Chain Gang

I didn't follow the 2009 Chain Gang story closely but, by the end, I think it showed everything that is interesting and crazy about the experiment.

If you've not come across it before, the idea is that 4 Extra broadcasts two minutes of a story, then listeners write the storyline (not script) for the next two minutes. This goes on for a dozen episodes, by which point the final story only just about bears any resemblance to the initial starting chapter. The 2009 story jumped around wildly in time and theme but was tied up quite neatly in a live recording at St Pancras station by Robert Shearman.

This year's story seems to be starting out firmly in thriller territory. As much as I appreciated the creative ideas that led to the wilder chapters of the 2009 story, I hope the judges might try to keep things a little tighter this year. A listener-guided story that hangs together as a cohesive whole would be a remarkable thing.

I've not decided yet whether to enter a storyline but I'm a little tempted to use it as a little writing exercise and see if I can write something interesting for the next section in the form of two minutes of script.

Great theory, of course, but in practise I expect I'll just sit back and enjoy the story in all its glorious, unfolding chaos!