The 2006 TCF Audio Luminary: Piers Plowright

The Third Coast Festival Audio Luminary Award is presented annually to an individual who is greatly admired for his or her significant and ongoing contributions to the field of radio. Hats off to the 2006 Audio Luminary, Piers Plowright.

Plowright is an internationally respected producer who created radio dramas, documentaries, and features for the BBC from 1967-1997. His work reinvented British radio by opening its doors to impressionistic, poetic, and heartfelt styles of storytelling. His productions have won many prestigious radio awards, including three Prix Italias and several Sony awards. Now almost 70, Plowright continues to teach his craft and to produce work independently.

Plowright's lasting contribution to radio was best described by BBC documentary editor Robert Ketteridge, who said, "In film, the British have Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, and Peter Greenaway. In literature and drama, Salman Rushdie and Harold Pinter. And in radio, we have Piers Plowright." He's also been called the "Joseph Campbell of radio" and a "realist-magician" by Matt Thompson, a colleague from the BBC.