Click to play audio drama episodes
Pupils at four Dorset schools joined forces with ScreenPLAY scriptwriters and actors to create a new eight-part audio drama: Children of World War Two.
Inspired by oral histories from people who were children during the war, the dramas tell stories from the Dorset homefront from a child’s perspective.
Episodes cover the lives of families in Weymouth, Puddletown, Wool, Lulworth and the Tynham Valley from the summer of 1940 to 1944, spanning the everyday queuing up for food to moments that will change people’s lives forever.
Project co-director Alastair Nisbet from arts organisation ScreenPLAY explained: “These are both ordinary and extraordinary stories from everyday life 80 years ago. The children have worked with our scriptwriters and drama directors and turned true stories from local people into short dramas complete with the music and songs of the day.”
They deal with those difficult questions children ask:
Will Timmy the Teddy survive this bombing raid?
How can you get into the pictures for free?
Why is school closed and who are those strange men inside?
Why are there prisoners knocking on our door looking for children?
Why is mother’s shopping basket full of hand grenades?
These and more are covered in the series which is a ScreenPLAY production for Nothe Fort in partnership with Weymouth Area Development Trust and funded by the Heritage Lottery and Dorset Council.
Extracts from four episodes are playing on new listening points in Nothe Fort in the following locations:
- Outside Arkwright’s shop
- Outside the Anderson Shelter in the magazine level
- Inside the WW2 Kitchen
- Outside the WW2 School room
You can listen on the ScreenPLAY audio player by clicking this link, or you can find the series on Apple and Amazon podcasts or listen at screen-play.co.uk.
Interviews and episodes broadcast on Keep106FM radio can be listened to again on the station’s website keep106.com at this link: Children Of WWII, a series of audio plays performed by local school children – KeeP 106
