Jonathan Ruffle Audiobooks

Steve Wright in the Afternoon, written by the producer who sat behind the glass

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.7/5 average

38 listener ratings

Who is Jonathan Ruffle?

Jonathan Ruffle is a British writer, director and producer whose career has ranged across television and radio for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. He was at one time the BBC Radio 1 producer for both Steve Wright and Simon Bates, before leaving to make the acclaimed radio adaptation of Len Deighton’s Bomber and the award-winning 1995 Channel 4 documentary Edward VIII: The Traitor King.

From there the career split in two directions at once: airshow and event commentary on one side, television comedy writing on the other, including Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 2009 he took Tommies, his real-time First World War drama idea, to the BBC, where it ran for four and a half years from 2014. He continues to produce comedy for the BBC and to write for television and film.

Jonathan Ruffle in audiobooks

Steve Wright in the Afternoon is the Ruffle title in our catalogue, and the byline matters enormously here: Ruffle was Steve Wright’s producer at Radio 1. That is the difference between a book about a radio institution and a book from inside one – the man behind the glass, writing about the voice in front of it.

For UK listeners of a certain vintage this is nostalgia with substance. Radio is an intimate medium, its audience felt it knew Wright, and an account from his producer belongs in audio if it belongs anywhere. Few subjects and formats are so obviously made for each other.