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BBC Radio 3 talks about Life, But Not As We Know It

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 3 has an intriguing program available through their Listen Again service. A three part series about the consequences of the existence of alien life…

The Essay – Life, But Not As We Know It
3 Radio Broadcasts – Approx. 45 Minutes [DOCUMENTARY]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 3
BROADCAST: July 16th, 18th and 19th 2007
A biologist, a writer and a philosopher each explore their fascination with the notion of extraterrestrial intelligence and what such a discovery could mean for the future of humanity.

Part 1 – “Biologist Jack Cohen on why the discovery of aliens would change our view of biology, evolution and organised religion.”

Part 2 – “Writer Andrew Crumey delves into our literary past to discover a fascination with alien life dating back to the middle ages and beyond.”

Part 3 – “Philosopher Nick Bostrom explains why he believes that the discovery of aliens would be a disaster for the future of humanity and lead to the end of civilisation as we know it.”

All three parts are available HERE via the BBC Radio 3 Listen Again service for the next few days or so.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 wants us to: Understand

Online Audio

BBC7’s the 7th Dimension is re-airing one of my favorite’s from their archives. A terrific story, an unabridged reading of Ted Chiang‘s novelette Understand. It follows in the tradition of Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon and was first published in “Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine” in 1991. This production has been previously broadcast on BBC7 a few times. If you haven’t already heard it, have a listen, you won’t be sorry.

Understand
By Ted Chiang; Read by Rashan Stone
4 half-hour segments – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 7 / The 7th Dimension
AIRING: Weekdays from July 17th to July 20th 2007
Leon is a former coma victim, who has gone experimental medical treatment to repair the massive trauma his brain recieved after he was trapped under ice for more than an hour. He’s regained consciousness, found he has all of his faculties back and a whole lot more.

All four parts will be available via the Listen Again service for six days after each broadcast.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 airs another Heinlein short story Ordeal In Space

Online Audio

In it’s continuing series celebrating the Heinlein Centenary, BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension is airing Ordeal In Space. Last weekend’s The Green Hills Of Earth was a great listen, and the airing of Methuselah’s Children. will wrap on Monday. And of course, U.K. and non-UK residents alike who can’t listen to the live stream or broadcast (on DAB) can still use the Listen Again service for 6 days following each broadcast.

Ordeal In Space
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Adam Sims
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Saturday July 13th 2007 @ 6.30pm and 12.30am (UK time)
To mark the centenary of Robert A. Heinlein’s birth, a thrilling tale that delves into the psyche of a traumatized spaceman. Astronaut, William Cole is back on earth recuperating from a terrible accident. He was rescued in the nick of time from being jettisoned into outer-space. It has left him with a debilitating fear of falling. Facing the prospect of never returning to a job he loves, he tries to adapt to life as a civilian. His struggle to overcome paralyzing fear is captured in exquisite detail.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio announces Dirk Gently radio drama cast

SFFaudio News

Back in March we told you about the three new Douglas Adams radio series that will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, beginning with Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency in October 2007. We now have more info, English comedian Harry Enfield will be starring as the series lead, Dirk Gently, in the upcoming trilogy of radio dramas adapting the Adam’s series of Fantasy / Comedy / Mystery novels. The complete cast list and more details can be found HERE.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 celebrates Robert A. Heinlein Centenary with audio fiction

Online Audio

In honour of the 100th anniversary of Robert A. Heinlein’s birth, BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension is airing a special series of Heinlein stories. The first of which aired this last Saturday. First up was The Green Hills Of Earth, a Heinlein story he partially credited to a line from C. L. Moore and her story Shambleau (which also aired this year on BBC7). The Green Hills Of Earth is also one story with a distinction few others could possibly equal, it was quoted to listeners on the Moon – namely the crew of Apollo 15! Next Saturday the Heinlein Centenary celebration continues with Ordeal In Space. And, all this week, BBC7 is airing Methuselah’s Children. You can have a listen to The Green Hills Of Earth now, and for the next few days, via the Listen Again service. Same goes for the first episode of Methuselah’s Children. More details below..

The Green Hills Of Earth
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Adam Sims
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Saturday July 7th 2007
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.

Methuselah’s Children
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Paul Birchard
6 Parts, Six 30-Minute Broadcasts – Approx. 3 Hours [ABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Weekdays July 2007 to July 16th 2007
Robert A Heinlein’s sci-fi novel about a group of families who can live for several hundred years.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 broadcast of Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows

Online Audio

Previously released on BBC Radio 4, and with a different reader, The Willows is a 100 year old supernatural Horror story is endorsed by none other than H.P. Lovecraft! Old H.P. described it as: ‘The finest supernatural tale in English literature.’ Blackwood, is well regarded as one of the 20th century’s foremost writers of supernatural fiction and as Lovecraft, said of him: ‘he is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere …[he] can evoke what amounts almost to a story from a simple fragment of psychological description. Above all others he understands how fully some sensitive minds dwell for ever on the borderland of dream, and how relatively slight is the distinction betwixt those images formed from actual objects and those excited by the play of the imagination.’

The Willows
By Algernon Blackwood; Read by Lawrence Jackson
4 X 30 Minute Episodes – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Monday 25th to Thursday 28th, 2007 at 6:30pm (repeats 12:30am) UK Time*
Two friends on a canoeing trip down the Danube decide to spend the night on a small island in a remote stretch of the river between Austria and Hungary. Little by little, they realize that malevolent supernatural forces, embodied by the island’s ubiquitous rustling willow trees, are at work against them, and what at first promises to be a straightforward camping expedition escalates into an ordeal of survival against a powerful agency from another dimension.

All four parts will be made available via the Listen Again service shortly after they air.

posted by Jesse Willis