Radio Drama Company

The company has its origins in a short-lived BBC Repertory Drama Company formed in January 1930, but paid off after a few months. For some years BBC Radio and BBC Television simply hired all the actors they needed by the day. However, with the approach of the Second World War, the key executive, Val Gielgud, head of productions at BBC Radio, proposed that an in-house company of actors would be a useful thing to have in time of war. BBC Television was taken off the air on 1 September 1939 and did not return until some years later. According to one source, in September 1939, with the war now declared, actors were hired for a new radio company and sent to live and work at the Wood Norton Broadcasting Centre. Some actors took their families with them and even their pets, Gielgud himself bringing his cats with him. Another source states that this happened in 1940. ==21st century==

In 2015, Rebecca Wilmshurst, BBC production executive for Radio Drama, wrote an article to celebrate the seventy-five years' existence of the company. In the course of this, she boasted that "If your radio script requires actors to be mice, ants, naiads or dryads, men morphing into hares, maggots in a fisherman’s sack, or even a tray of fancy cakes – look no further than to the Radio Drama Company." ==Carleton Hobbs Bursary winners==

Until 1997 two bursaries were awarded each year, in 1998 the number was increased to six, and then in 2003 it fell back to five and in 2004 to four. ==Notable members==

• Bessie Love (1898–1986) • Norman Bird (1924–2005) • Edward Kelsey (1930–2019) • Patrick Godfrey (born 1933) • Lydia Leonard (born 1981) • Robert Lonsdale (born 1983) • Ella Smith (born 1983) • Emerald O'Hanrahan (born 1987) • Elizabeth Rider ==References==