often compares the tragedy of zoo to the war, quickly losing the concentration of others. Rufus often patronises Howard about his life and his job but only in a jocular manner. He probably wouldn’t do so if Howard didn’t keep referring to him as ‘the turtle’.

Sargent Snips – Snips can often be seen as obnoxious, and most of the time he is. And not just to Howard, the whole group feels his vulgarity. However, beneath his hard exterior, he has a heart of gold.

Storyline:

The drama starts with Howard explaining to his boss that he will complete all the paperwork for his company’s big presentation. On his way home on the train, he picks up a paper to read during the journey. In the opening page of the paper, he reads about the local Zoo near his house had caught fire. He continues to flick through the paper on the rest of his way home. As he approaches the bottom floor of flat he struggles to find his keys amongst all the junk in his briefcase. After some vigorous searching, he finds his key and starts to trudge up 18 flights of stairs. Approaching his flat door, he can hear a lot of noise and hysteria coming from his flat. He anxiously opens the door only to find a badger, a crab, a tortoise, a meerkat and his dog, Snoop, all sat around the table playing poker. Howard gets very confused and angry. He starts trying to ask questions but nothing will come out of his mouth. Snoop quickly jumps away the table and accompanies Howard to the kitchen. Howard asks him what the hell all these animals were doing in his flat and who let them in. Snoop explains that the animals had to escape the burning zoo and had nowhere to go. Whilst Snoop was cleaning, he caught the animals trying to break into the flat, he felt sorry for them after hearing their stories and said can stay until Howard works out what to do with them. Initially Howard just wants rid of them, but Snoop tells him that it’s not that bad and they’re actually nice animals. After hearing Snoop’s explanation, Howard goes back to confront the animals. He begins to ask how long they need to stay, however the animals quickly lose interest and just walk away. Due to Howard’s lack of authority, he doesn’t even bother to call them back and lay down the rules. He turns around and Rufus, the tortoise, tell him (very slowly) that they need somewhere to stay and they won’t be here long. Towards the evening, Howard prepares his microwave meal and sits down to watch deal or no deal. He is trying to watch it but all the animals keep getting in the way and he can’t concentrate. He finally lets out a yell and tells all the animals to gather round and enjoy Noel Edmonds at his finest. None of the animals have seen a television before and are quickly engrossed. They all sit down and watch re-runs of the show several times. When Howard has had enough he gets up to finish his office work for the big presentation. Howard goes to his briefcase that he left open on the floor when he entered the flat but he can’t find the paperwork inside. He quickly goes to tell all the animals to give it back but they just ignore him and carry on watching Noel Edmonds. Howard frantically looks for his work but can’t find it anywhere. That night, after several hours of looking, he finally decides to go to bed. All through the night he thinks of excuses he can tell his boss as to why he hasn’t completed the work. When he has fallen asleep, Gunther, the meerkat, enters Howard’s bedroom with all his completed paper work. Gunther had been away all night completing, as a sort of thanks for letting the animals stay. In the morning, Howard finds all his paper work on top of his suitcase and leaves for work whilst the rest of the animals sleep. Later on, when he returns from work, Howard goes to thank Gunther but he can’t find him. All the animals wine at him for being in the way of the T.V so he just carry’s on with his evening.

Statement of Intent

I believe that I am the best person to create this radio drama because I have been developing these characters for over a year and have a real interest in the production. I have plenty of ideas in terms of storylines, character biographies, and ways to create this production on more than one type of media.