Award winning local podcaster, DWS Audio, has announced the launch of two new drama serials. Based at Darrick Wood School in Orpington, DWS Audio has been creating content since 2018 and uploads a range of audio dramas and features each week.

Media Studies teacher Michael Chappell, who curates all of the content, is excited about plans to launch two new projects. “One year after launching our service the students decided to create a school-based soap opera called ‘Rough Diamonds’ which ran for several years, but we decided that it was time to try something new.” He hopes that the new dramas, a sci-fi and crime serial respectively, will employ a new generation of students in a variety of writing, acting, directing and editing roles.

He adds, “DWS Audio has benefitted so many of our students who have used the experience to develop their technical skills and enable them to move onto many media-related further education courses. Indeed, one of our recent graduates, Tom Cridland, won the BBC Sounds Rising Star category at the 2022 Young Audio Awards.”

DWS Audio is also no stranger to winning awards for its content. Shortly after launching the service, it won the best short play award at the 2019 UK International Radio Drama Festival, while in 2021 an episode of ‘Rough Diamonds’ won a silver medal in the Podcast of the Year category at the Community Radio Awards.

More recently much of its drama content, notably ‘Rough Diamonds’, has featured regularly on Leo Ulph’s ‘Upload’ show on BBC Radio Kent. “It’s been such a thrill to hear the work of our students appear on our local BBC radio station and to know that our content is reaching a wider audience”, says Michael.

Looking ahead he hopes that the planned sci-fi and crime serials will run for many years to come and hopefully reach a much wider audience. Casting and production will take place later this year and you can expect to hear the first episodes early in the new year.

You can listen to DWS Audio online at www.dwsaudio.darrickwood.co.uk