The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award has run every two years since 1992. Supported by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Writersoom, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Drama North and the Bradley family, it has helped to launch many brilliant new writers based in the North of England. Alfred's son, Jez Bradley has given us some insights into his father's life and work as well as his passion for Radio.
Alfred Bradley in the studio
Alfred Bradley had great success with a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ radio programme called the Northern Drift that was produced in Leeds from 1964 and ran for ten years. It was developed with , a young architect who later became a well-known playwright.
Alfred and his wife, Judith, had six children of which I was the eldest, and we kids would regularly visit the studio to watch the recordings. Sometimes we would contribute if the program needed a child’s voice to speak, cry or shout. I didn’t always know whom I was meeting at the time but now know that the new actors and writers included: , , , , , , , , , , , and many more Northern voices. was a young production assistant!
Alfred loved the physics of radio. As a child, he built small radio receivers and fitted one into a toy robot so that it appeared to talk. When, aged about nine, I received a transistor radio as a Christmas present, he couldn’t wait to open it up to analyse the circuitry.
He was conscripted in 1943 and became a captain in the Royal Signals, operating radio communications in India, Egypt and Burma. When war ended, the army sponsored him to study a physics course at Oxford University. His first job was at Leicester Theatre (having done army theatre productions) before moving to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ in Leeds. When the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ began to develop broadcast in stereo, Alfred demonstrated how it might be done inexpensively by wiring his domestic hi-fi amplifier into the mixing desk!
Listen to a clip of Alfred Bradley talking about The Northern Drift radio programme
Alfred had a deep love for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, especially in the North. He was later based in Manchester, and even produced The Archers in Birmingham after he had ‘retired’. The irony was that he was brought up in London and went to school in High Wycombe. However, Alfred was born in Newcastle and moved to London when his dad found work as a scenery painter at Pinewood studios.
He had a really strong belief that there was much new Northern talent that needed help to be heard. The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and Bradley family have maintained the Alfred Bursary Award for almost three decades and we are proud of its many successes. We are extremely glad that it continues to encourage and support new writers based in the North of England.
Find out more and meet the previous winners of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award
Download and read scripts by previous winners and runners-up in the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award:
Patterdale by Paul Jones
Monique and Me by Jill O'Halloran
Human Resources by Piers Black
Shamed by Furquan Akhtar
Hangdog by Cat Jones
Abigail Adams by Mark Shand
Visit our Radio Drama Script Library to download and read many more scripts