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BBC7 airs: The Cool Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein

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Following up from last Sunday’s Ordeal In Space, BBC Radio 7 and The 7th Dimension are airing their recording of The Green Hills Of Earth. This is another of BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension‘s specially commisioned tales made to celebrate the centenary of Heinlein’s birth. It originally aired last March.

A couple bits of trivia about The Green Hills Of Earth:

-Robert Heinlein credits the title to a line from C. L. Moore‘s influential short story Shambleau.

-A line from The Green Hills Of Earth was heard on another heavenly body. The Lunar Excursion Module crew of Apollo 15 – who went on to name a crater after the main character – heard Joseph P. Allen (one of the mission scientists in Houston) quote from the story. Have a listen |MOV|. Transcript:

Allen: “As the space poet Rhysling would say, we’re ready for you to ‘come back again to the homes of men on the cool green hills of Earth.'”

You’ll be able to hear the BBC version of The Green Hills Of Earth on Sunday during the broadcast, and for the following 6 days, via the Listen Again service.

The Green Hills Of Earth
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Adam Sims
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Sunday March 9th 2008 @ 6.30pm & 12.30am (UK TIME)
This is the poignant story of Rhysling, the blind space-going songwriter whose poetic skills rival Rudyard Kipling’s. This yarn is about a radiation-blinded spaceship engineer crisscrossing the solar system writing and singing some of the best lyrics in science fiction. In a fine display of writing skill, the spaceship and crew feel as real to the reader as a contemporary tramp steamer.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 Robert Harris’ Fatherland RADIO DRAMA

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Beginning on Monday and running daily, BBC7 is airing their adaptation of Robert Harris’ bestselling novel Fatherland. This powerful and award winning drama, examines an alternate history in which the Nazi empire never fell. The setting is 1960s Berlin, on the cusp of Hitler’s 75th birthday. Dramatised and produced by John Dryden, it stars Anton Lesser and Andrew Sachs. This will definitely be one to catch via the Listen Again service!

Fatherland
Based on the novel by Robert Harris; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
BROADCASTER: BBC 7
BROADCAST: Monday March 3rd to Friday March 7th @ 9am, 8pm and 1am (UK time)
Nazi Germany has won the war. Churchill is living in exile. King Edward and Queen Wallis are puppet monarchs of the UK. It is 1964, a week before Hitler’s 75th birthday. Anton Lesser stars as the Berlin detective called to investigate the suspicious death of a retired German senior civil servant.

Posted by Jesse Willis

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

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Paul Cornell writes on his blog…

“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

BBC 7: Of Withered Apples by Philip K. Dick & Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

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This weekend’s offerings on BBC Radio 7 include a Philip K. Dick short story that was first broadcast on BBC7 in September 2003. It was first printed in the July 1954 issue of Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine. And, in the middle of next week the 7th Dimension begins broadcasting the second novel in C.S. Lewis’ “Cosmic Trilogy.” Perelandra was first published in 1943. It makes an allegorical argument in the form of interplanetary adventure. Listeners familiar with the Narnia books will find a familiar morality play at work in Perelandra.

Of Withered Apples
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Hootkins
1 Part – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday at 6.30pm and 12.30am
More horror than science-fiction – A young woman picks the last withered apple from an ancient tree. Although this ensures the tree’s survival, the cost is horrifically high.

Perelandra
By C.S. Lewis; Read by Alex Jennings
18 Parts – Approx. 9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Wednesday to Friday at 6.30pm and 12.30pm (continuing)
“Perelandra continues the sometimes thrilling, sometimes mystical, but always sublimely evocative adventures of Dr.Ransom first explored in Out of the Silent Planet. In this second volume of C.S.Lewis’ acclaimed Cosmic Trilogy, Ransom is called to the beautiful paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus, which is in grave peril from his old adversary Dr.Weston. Ransom encounters floating islands and bubble trees as well as an all-powerful female ruler, an Eve figure who undergoes temptation at the hands of a Satan figure in the form of Weston. Ransom must engage with Weston in a desperate struggle to save the purity of Perelandra.”

Each broadcast will be available via the “listen again” feature for a week after airing.

Posted by Jesse Willis

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

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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

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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