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BBC7 re-airing: Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov

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BBC 7 is re-aring their specially commissioned readings of Arthur C. Clarke stories (and one Isaac Asimov one) in their 7th Dimension time-slot next week. Check these out when they air, or tune in via the “listen again” service after they air…

Before Eden
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Tim Pigott-Smith
Radio Broadcast – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday at 6pm and midnight (UK time)
This space adventure set on Venus highlights the weight of responsibility which rests on explorers entering uncharted territories.

Summertime On Icarus
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Tim Pigott-Smith
Radio Broadcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Tuesday at 6pm and midnight (UK time)
When an astronaut wakes up after an accident he finds himself on the asteroid, Icarus, which orbits close to the sun. Dawn is only moments away and it is about to get very hot. There is nowhere to hide and his communication is down – will he escape before the first rays of the sun find him?

All The Time In The World
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Nicholas Boulton
Radio Broadcast – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Wednesday at 6pm and midnight (UK time)
“A clever tale about some alien art thieves who arrive to plunder Earth.”

The Parasite
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Nicholas Boulton
Radio Broadcast – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Thursday at 6pm and midnight (UK time)
“A chilling tale about a man who starts having dreams of a monstrous creature from the future.”

And finally, Friday sees the re-broadcast of Isaac Asimov’s classic short story…

The Last Question
By Isaac Asimov; Read by Henry Goodman
Radio Broadcast – Approx 25 minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Friday at 6pm and midnight (UK time)
Asimov’s classic “man versus machine” short story. In the not too distant future, technology has advanced to the point where global affairs are managed by a huge computer called Multivac which supposedly can provide the answers to all questions… such as… “Can entropy be reversed?”

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: a Terry Pratchett interview

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The latest “On The Ropes” (which is a show that interviews successful people who have weathered storms in their careers) features a conversation with Terry Pratchett! Prachett talks about his early career as well as his recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. It isn’t not specifically about his literary output, but it should be of interest to those who follow his best selling books.

On The Ropes
Hosted by John Humphrys
1 Broadcast – Approx. 20 Minutes [INTERVIEW]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / On The Ropes
Broadcast: Tuesday May 20th 2008 @ 09:00am

Check it out via the BBC Radio 4 Listen Again feature.

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC 7: The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham

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Hey! Just started yesterday (Monday, May 19th 2008), on BBC Radio 7, The 7th Dimension has begun a 17-part UNABRIDGED reading of John Wyndham’s Science Fiction novel, The Day Of The Triffids. This is one of Wyndham’s best “cozy catastrophes” (and probably his most famous one) alongside The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich Cuckoos (aka Village Of The Damned).

The Day Of The Triffids
By John Wyndham; Read by Roger May
17 Half-hour RADIO BROADCASTS – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/drama/7thdimension.shtml
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Weekdays from May 19th to June 10th at 6:30pm (18:30) and 12:30am (00:30am) UK TIME
The consequences when the vast majority of humanity is suddenly rendered blind, in a world that is then quickly overrun with poisonous ambulatory plants (the titular Triffids).
Produced in Belfast by Susan Carson

And of course, everyone outside the UK can catch each installment using the BBC7 “Listen Again” service for up to 6 days following the broadcasts.

[Thanks Rich!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 Documentary on Arthur C. Clarke

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In October 2005 BBC Radio 4 visited Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka to celebrate the 60th anniversary of an article’s publication in a magazine called Wireless World. “Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World Wide Radio Coverage?” was the first place artifical geostationary satellites were described. The entire documentary, featuring such Clarke knowledgeables as Stephen Baxter, Isaac Asimov and even Clarke’s younger brother, is thankfully still archived on the BBC Radio 4 website and is available for listening in the RealAudio format! I thought this was a very refreshing take documenting his “futurology” vs. his Science Fiction. This documentary doesn’t dwell on Clarke’s futurology as much as most documentaries on the man do.

Arthur C. Clarke: The Science And The Fiction
Heather Couper meets the man behind the ideas
1 Broadcast |REALAUDIO| – 28 Minutes 59 Seconds [DOCUMENTARY]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Wendesday 5 October 2005 11.00-11.30am
In this programme, Heather Couper hears Sir Arthur’s own story and meets with family, fans and fiction writers he has influenced. His younger brother Fred remembers their childhood on a Somerset farm: Arthur was building telescopes and launching home-made rockets. Did the other children join in their brother’s activities? “No!”, recalls Fred with a shudder. “We kept away from the dangerous blighter”.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 on Interzone #216, the “Mundane SF” issue

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The BBC Radio 4 show Front Row talked to Geoff Ryman, one of the editors of Interzone #216, which is a special issue dedicated to “Mundane SF.” You can “Listen Again” for the next few days.

[via SFsignal.com]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Daily Space blog on BBC7’s upcoming Terry Pratchett week

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Daily Space, the blog of Thunder Child SF & Fantasy Webzine, has the scoop on next week’s BBC7 programming. It’s a “Terry Pratchett Week”…

April 28 – May 1 will be Terry Pratchett week at BBC Radio 7

I am very pleased to report that BBC Radio 7 will be having a Terry Pratchett tribute, for his 60th birthday, coming up the week of April 28-May 1.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/drama/pratchett.shtml

The more so because I will finally be able to hear the dramatisation of my all-time favorite Pratchett book, Small Gods, and starring a favorite actor of mine – Patrick Barlow, as the Great God Om. (Indeed, see my blog for him, The Patrick Barlow Experience – still under construction.)

Three years ago the Great God Om decided to pay a visit to his believers and do a little smiting, but when he materialized on Earth he was not a gigantic, ravening bull as he expected, but a small, one-eyed tortoise. He comes to learn that in all the great land of Om, crushed under the heels – and racks and pincers – of the Inquisition, the only person who still truly believes in him – is a young man named Brutha.

This was first broadcast about 3 years ago, and I missed it, and I have yearned to hear it ever since.

[I have to admit I’m a bit apprehensive about it. Adaptions are really a hit and miss affair. I’m sure I’ll enjoy Barlow’s performance but I hope they do justice to this – my favorite Pratchett book.)

Also to be broadcast is an adaption of Mort (one of my least favorite Pratchett’s – I’ll skip this one) and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents – an excellent adaption which I’d listen to if I hadn’t already recorded it.

Also, Philip Pickard will read Truckers, an excellent Young Adult book written by Pratchett, the first in a trilogy.
Tue, Apr 22, 2008 8:00

Posted by Jesse Willis