LONDON: A television drama set in Britain’s urban music scene aims to explore new territory in broadcasting by letting viewers choose how the plot develops. The six-part “Dubplate Drama”, to be shown on Britain’s Channel 4 in November, will invite viewers to vote by text message for one of two possible outcomes at the end of each week’s 13-and-a-half minute episode.

The drama will be the first series to exploit viewers’ enthusiasm for audience participation, said youth marketing agency Livity, which is behind the show.

“We did a check around and there is nowhere in the world we could find where there has been viewer-led interactive drama,” Sam Conniff, London-based Livity’s co-founder, told Reuters.

A dubplate is a unique copy of an original recording, which usually has different lyrics or a different vocalist from the original and is never released commercially. They are highly prized by DJs and sound system operators.

The storyline, set in an inner-city neighbourhood, follows the fortunes of Dionne, an aspiring female DJ who ends up working for a pirate radio station funded by drug dealing.

The series will also be shown on digital channels MTV Base and E4, as well as being transmitted in advance to Sony’s PSP handheld game consoles. —Reuters