Early in 2017, BBC Radio 4 Producer Paul Dodgson came to Somewhere Else Writers to run a workshop on writing radio drama. For one of the exercises he asked us to write dialog inspired by, or even from the POV of the shoes we happened to be wearing.
I had the good fortune to be wearing some interesting shoes, a pair of Burton desert boots, bought for a £5 as they didn’t match, one of them having been left out in the sun for too long. I gave them completely different characters – Left is laid back and philosophical where Right is anxious and bitter.
The piece worked so well that I decided to complete the story: two shoes going through an existential crisis – perhaps a long dark night of the soul?! Realising they may be reaching the end of their life when one sustains damage, they debate what may happen to them, is there a chance of an afterlife for shoes?
It was great fun to write and Graham Fletcher agreed to play both parts when I recorded it. Before I could finish the mix for Corinium Radio, York-based Off The Rock productions issued a call for radio scripts for their Sound Waves series so I submitted the script for Destiny of Shoes. The script made the shortlist and (I learned this week) has been selected for recording later in the year.
Stephen Connolly Writer 