Audio Drama – Page 82

Coming to BBC Radio 4: The State of the Art Iain M. Banks

SFFaudio News

“Now, here’s one of those bits of big news that I haven’t been able to talk about yet, but today I can. I’ve been commissioned to adapt Iain M. Banks’ novella The State of the Art, from the collection of the same name, into a play for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 later this year. My producer is the wonderful Nadia Molinari, and we’re looking to keep all the SF goodness of the original. I’m enjoying how serious and thoughtful the brief is. The story is about Banks’ spaceborne utopian civilisation, the Culture, encountering Earth. Some interesting casting of a Ship voice ahead, I should think, and who should be Diziet Sma? I’m anticipating the process hugely.”

[via SFSignal.com]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Crazy Dog Audio Theatre: Marsyas: The Hippest Satyr video

SFFaudio News

Audio Gothic is one of Crazy Dog Audio Theatre‘s odder ventures. It was broadcast on RTÉ (Radio Ireland) in 2006. One part of Audio Gothic is entitled Marsyas: The Hippest Satyr. Here’s the complete work (in the form of successive YouTube videos) as staged at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 1999. Here’s the description:

A modern jazz retelling of the Greek myth of Marsyas, a humble satyr who comes under the spell of a cursed magical horn. Leading Irish guitarist Giordai Ua Laoghaire is the featured musician in this comic musical fable of pride and self-delusion.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

[via Audio Drama Talk forums]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Frequency Of Fear podcast features CBC Radio Drama NIGHTFALL and more

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Zombie Astronaut‘s podcast Frequency Of Fear, tackles the doubly difficult problem of duplicates (doppelgängers or clones – if you will). Showcased on the show are stories about killers and killers, killing duplicates and trying to dupe the authorities about it. The second show is particularly cool as its an episode of CBC Radio’s 1980 series Nightfall. Entitled “The Repossession” it features Chris Wiggins (from Friday The Thirteenth – The Series) and other familiar CBC voices. It was first broadcast on September 26th, 1980.

Plug the podcast feed into your podcatcher, and listen twice:

http://frequencyoffear.com/podcasts-only/rss2.aspx

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Free The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al

A Dracula remix, Pratchett’s Night Watch and ‘The Multiverse’ all ahead on BBC Radio 4

SFFaudio Online Audio

Roy, our U.K. correspondent sez:

“It’s that time of the week when I get a chance to quickly scan the radio section of the Radio Times for the following week.”

And Here’s what he’s spotted….

An interesting take on the Dracula story…

The Voyage Of The Demeter
By Robert Forrest; Performed by a full cast
1 Part – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Saturday Play
Broadcast: Saturday February 23rd @ 14:30-15:30
“It is 1897 and the schooner Demeter sails from Bulgaria to the east coast of England, but something very nasty is lurking in the dark corners of the ship. A chilling tale of the supernatural by Robert Forrest”.

This should be available through the “listen again” feature for 6 days following the broadcast.

Another dramatization! As the previous Discworld radio dramatisations have been “quite successful” Roy is making this his pick for the coming weeks….

Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch
By Robin Brooks; Performed by a full cast
5 Episodes – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Wednesday February 27th @ 23:00-23:30
“Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy. Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch falls through time and arrives in his youth.”

And finally, the subject up for discussion in the next edition of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time (which is available via podcast) is: ‘The Multiverse’! Here’s the feed for that:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/iot/rss.xml

Thanks Roy, we appreciate it!

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC 7 the Week Ahead: Daphne du Maurier, Tanith Lee and more

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7’s The 7th Dimension commissioned the following to mark the centenary of du Maurier’s birth…

The Blue Lenses
By Daphne du Maurier; Read by Emma Fielding
2 Parts – Approx. 60 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
“One of the most celebrated and best-loved British authors of the 20th Century, wrote this dark fantasy exploring the sinister side of human nature. Marda West, whilst recovering from a serious eye operation, discovers that her vision has been heightened to a frighteningly new degree of clarity and the darker aspects of the human psyche which people prefer to keep hidden are on full display.”

Also from du Maurier, “First broadcast on BBC7 in 2005, a beguiling combination of romantic atmosphere, haunting psychology and assured storytelling”…

The House On The Strand
By Daphne du Maurier; Read by Julian Wadham
12 Parts – Approx. 6 Hours [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
First published in 1969 to critical and public acclaim, and was du Maurier’s personal favourite of all her novels. The tale revolves round the narrator Dick Young, who escapes from his troubles in the form of a new drug, which transports him six centuries back in time. But his attempts to change history bring terror to the present and throw his own life into the balance.

Also available in the week ahead, a chance to listen again to this popular, thought-provoking and gripping BBC7 thriller from 2006…

Jefferson 37
By Jenny Stephens; Performed by a full cast
4 Parts – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Thursday at 6pm and Midnight
“Set in the not too distant future, clones are made purely for those who can afford it, as spare-parts for surgery. The story tells of the life for these clones and the ways in which they are de-humanised – but their fundamental humanity cannot be thwarted.”

And, another chance to listen to this BBC7 commission from 2003…

Red As Blood
By Tanith Lee; Read by Stella Gonet
1 Part – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Friday at 6pm and Midnight
“This dark study of the Snow White fantasy”

All of these programs will be available via the “listen again” feature for a week after airing.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Radio Drama Revival: The Salmon Of Blackpool Spawning Greatness

SFFaudio Online Audio

Radio Drama Revival, has now completed podcasting another Crazy Dog Audio Theatre program in its entirety. This program aired on RTE Radio back in August.

The absolutely flooring The Salmon Of Blackpool is a four episode tale of a Hollywood screenwriter and his self-destructive subject. It is a magical achievement – on par with Infidel. The artistry and artists that created Salmon worked together to conjure what can only be described as transformative audio. Absent are any trappings of the fantastic – but what the program reveals is an unfettered drama capped by an unrelenting moral horror. Salmon explores that noir interzone between life’s meaning and life itself. In a final irony Salmon turns its own harsh gaze upon itself, there are no laughs, no remittances, no washing away of the melancholy – simply, the tale, and its central figures, grab ahold of what little ethic they can in an uncaring sea of human selfishness. Salmon won’t make you happy, it will instead shatter illusions and drain you and with its honesty. The Salmon Of Blackpool is what makes radio drama truly a great art form.

The Salmon Of Blackpool
By Roger Gregg; Performed by a full cast
4 MP3s -Approx. 100 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3|

And be sure to listen for next week’s show, which will include an interview with Roger Gregg.

Subscribe to the Radio Drama Revival feed via this url:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/RadioDramaRevival

Posted by Jesse Willis