This site was built by me, Neil Noon, with Project funding gratefully received from the Arts Council England.
It’s a wonderful thing that they’re willing to support an emerging art form - and platform - that offers artists an accessible route to incredibly wide audiences. I know that Creative Scotland are supporting folk over the border, too.
Likewise, I must thank the creators of and contributors to the scripted podcasts featured so far - with more to follow (see the blog for news on this front).
Everyone was so smart and so fun - but, more importantly, so willing to talk through even their most embarrassing mistakes - which is a gift to all who come after.
Finally, see below for short bios of myself and my wise and well-conected consultants on the project, Ella Watts and Rob Christopher.
Neil Noon
Neil Noon was a music journalist in a previous life, is from the North, and has had fiction and drama broadcast on BBC Radio 4, among many other much less impressive-sounding things and numberless near-misses.
After selling an audio series that never got made, he’s spent the last couple of years learning to do all the exhausting things that go into making your own scripted podcast. In this, he was helped by a DYCP Grant from Arts Council England, the Shared Prosperity Fund (via Brighton & Hove Council), and the New Enterprise Allowance - plus the wide-ranging advice highlighted on this site.
The eventual result of all this is a self-produced 10-part series, Endless Refill - finally - arriving this year, ‘following a violent death at a small town advertising agency’. More at endlessrefill.com from July.
Ella Watts
“With a background in criticism and journalism, Ella has a keen nose for where the audio industry has come from and where it is headed. She's a sought-after consultant, offering her insights to organizations including BBC Sounds, BBC Radio 4, BBC Studios, Audible, the London Podcast Festival, and the Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio. Her research and analysis have made her a trusted advisor in the field.
As a director, Ella has worked for the BBC, Six to Start, Marvel, and numerous independent podcasts. She takes a particular joy in working with actors, translating scripts into sound and working out how to get the best performance from the whole cast. Ella's head is a rolodex of talent and she takes pride in her ability to cast widely and precisely. Ella is particularly committed to promoting talent from under-represented groups.
Ella was the driving force behind the successful Doctor Who: Redacted podcast, pitching and producing the first season. Her other producing work includes Crowd Network's Eliza: A Robot Story, the BBC Radio 4 stalwart Quote... Unquote and a plethora of independently produced podcasts. These include but are not limited to Re: Dracula, which she directed, and The Tower, which she Executive Produced.”
Rob Christopher
“The Cambridge Geek (or ‘Rob’) took a passing whim of writing a blog way too far and now has this review website which he obsessively updates as near to daily as possible. If you want something a bit more personal than that, then you may be interested to know that he's an engineer, not any form of creative or coding whiz, so that's his excuse for any website or language failings.”
I’m sure he won’t mind me adding that he’s among the most dedicated signal-boosters of (especially new / small) scripted podcasts out there - via audiofiction.co.uk and his Audio Drama Debut Twitter account.