Documentary Review, Young Married and Divorced

Documentary: Young married and divorced

Produced by:  BBC Radio 1Xtra  
Narrated by:  Tracie Rodavenshall
Length of the Documentary: About 23 minutes

Picture from Sarah Samir's blog

The documentary was about early marriages and divorces and was trying to determine whether early marriage could lead to a divorce or not. It didn’t yet offer a concrete answer, as expected, for there is no general rule for such thing. The narrator made it clear that it is not a rule, it depends on the case.

The documentary was very interesting, from the first seconds with the traditional wedding music, listeners could recognize the topic of the documentary. Very good authoritative sources and cases were used and also interesting variety of music.
The tone, with which the narrator and the interviewees spoke, was so conversational that it seemed like you’re hearing the interviewees talk without them even knowing it’s something recorded. Good sound quality wasn’t sacrificed for good content, as well.  

The natural sound of the wedding and the priest saying the wedding prayers made the listener visualize the situation and its quality is very good as if it was recorded in a studio, no distortions, no noise, no popping.

Even the laughs and the music pauses, the producer was not afraid to give some space that will add a taste to the documentary, but will make it longer, rather than making it seem heavy and dull and make it shorter.

The narrator’s voice and the pacing were good. The quality of the writing was fine; she used short, conversational sentences and delivered it quite well. It was great that the narrator let the interviewees tell their story in their own voices with their own emotions and just paved the way for them. This was a good decision to make because people would want to hear the story from the person who experienced it not from the narrator.

The documentary started and ended with nat sound and a sound bite, which is not something I would probably do, but she made it effectively and it was a strong start and ending.

 When I looked at the documentary length, before I listened to it, I thought it was too long. But after I listened to it, I felt it wasn’t that long because it was interesting and the time was used efficiently. In fact I could go back and listen to it again.

Overall the documentary was very interesting, it pulled the listeners in from the beginning and it kept their attention till the end. There were lots of voices, which was a bit confusing, but you could figure out who wants to say what. The title of the documentary says it all but it's not creative. It says what the documentary is all about, which is fine, but it doesn’t pull in readers.

After all, I could say it was very well produced and organized.