SIR,—Dr. Charles Hill says that a broadcast script should be
first dictated. "Only in this way can one be sure that when the script is read it will bear a reasonable resemblance to the spoken word." The script must then receive medical attention. "The first dictation-completed, the next step is to eliminate the wastage." Precisely. We have to cut it down. We don't broadcast as we talk. For one thing there isn't time. For another, we should soon bore our listeners if we did. The cutting to be done in the dictated broadcast script shows how much unlike the spoken word a good talk really is.
The late John Hilton persuaded me to write my scripts as he did. To write them to the sound of the words—to hear the written word. The broadcast script should be neither a truncated lecture nor a written essay. It must have a special design for the disembodied voice. Personally I have always found it hard work, and I know that John Hilton did. I am not sure either about the importance of being "natural." What the listener wants is a good broadcast, and a good broadcast is a branch of dramatic
art.—Yours, &c., DOUGLAS HOUGHTON. 7 St. George's Square. Westminster, S.W.I.
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