Radio Programme Analysis

THIS episode is about a man called “Richard Fallon” who is a man who is struggling with a mental issue and is talking to his therapist. The episode opens with the theme music for the show and then leads into the main narrative, Richard goes into detail about all of the issues he’s currently having an episode is mostly filled with him ranting to his therapist about all of the things he’s worried about, he talks a while about how global warming is making him depressed due to the social paradox of being told not to buy things however also being told that they are needed in this daily life; he also talks about how politicians are clueless and talks about how he feels that they only say things to stay in power. The episode then closes with the therapist telling him that they have ran out of time for that session and he leaves as the episode fades into the theme music. Its set in the modern day and touches on many real day problems that many people may be worried about such as who to go to for help when most of the people you are meant to go to are higher up don’t know what they’re doing.

The episode targets an English, male audience who are in their 50’s as the episode gives the perspective of a father of someone who is active in modern political aspects such as being vegan and climate change. We see this at 7:50 – 8:04 when he talks about how he didn’t know how long we had to fix the planet, this displays that it might be aimed for an elder and more “out-of-touch” audience as Richard states “I thought we had 40!”. 

The main narrative device used in the episode is dialogue, its heavily used to represent the setting of a therapist office as we see our main character Richard saying at 12:29 – 12:38 as he talks about how he finds it funny that she gets paid there to just sit and listen, therefore connoting to the fact that this is therapy session. Not only this, but the long string of dialogue from Richard from 3:03 – 12:12 displays that this is also a therapist session as he is mainly talking, this connotes to the idea that she is on the other end listening to this all as we heard her at the start of the episode, therefore reflecting what it would be like in an actual therapist office. 

The episode uses dialogue in order to explain how Richard is struggling with mental issues and we can see this connoted through the episode. At 9:21 we can denote that he states “God, I’m so depressed.” This denote the idea that he is struggling with mental issues in his daily life, however this also connotes that he may reflect the views of some of the population of England, as he says this due to not understanding how we’re meant to stop global warming, which many listeners can closely relate to, therefore it enables the audience to become more engaged in the episode.

The episode also uses dialogue as a gateway into the episode to get people more focused. We can see from 0:00 – 0:14 a melancholy tune plays into the episode and then fades out near the end of that time stamp to acts as a starting point for the episode, but also kind of foreshadowing what the episode will be about. It creates a suspension of disbelief as the audience can hear that the episode is going to start and therefore become prepared and more accepting for the episode. Not only this but it allows the audience to prepare for the episode as it foreshadows what the episode is going to be about so that the audience will know that it is about upsetting topics.

We are also able to hear sound effects used near the start of the episode to further reinforce the setting and create a further suspension of disbelief for the audience. We are able to hear at 0:00 the diegetic sound effect of a page being turned, this (as we learn) is the sound of a folder being flipped through as a therapy session has just started, and by reinforcing this setting that they’re actually inside of a therapy office it creates a further suspension of disbelief by making the audience actually belief what they’re hearing. This then further engages the audience by making the surrounds more realistic.

Overall, the episode is very well made and I would take the use of dialogue and sound effects for my own. The way I would use the dialogue in a similar way to the episode linked is by reflecting the style in which its used, in this episode its used in majority to the person who is speaking to their therapist therefore it displays how a person is actually talking to a therapist and getting things off their chest. I would do something similar in my radio show by having the dialogue patterns match the theme of the episode. Not only this but I would also use the similar aspects of sounds effects that they used in this episode, such as the sound of paper being flicked through to show that this is an official setting which then makes the episode more believe and the environment that the characters are in more believable.