In this chapter are listed works written and/or directed by Ingmar Bergman for radio or television. Some items originally produced for the cinema or the theatre and later adapted to the media are cross-listed more fully in either the Filmography Chapter (IV) or in the Theatre chapter (VI). Most listed productions are available for listening and viewing at SALB (Statens arkiv för ljud och bild); see Varia, Archival sources.

RADIO PRODUCTIONS

The radio play was an established genre in Swedish broadcasting and not without a certain cultural prestige when Ingmar Bergman made his debut there in 1946. Many wellknown Swedish writers had contributed to the field. In Bergman's case it was no doubt his acoustic sensitivity that attracted him to the ‘listening’ play (hörspel). The majority of his more than 40 radio productions were presented before the arrival of television. Many of his choices were one-act plays suitable for the time span usually allotted to such broadcasts. His list of productions is eclectic, ranging from the medieval morality play Everyman to one-acters by Pär Lagerkvist (Tunneln), Jean Cocteau (Vox humana), and Herman Melville (A Table of Apple Wood). Over the years (1946-2003), Bergman's most frequently broadcasted playwright became August Strindberg, with some ten productions.

Bergman's first contacts with the theatre department at the Swedish Radio were not positive. In 1942 he submitted an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's tale ‘Reskamraten’ [The Travel Companion], which was rejected. So were by his own plays ‘Rakel och biografvaktmästaren’ [Rachel and the Cinema Doorman] and ‘Jack hos skådespelarna’ [Jack Among the Actors], both submitted in 1946, and ‘Mig till skräck’ [Unto my Fear] in the following year. The last two plays in particular received very harsh comments by the reader, who called Bergman's products crude and vulgar. Eventually, however, Bergman would have five of his own works presented on the radio, but most of them directed by others. These plays are (in chronological order): ‘Kamma noll’ [1949, Come up Empty], Staden [1951, The City], ‘Dagen slutar tidigt’ [1952, Early Ends the Day], ‘Mig till skräck’ [1953, Unto my Fear], Trämålning [1954, Wood Painting], and En själslig angelägenhet [1990, A Matter of the Soul]. Bergman's only work written specifically for the radio is Staden, which was directed by Olof Molander.