Recorded on a bird reserve in Norfolk, the first instalment of this new Radio 4 play sees its stars bring their A-game using sound alone
Casting stage and screen stars in a radio play brings gain and loss. The positive is publicity: Song of the Reed: Swallowtail – the first of four dramas set and recorded on a nature reserve in each season of the year – has had so many trails that audiences may have assumed it to be a TV show, rather than that BBC Radio 4 was celebrating having nabbed Mark Rylance and Sophie Okonedo.
The negative of famous faces on the wireless is that half of their recognisability becomes irrelevant. But no one becomes a great actor without an outstanding larynx, and Rylance and Okonedo clearly enjoy characterisation through sound alone.