Vote now for the Radio Times Readers' Drama Award at the BBC Audio Drama Awards
Have your say and vote now!
Radio is famously the “theatre of the mind” and that’s most apparent in audio drama, where listeners can be transported from a cosy village pub to the far reaches of the galaxy, all from the comfort of their bed, bath or beyond.
Alison Hindell, commissioning editor for drama and fiction at Radio 4, says the best audio drama “enlightens and illuminates, leading the listener into lives they will never lead and to places they may never go. Every listener will experience an entirely unique production, and be touched in different, individual ways, because for each of us it all happens within our own imaginations.”
To celebrate this transportive genre, we have established our own Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award, for dramas broadcast or released between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2025, and now invite you to vote for your favourite from a 30-strong shortlist (see below along with clips to jog your memory) drawn up by a panel of our expert critics.
They range from gritty one-man shows to star-laden adaptations of literary classics and from meditative pieces on loss to heart-thumping thrillers.
Chris Jones, senior director of production for Europe at Audible, highlights the three elements that comprise good dramas: “First, writing – a script designed to be heard, where every line of dialogue, every breath, sound effect or moment of silence earns its place to reveal character or carry action.
"Then, casting – the right actor doesn’t just read lines, they embody the character. Lastly, sound design – treating the acoustics of an environment or the footsteps of a character not as background, but as storytelling itself.”
Bear these in mind when you cast your vote. The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20 February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1 March and revealed in the issue of Radio Times on sale Tuesday 3 March.
The vote follows below - make sure you choose carefully as you only have one vote. The shortlist is below.
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Radio Times Readers’ Drama Award shortlist
Gatsby in Harlem - Radio 3
Ncuti Gatwa, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Malachi Kirby star in Roy Williams’s re-imagining of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic on the streets of Harlem.
Central Intelligence - Radio 4
Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn return in the second series of the drama about the CIA.
Moorgate - Radio 4
Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s retelling of the 1975 Moorgate Tube disaster, in which Marks’s father died.
One Hundred and Fifty Days - Radio 4
A posthumous play from dramatist Oliver Emanuel, comprising his unfinished last audio drama and his writing about his brain cancer.
The Fever - Radio 4
Cate Blanchett performs Wallace Shawn’s polemic monologue about global trade, adapted from his play.
Buzz: the Man and the Moon - Podcast
John Lithgow stars as Buzz Aldrin in a series that delves into the Apollo 11 astronaut’s complex personality and issues.
Star - Radio 3
Drama from Sarah Wooley about the making of the movie A Star Is Born, Judy Garland’s 1950s comeback bid.
Breaking the Rules: O Is for Orson - Radio 4
A dramatisation of the events behind the making of Orson Welles’s masterpiece, Citizen Kane.
When Alan Met Ray - Radio 4
Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield star in the story of the beginning of the Galton and Simpson writing partnership, famous for Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.
Waiting for Waiting for Godot - Radio 4
Adrian Edmondson writes and stars in a play about a play disrupted by lockdown.
The Film - Radio 4
Retelling the wartime role of Alfred Hitchcock in bringing the horrors of Bergen-Belsen to the wider world.
An Inspector Calls on Moscow - Radio 4
Rory Kinnear stars as JB Priestley in a recounting of how his play An Inspector Calls came to be premiered in Soviet Russia.
Secrets and Lies: Mona Best and the Beatles - Radio 4
A reimagining of the integral part Mona Best, Pete’s mum, played in the Beatles’ early years.
High Cockalorum - Radio 4
Jeremy Dyson’s Bradford-based play about a young lad’s encounter with Hollywood royalty. With Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Monica Dolan.
Samhain - Radio 4
Drama infused with storytelling and song, inspired by the myths and rituals surrounding the pagan festival of Samhain.
Aldrich Kemp and the Rose of Pamir - Radio 4
The latest series of the spy thriller sees Clara Page and Aldrich Kemp on a hunt across the globe.
Exemplar - Radio 4
The second series of the award-winning series about forensic audio analysts, starring Gina McKee.
Murder in Aland - Radio 4
A Baltic noir in which a murder on a storm-lashed island draws a grieving investigator and a retired officer into a web of espionage, betrayal – and forbidden love.
It Can’t Happen Here - Radio 4
Sinclair Lewis’s prescient 1936 satirical novel about the rise of an unlikely US president, adapted for radio by Mike Walker.
Faith Healer - Radio 4
A radio adaptation of Brian Friel’s acclaimed stage play telling the story of a charismatic travelling healer, starring Aidan Gillen, Michelle Fairley and Daniel Mays.
Up in Smoke - Podcast
Adam Buxton and Mei Mac star in a “true crime podcast” about a fictional event, a house fire in a small village that supposedly left a teenager dead.
Chicken Burger N Chips - Radio 4
An adaptation of Corey Bovell’s one-man play, a raw coming-of-age story about growing up in a changing south London.
The Yafa Cherry Orchard - Radio 4
Hassan Abdulrazzak relocates Chekhov’s masterpiece to Palestine as an aristocratic family attempt to hang on to their estate during the country’s partition in 1948.
The ABC Murders - Audible
Peter Dinklage leads a starry cast as Hercule Poirot in Audible’s Agatha Christie dramatisation.
Secrets and Lies: The Final Touch - Radio 4
Roy Williams’s story of warring brothers, born to West Indian parents and fostered to a white couple, trying to make it as professional footballers.
King Lear - Radio 4
At the age of 88, Richard Wilson takes on Shakespeare’s great role for the first time. With Greta Scacchi, Tamsin Greig, Phoebe-Loveday Raymond, Toby Jones and David Tennant.
Only One Word for Love - Radio 4
Jessica Raine and Rupert Evans star in Susie Dent and Peter Souter’s play about love, recovery and lexicography.
When Maggie Met Larry - Radio 4
Frances Barber and Derek Jacobi star as Margaret Thatcher and Laurence Olivier in a reimagining of their meetings in which Larry taught Maggie how to project her voice.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Radio 4
Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of the late Marina Lewycka’s witty and tender novel about emigrating and immigration, sisterly rivalry and the lure of a green satin brassiere.
Hersey’s Hiroshima - Radio 4
A dramatisation of John Hersey’s New Yorker account of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, written after two weeks spent interviewing citizens in the city.
The vote closes at 11:59pm on Friday 20th February and the winner will be announced at the BBC Audio Drama Awards ceremony on Sunday 1st March.
For more recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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