We also saw the episodes attracted a 50/50 split male to female audience, but with a listening age of the over 35s, upwards.īy the fifth episode of Series 1, the idea of a Christmas episode was hatched. The episodes attracted a mixed demographic from around the world, but it soon became apparent that the UK and the US were the main listeners. Initially the listening figures were okay. Editing was performed using Audacity and MixPad. This did cause some problems with glitching etc, but it was easy to retake scenes and - with the introduction of better microphones for the actors - the sound quality began to get better. We released the episodes in full after the last episode was broadcast on radio.Īll of the recordings for the shows were done remotely and on Zoom. We researched this area, and set up an account with Acast. It was during the writing of the second episode that we began to think about putting out the show as a podcast. These were all broadcast over five days on BBC Radio Derby. Over the next five months, five more 30 minute episodes were written in quick succession. We had ideas, but at this point didn't have a long term plan. The idea behind the show seemed to attract some interest, and the team at Radio Derby asked if there was any more material. A couple of emails later, and a rushed recording over Zoom, resulted in the very first episode of Barmy Dale being broadcast in July 2020. A three minute script was sent to BBC Radio Derby, to see if their BBC Upload section would like what we were working on. The first series was a very quick turnaround. Inspired by the comedies of the 70s and 80s, the main influence behind Barmy Dale was to create sitcoms as they used to be where a family of all ages could sit down and listen to the maverick adventures of the characters that were slowly formulating. It soon became apparent that the world had become barmy! This, after much deliberation, turned into the sitcom Barmy Dale.

In the spring of 2020, during the now infamous first lockdown, we were chatting about the world in general over Zoom.

Mixpad recording