AUDIOBOOK AND RADIO PRODUCTION
Chris Wallis is a highly experienced radio and audio producer. He joined the BBC as a radio drama producer in 1990, after thirteen years working as a theatre director at the Theatre Royal, York and as Artistic Director at the Unicorn Theatre in London, and became an independent in 1995, making drama and readings for BBC R3 and R4. His most recent production is DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller, with David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker, broadcast on Drama on 3, R3, on Sunday 11th Oct 2015.
RADIO
Chris has produced more than 200 hours of broadcast drama and readings for the BBC, including abridging and recording more than 50 readings titles for R5, R4 Book of the Week, R4 Book at Bedtime and R4Extra. Titles range from THE BFG by Roald Dahl and NATION by Terry Pratchett to A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS by Amos Oz and PEELING THE ONION by Gunter Grass.
Chris is particularly proud of WHOOSH, forty-eight 10-minute episodes of radio comedy, written and performed by a team of writer/performers he put together, aimed at 4 year-olds and up, for Cbeebies Radio.
Before he left the BBC in 1995 Chris did a three month attachment as a producer on THE ARCHERS. During this time he directed one of the episodes chosen as one of the six best Archers episodes of all time. He also worked as a locum producer on the World Service soap, WESTWAY. As a result of working on The Archers, Chris had several contracts in East Africa - in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Mozambique, training locals to make radio soaps with Development Education themes .
Chris’s post-BBC radio CV is here.
AUDIOBOOKS
Chris recently produced an unabridged version of THE BIBLE, read by David Suchet (Harper Collins). He has also produced audiobooks for a variety of publishers including LONG WALK TO FREEDOM – THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NELSON MANDELA (Watershed); POLLYANNA (BBC); six DR WHO titles with Peter Davison, Colin Baker and John Pertwee (BBC); THE JOY OF SEX (Hodder); THE TAILOR OF PANAMA written and read by John Le Carre (Hodder); three RED DWARF titles including THE LAST HUMAN with Craig Charles, Chris Barrie and Doug Naylor (Laughing Stock / Harper Collins); POPCORN by Ben Elton read by John Sessions (Simon and Schuster); THERAPY AND HOW TO AVOID IT written and read by Nigel Planer and Robert Llewellyn (Hodder); THE WAY TO WIN written and read by Will Carling (Hodder); THE STORY OF O by Pauline Reage (Watershed); DELTA OF VENUS by Anais Nin (Watershed).
ABRIDGING
Chris is an expert abridger, having abridged more than 50 fiction and non-fiction titles by writers as diverse as Beryl Bainbridge, Bill Bryson and Amos Oz. After listening to the recording of his autobiography read by Henry Goodman, Mr Oz wrote:
‘We just listened to the disk. Mr Goodman is excellent, please thank him for me. Once again let me thank you for your wise choice of excerpts’. Email 14-3-2005
And on hearing the recording of his book THE FARM, Richard Benson wrote:
“I like both the reading and the abridgement very much. I was very impressed by the way you make it seem to flow as a story – it almost got me wondering if I didn’t have 70,000 spare words in there. And I thought ending it where you did was perfect, so thanks very much.” Email 20-5-2005
CONTACT
If you would like to discuss an audio project with Chris please email him at chris.wallis@watershed.uk.com