My Experience as a Multitrack Fellow
How I went from knowing nothing about the audio industry to producing an audio drama with Bespoken Media for BBC Radio 4
In Summer 2024 I was thrilled to be accepted onto the Multitrack Fellowship!
If you haven’t heard, Multitrack is a brilliant charity to make the audio community better. The entry level Multitrack Fellowship, which first launched in 2019, aims to open doors to people who may face barriers entering the audio industry based on race or ethnicity, socioeconomic background and/or disability.
I applied in the hopes that I would learn how audio dramas, documentaries and podcasts were made professionally, meet new people who shared the same enthusiasm for audio storytelling as me and figure out what on Earth a producer actually does.
After nervously babbling my way through an interview, I was selected for the fellowship and completed a three month, full time placement split between Absolutely Productions and Bespoken Media!
At Bespoken I had the opportunity to contribute research to and edit podcasts like Aberdeen University’s Beyond Boundaries podcast, OnFarm, a series about Scottish farming, and My Family, Mental Illness, and Me, a show that supports the children of parents with mental illness.
I enjoyed the range of podcasts here as each one brought a new tone and pace to consider. Over the placement I also started taking more editorial control; being able to work on these was incredibly helpful to build confidence and add to my portfolio.
Bespoken were also brilliant at facilitating for me to join commissioning meetings, recording sessions for other programmes and idea development meetings. Sitting in on these different conversations gave me a much better understanding of the process of how a programme actually gets made.
At the end of my placement, the Multitrack Fellows had the opportunity to pitch to BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC Sounds Audio Lab in a ring-fenced commissioning round.
I was delighted to be paired with the knowledgeable team at Bespoken for this, with Carys Wall taking on the role of Executive Producer.
I pitched a couple of ideas. One was nature in cities. The other was a satirical comedy called A Northerner’s Guide To London. I was concerned that A Northerner’s Guide To London didn’t hit the brief as much as the nature themed pitch, but it felt more closely aligned with my love of comedy and audio drama, which made it all the more exciting when it was commissioned!
The piece was inspired by trips I had taken to London as part of Multitrack training days; the first times I had been to London as an adult. Once I got over how busy it was, I found the city and its quirks to be quite amusing in comparison to the stereotypical friendly and slower pace of the North. As for the 1940s guide, a posh, slightly patronising character just felt right.
Before Multitrack, I had written and made short audio sketches and practiced writing for a non-visual medium. A Northerner’s Guide To London however was much bigger than anything I had made so far, so we brought on board Tom McLean to be a script consultant who was brilliant at helping me with proper formatting, pacing and some jokes.
During production I also went to London to record specific train and tube announcements, traffic and general city noise.
I was lucky to find a brilliant cast of people to take part, with Freddie Bolt taking on the role of the protagonist, Ben. I also loved playing the Guide.
Directing was something I didn’t have as much experience in, but I really enjoyed the process. I was grateful to Bespoken’s own Patrick Wallace (who also plays the voice of Jack) for giving me some excellent tips on effective communication that I’ll bring with me to future projects.
A Northerner’s Guide To London was my first professional project as a writer and producer. I’m so pleased with how it’s turned out and I’m really grateful to Carys and everyone at Bespoken for their support.
You can listen to A Northerner’s Guide To London on BBC Sounds along with other brilliant pieces from Multitrack alumni.
Author
Antonia Gospel
