Front Page Drama

When I read that one of these stories was telling us that a comet could strike the Earth, that the story revolved around the official dilemma of secrecy over dissemination and that the crux of the show would be the personal relationships and the responses by the 'ordinary' people to imminent doom I didn't even flinch.

We've been hearing it for years on TV and in movies just how Earth-shattering disasters are all but imminent. In "The Day After Tomorrow" Dennis Quaid tells the President that once upon a time we all froze rock-solid in under three minutes and it's gonna happen again. In "Core" Aaron Eckhart tells the President that the Earth's core has stopped spinning and we're all gonna turn into TV dinners - PING! And of course there's the conjoined twins of mega destruction movies "Armageddon" & "Deep Impact" where Somebody tells the President... are you getting the theme?

The main theme in these movies is always that the government and the scientists know that we're all gonna be vapor in 24 hours. So while they dig caves for themselves to hide in they leave  the rest of us to spend our final moments on hold trying to cast X-Factor votes. But the people always find out at the last minute and that's where the heart and soul of the story really exists. Forget the CGI spaceships in "Independence Day" and remember the moment when two central characters hold hands after years of separation. Never mind the scene where the ocean tops the Himalayas in "2012" it's the Chinese woman who insists that her son helps everyone to survive that impresses me and forget the waves sweeping through the financial district in "The Day After Tomorrow," I'm always moved by the moment where one man sets off into terrible danger to save his son and finds that his friends won't let him go alone.

So, what I really wanted to say in this little piece was two things. Firstly, if you know of a modern show or a movie where you feel the plot follows that of a radio show from years ago feel free to email us here - we'd love to know, and secondly I confess that as hackneyed as these themes seem to be, they are as popular and entertaining as ever. 

The reality is that any tale (old or new) really comes into its own when dealing with 'real' people and 'real' lives because that's where it makes contact with us, with who we are and essentially with who we would aspire to be, and when it comes to telling a story that's all that matters... don't you think?

Happy listening my friends,