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BBC Radio 4 – Journey into Space – Frozen In Time

SFFaudio Online Audio

According to the latest issue of the Radio Times an all new show in the long loved Journey into Space series is set to air this weekend! Fans of JiT first heard the show on BBC airwaves back in 1953. This new program (written by the same guy) continues the tradition. For fans, this is something not to be missed, for those who haven’t heard of it before check out the Wikipedia article. This will be available for a week after the broadcast via the BBC R4 “listen again” service.

Journey into Space – Frozen In Time
By Charles Chilton; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 60 minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / The Saturday Play
Broadcast: Saturday April 12th 14:30-15:30 (UK TIME)
“The crew of 1960’s spacecraft Ares awakes from suspended animation in 2008. Jet Morgan – played by David Jacobs from the original cast – has been the only one left awake for the past 30 years. Unwittingly caught up in seismic deception, the Earth’s future could be in peril.”

Also, there’s an informative article about the making of this show (along with some nostalgia on the venerable Journey Into Space lineage) over on the Times Online website |READ IT|.

[via SFFaudio’s secret agent in the UK CODENAME: R.O.Y.]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 – Asimov, Lovecraft, Follet, Chesterton

SFFaudio Online Audio

Re-runs don not suck at all when they are this good! Today and for the week coming there starts a new batch of terrific old shows on BBC7. And remember there is a promise of ahead of some Arthur C. Clarke too…

“Gimmicks Three” and “Light Verse”
By Isaac Asimov; Read by William Roberts
1 Part – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Saturday at 6pm and midnight
A mild mannered elderly lady behaves completely out of character when her house-guest goes behind her back and fixes Max – her malfunctioning robotic manservant.

An oldie but a goodie (if goodie means Eldritch)…

The Tomb
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Ryan McCluskey
1 Part – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
First published in 1917, this is a disturbing and Gothic tale by the influential horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft. Jervas Dudley narrates his story from an asylum, describing the sinister events leading up to his incarceration.

A 1978 BBC Radio 4 production…

The Destruction Factor
By James Follett; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6pm and midnight
This ecological sci-fi tale, very much ahead of its time, is written by the man behind Earthsearch, novelist James Follet. Ralph Exon has created a new strain of plant for an international fertiliser corporation. It’s hoped that this “mutation” will bring relief to the famine ridden countries of the world. In itself, the plant looks quite innocent, but within it, there lurks…. the Destruction Factor.

And a complete novel, in its entirety…

The Man Who Was Thursday
By G.K. Chesterton; Read by Geoffrey Palmer
5 Parts – [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
Written in 1908, is an extravaganza presuming the existence in Edwardian London of a secret society of anarchists sworn to destroy the world. There are seven members of the Central Anarchists Council who, for reasons of security, call themselves after the days of the week. Events soon cast a doubt upon their real identities, however, for Thursday is not the passionate young poet he appears to be, but a Scotland Yard detective. Who, and what, are the others then? The author unravels this surreal part-fantasy, part-thriller in his own inventive and exuberant way, using the nightmare of paradox and surprise to probe the mysteries of human behaviour and belief.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Torchwood to have a Radio Drama episode on BBC Radio 4

SFFaudio News

Torchwood, that Doctor Who spin-off currently airing on that technological dinosaur called “tele-vision”, is going to be having a special one-off broadcast exclusive to radio! Yep, a radio show episode of the television show will air exclusively on BBC Radio 4 this summer! The 45 minute episode will be broadcast in Radio 4’s traditional “Afternoon Play” slot and use the same cast as on the TV show. Now that’s what I call progress!

[via io9]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC 7: H.G. Wells, Brian Aldiss, Hergé’s Tintin and a promise of Arthur C. Clarke tales to come)

SFFaudio Online Audio

By the sheer volume of H.G. Wells stories airing this coming week on BBC Radio 7 you’d might think it was H.G. Wells who had just died, and not Arthur C. Clarke! But no, BBC7 is planning on playing some Clarke for they announced the following: “As a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke we will be repeating these programmes [four readings commisioned and broadcast in 2007] in the near future.” Good on them! Until then…

In typical Wellsian fashion (time travel used to be fantasy until Wells got his mitts on it) this 1901 tale transforms a Fantasy concept (the existence of past lives) into a SF theme, casting a future life (as of a dream), that is both vivid and recognizable – written before both of the World Wars it depicts a world in which tanks, airplanes and something that sound like a nuclear weapon exists…

A Dream Of Armageddon
By H.G. Wells; Read by Robert Bathurst
2 Parts – Approx. 2 Hours [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday and Tuesday at 6.30pm and midnight
A tale of an advanced civilisation descending into mindless war was an uncannily close prediction of the horrors of WW2 when it was written in 1901.

This one, sounding more like Lovecraft than it has any right to, should be a treat for sailor and land lubber alike…

The Sea Raiders
By H.G. Wells; Read by Robert Bathurst
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Wednesday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
Another classic tale of high adventure by sci-fi master H. G. Wells. Strange monsters from the deep start terrorising the horrified residents of Devon’s coastline.

Yep, you’ll find Wells was responsible for most of the well worn tropes of SF – this next one is described as the inspiration for the Star Trek (original series) episode “Wink of an Eye”…

The New Accelerator
By H.G. Wells; Read by Robert Bathurst
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Thursday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
A friend of H.G. Wells is on the verge of making a scientific breakthrough which promises to revolutionise human life – so the two friends decide to road-test the new drug – with exciting but dangerous consequences.

And a Brian Aldiss tale, first broadcast back in May 2007…

Song Of The Silencer
By Brian Aldiss; Read by Nigel Anthony
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Friday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
To establish universal peace, scientists have constructed a massive computer designed to mimic human thought and act as a guide to world decision making. But will flicking the switch signal the end of the human race?

First broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1993, here’s a treat of an audio drama…

The Adventures of Tintin
Based on the Hergé comic book series; Performed by a full cast
6 Broadcasts – 3 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7
Broadcast: Monday to Monday at 9am, 8pm and 1am
Famous boy reporter Tintin has been covering the return of the Sanders-Hardiman expedition from Peru. When all the participants fall mysteriously ill, Tintin is compelled to investigate.

All of the above will be available on the “listen again” page the day after they air.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 airing Slipstream a Nazi/UFO alternate history Radio Drama

SFFaudio Online Audio

Simon Bovey’s new SF thriller for BBC Radio 7 from March 24th to 28th, 2008. Simon Bovey is the scriptwriter for previous two Radio Drama thrillers: Cold Blood (Antarctic setting) and The Voice of God (Australia setting). In his new program, Slipstream. Bovey describes it as – “Part political thriller, part war story, part future shock.”

Slipstream
By Simon Bovey; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Mon. 24th March – Fri. 28th @ 6pm & Midnight (UK time)
March 1945 and the Allies’ victory in Europe is a forgone conclusion. But then over a hundred RAF bombers are shot down in one night by a shimmering aircraft. Is this a new terror weapon? One that could turn the tide of war back in the Germans’ favour? A misfit team of specialists are parachuted behind enemy lines, in the crucible between the attacking armies of the Russians and the Americans, to grab this technology and nip the threat in the bud. What they find is more shocking and alien than they could have ever imagined.

[via Daily Space]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Philip K. Dick’s We Can Remember It For You Wholesale on BBC7

SFFaudio Online Audio

Dick. You know you want it. Indeed, a life without Philip K. Dick is hardly worth imagining! Thankfully the folks at BBC7 and The 7th Dimension agree and so they are re-running what I consider to be one of the best short stories ever written. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale posits a future world of memory implants and false vacations. Doug Quail, the shmendrik-hero of the tale, wants to visit the planet Mars. Unfortunately his shrewish wife vetos the idea whenever he mentions it. That all changes though when, after a mishap at a virtual travel agency, he discovers that he’s already been there! What’s real? What’s not? Dick explores these Cartesian questions better than any other writer (including Descartes himself) have a listen, you won’t be sorry…

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Hootkins
2 Parts 2 Broadcasts – [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday March 16 & 23 @ 6.30pm & 12.30am (UK time)
This novelette was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction‘s in April 1966 issue and first broadcast on BBC 7 in September 2003. The reader is William Hootkins (aka “Red Six” from the original Star Wars).

Listeners unable to tune in can use the “Listen Again” service for a week after each broadcast.

Posted by Jesse Willis