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BBC Radio 3 talks Utopias

SFFaudio Online Audio

The latest issue of the Radio Times offers a peek at next week – On BBC Radio 3 in The Essay timeslot will be a “3 part examination of utopian visions of the future……” entitled The Future’s Not What It Used To Be… quite a number of SF classics are quoted in the Radio Times article, so this should be a worthy listen. Here’s the official description:

“As a child of the 1950s, Richard Foster thought that by now he would be wearing a silver jumpsuit and spending endless hours of leisure zooming around on a personal jet-propelled backpack – all in a world where poverty, sickness and religion had been banished by technology. So what went wrong?”

Part 1 – Broken Dreams
Broadcast: Mon. 4th August 23:00-23:15
Richard investigates two contrasting utopian worlds in novels from the 1880s: caring capitalism in Looking Backward by American author Edward Bellamy and communitarian socialism in William Morris’ News from Nowhere.

Part 2 – Trust Me, I’m A Scientist
Broadcast: Wed. 6th August 23:00-23:15
Richard looks at how, in the 1930s, when capitalism and communism appeared unable to deliver utopia, H.G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come and Aldous Huxley in Brave New World asked the next big question: can science mend our broken dreams, or will they just become nightmares?

Part 3 – Be Afraid, be very Afraid
Broadcast: Thu. 7th August 23:00-23:15
Richard investigates the threat of nuclear and environmental holocaust, explored in novels such as Neville Shute’s On the Beach and John Christopher’s The Death of Grass. Is the appetite for apocalypse – religious or scientific – now fed by ecological concern and terrorism? Must we always live in fear, or is it a potent political tool?

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: The Further Adventures of the First King of Mars

SFFaudio Online Audio

Watching the trains, the skies and the Radio Times schedule in the U.K., our agent, codenamed “Roy” – has reliable intel on an important upcoming BBC Radio 4 broadcast. Peter Capaldi will be reading a Nick Walker story which is a follow up to the short story The First King Of Mars which aired during the Sputnik season in October of 2007. Here are details on the follow up…

The Further Adventures of the First King of Mars
By Nick Walker; Read by Peter Capaldi
5 Radio Broadcasts – Approx. 15 Minutes each [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Afternoon Reading
Broadcast: Mon., July 28th to Fri., 1 August 1st 2008 @ 3.30-3.45pm (U.K. time)
Peter Capaldi is back as The First King Of Mars. To mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik in 2007, BBC Radio 4 commissioned Nick Walker to write a short story that captured the spirit of American Fifties B-movies and the pulp science fiction of magazines such as Amazing Stories. The result was The First King Of Mars. Now, in five thrilling, action-packed instalments, the story continues where it left off. Last year, Radio 4 left the brave and fearless commander employed to head up the first manned mission to Mars as he plummeted towards the planet with no luxuriously thick atmosphere to slow him down. This series discovers how he and his crew survive the impact – and whether there is indeed life on Mars.

These should be available via the Afternoon Reading “Listen Again” feature shortly after the broadcast.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 dramatizes John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio

SFFaudio Online Audio

Roy, our spy in the U.K. (informed and undercover) reports in his latest dispatch that John Cheever’s short story The Enormous Radio is getting a 45 minute dramatization on BBC R4! Roy sez this is at least the 4th audio dramatized version of this literary tale. It had previously been adapted in 1956 for the CBS Radio Workshop, in 1978 for Mindwebs, and in 1985 Vanishing Point!

The text version of The Enormous Radio first appeared in the May 17, 1947, issue of The New Yorker. Wikipedia describes it as a a “Kafkaesque tale about a sinister radio that broadcasts the private conversations of tenants in a New York apartment building.”

The Enormous Radio
By John Cheever; Performed by a full cast
Radio Broadcast – Approx. 45 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Afternoon Play
Broadcast: Wednesday July 16th 2008 @ 14:15 (U.K. time)
Irene Westcott’s marriage is under strain. When her husband, Jim, brings home a new radio set to keep her company during the day, she soon finds her life unraveling around her. At first repulsed by the size and ugliness of the new set, Irene soon discovers to her delight that instead of the normal stations, it is picking up sounds from the other apartments in her New York block. Without telling her husband, she begins to listen in secret, eavesdropping on private displays of carnal love, vanity, faith and despair.

This should be available via the Afternoon Play “Listen Again” feature shortly after the broadcast.

Here are the |MP3| 1956 version done for the CBS Radio Workshop and the Mindwebs version |MP3| of this tale.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC 7 performs James Follett’s Earthsearch

SFFaudio Online Audio

Rich Carlson writes in to tell us that “James Follett’s 1981 science fiction classic Earthsearch” began today with part one, and is continuing each weekday for two weeks. This was a BBC Radio 4 production from 1981. Attentive listeners will note that many of the cast member in this production also appeared in the BBC R4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (they were recorded the same year).

Earthsearch
By James Follett; Performed by a full cast
10 half hour parts – Approx. 5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: June 30th to July 11th 2008
On a mission to find Earth-like planets for colonization the starship Challenger encountered a meteoroid shower that killed all of the adult crew and seriously damaged the ship. The only human survivors were four babies – two boys, Telson and Darv, and two girls, Sharna and Astra. The four have been raised from childhood by androids and tutored by two disembodied voices called Angel One and Angel Two.

Episodes:

1. Planetfall
2. First Footprint City
3. Sands of Kyros
4. The Solaric Empire
5. The Pools of Time
6. Across the Abyss
7. New Blood
8. Marooned
9. Star Cluster: Tersus Nine
10. Earthfall

And don’t forget, you can use the “listen again” feature to catch missed episodes for up to a week after they air!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Mike Walker’s Alpha rebroadcast on BBC7

SFFaudio Online Audio

Rich Carlson writes in about a 2001 radio drama that is getting re-aired. The program in question was scripted by the same guy who did the phenomenal Chillers – Four Tales of Terror series. Of it Rich sez:

Mike Walker’s award winning radio play, Alpha, is an accessible, if somewhat controversial “tale about a computer so all-knowing that it seems to have (a) life of its own”. Of course, there’s much more to the story than that. BBC7 describes Alpha as “chilling” and this is not far from the truth. Hypnotic and thought provoking with haunting music and first rate performances, Alpha is not to be missed.

Alpha
By Mike Walker; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 – The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday, June 15 18:00-19:00 GMT

And don’t forget you can use the BBC7 “Listen Again” feature for 6 days after the broadcast!

[Thanks Rich!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio Drama: Stephen King’s Salem Lot (podcast)

SFFaudio Online Audio

The 1995 BBC radio-dramatization of Stephen King’s horror novel Salem’s Lot was recently serialized by a Humphrey Camardella Media Productions podcast called Tales Of Horror. The production combines the ‘psychological thriller and the classic horror genres, making references to Bram Stoker’s Dracula.’ I was surprised to see this relatively new audio drama in their feed, but perhaps owners Dennis Humphrey and Bob Camardella, have struck a deal with the BBC. Here is the official Humphrey Camardella word:

“The Humphrey Camardella Media Productions (H&C) is a privately-owned media company with offices in Dallas, Texas and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At present H&C publishes 150 podcasts, portaled by the world’s largest distributors and subscribed to by over 2 Million monthly listeners. With over two million monthly listeners we are one of the largest independent media companies in the United States and one of the largest new media companies in the world.”

That is big!

Salem’s Lot
Based on the novel by Stephen King; Performed by a full cast
Seven 30-minute Parts – Approx. 3.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Tales Of Horror
Podcast: March – May 2008
Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in Jerusalem’s Lot, has returned home following the death of his wife. Ben plans to write a book about the Marsten House, an abandoned mansion that gave him nightmares after a traumatic childhood experience.

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3|
Part 5 |MP3| Part 6 |MP3| Part 7 |MP3|

or subscribe to the podcast feed:

http://horrortales.libsyn.com/

Posted by Jesse Willis