43 Years in the Third Form

kim · Post by **kim** » 18 Jul 2007, 15:11

Jane Purcell has written five fifteen-minute dramas about Girls' Coimcs from the fifties to the eighties; they will be broadcast Monday (23rd July) to Friday (27th July) at 10.45am & 7.45pm and have the overall title 43 Years in the Third Form. The Radio Times describes them as 'A celebration of the great girls' comics'.

They are in the 'The Woman's Hour Drama' slot, but don't let that put you off.

These are the descriptions given in the Radio Times:

1/5
It's 1952 and 12-year-old Elizabeth tries to read her copy of Girl amid the family mayhem.

2/5
It's 1968 and Elizabeth is taking her 12-year-old daughter to an interview for a scholarship, if she can only get her to get her nose out of Bunty

3/5
It's 1976 and Elizabeth's sister-in-law, Mary, is coping with the onset of puberty, helped only by the advice in Jackie.

4/5
It's election night 1979 and while Mary is out on a date, her twins Lily and Tam are scaring themselves with stories in Misty.

5/5
It's 2007 and 12-year-old Lara, a devotee of Sleb magazine and the mobile phone, discovers the vintage delights of Girl and Bunty.

kim · Post by **kim** » 18 Jul 2007, 16:44

I forgot to mention that the stories are on Radio 4.

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 18 Jul 2007, 20:09

Perchance you can record them and upload accordingly

In the interests of comic archiving of course

Post by **AndyB** » 25 Jul 2007, 23:22

They should be on Listen Again on the BBC website.

7.45pm is a good time to get them live on Radio 4.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 26 Jul 2007, 07:58

AndyB wrote:They should be on Listen Again on the BBC website.

7.45pm is a good time to get them live on Radio 4.

BBC are having dramas with their Listen Again facility. If anyone can get these and saves them, it would be appreciated if you could let me know.

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 26 Jul 2007, 09:38

I hard yesterday's episode (about Jackie) and it was nice enough, but didn't do anything for me. The Jackie references seemed just a novelty and not essential to the (run of the mill) mini-play. A voice over would say headlines like "how to tell if your boyfriend really loves you" or "dear Jackie, do love bites give you cancer?" but the story was basically just a teenage girl doing (very few) teenage girl things. The acting and plot sounded too fake for me. Sorry to be negative, but as a geek I guess I was hoping for more history and less blah. But I'm not the target audience for Woman's Hour. No doubt others thought it was great.

kim · Post by **kim** » 26 Jul 2007, 11:59

tolworthy wrote:Sorry to be negative, but as a geek I guess I was hoping for more history and less blah. But I'm not the target audience for Woman's Hour. No doubt others thought it was great.

I have yet to listen to them all properly, but I had the same hopes and was similarly disappointed. Perhaps my original posting ought to have read They are in the 'The Woman's Hour Drama' slot, do let that put you off.

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 26 Jul 2007, 19:06

kim wrote:
tolworthy wrote:Sorry to be negative, but as a geek I guess I was hoping for more history and less blah. But I'm not the target audience for Woman's Hour. No doubt others thought it was great.
I have yet to listen to them all properly, but I had the same hopes and was similarly disappointed. Perhaps my original posting ought to have read They are in the 'The Woman's Hour Drama' slot, do let that put you off.

All is not lost! Today's was much better (IMO). They simply dramatized girls' horror stories from Misty. I though they were a lot of fun. Maybe the problem with yesterday's Jackie episode is that they missed the whole point: it's a series about comics, and yet the Jackie episode avoided the comics, and instead focused on the advice pages. Bad move. But the Misty episode was more fun. And tomorrow's looks very promising.

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 27 Jul 2007, 18:00

The final episode was OK, but not as good as I'd hoped. It was trailed as being about the Four Marys, so I was looking forward to fifteen minutes of jolly boarding school japes. What we got instead was about three minutes of the Four Marys and the rest was a typical Womans Hour play where they happened to mention comics a few times.

I think it was misleading to present the series as being about the comics, and particularly to present the final episode as about the Four Marys, when the comics were just the backdrop to bog standard run-of-the-mill instantly forgettable modern playlets.

Does anyone remember that award winning Radio 4 comedy show "The Sunday Format"? I was hoping for something like that. Or simply more episodes like the Misty one.

Ah well, it was better than the usual Woman's hour plays. Not that I listen to them regularly or anything. I normally listen to manly shows about beer and war and stuff. Honest.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 27 Jul 2007, 19:05

Currently listening to Thursday's episode and it's seems to be pretty good. Had to download Realplayer to listen to the series. Bit worried about the dodgiest Jock accents since Scottie in Star Trek or Mel Gibson in Braveheart! Sounds more like a Victor story so far.

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