BBC – Page 49 – SFFaudio

BBC Radio 4 has The Official PETER PAN Sequel

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Roy, our UK correspondent, states that a couple upcoming of shows coming to BBC Radio 4 should be of interest. Both items should be available via the usual ‘listen again’ facility for 7 days following broadcast too .The first, “The Saturday Play” on BBC Radio 4 this weekend…

Peter Pan In Scarlet
By Geraldine McCaughrean; Full Cast
90 Minutes – [AUDIO DRAMA]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 4
BROADCAST: Saturday October 14th: 14:30-16:00 (UK TIME)
“A darker, more frightening, yet entirely sympathetic updating of Barrie’s vision of what it is to grow up”.
*This was the officially sanctioned sequel dramatised by Nick Warburton.

And on BBC 4’s “Afternoon Play”…

When It Rains
By ???; Full Cast
45 Minutes – [AUDIO DRAMA]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 4
BROADCAST: Saturday October 20th: 14:15-15:00 (UK TIME)
“A ghost story from the age of steam”.

Roy says of the latter…. “[The] Radio Times seems to rate it very highly as ‘a genuinely chilling play.'”

posted by Jesse Willis

Two FREE Doctor Who audio adventures still online

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Our U.K. correspondent, Roy, points out that “several interesting items are available free on the old BBC Cult website” and that the site has been “closed for some time now and is no longer supported by the BBC.” Among the items there are two audio Doctor Who adventures. Given that they may dispapear at any time click on over soon and enjoy…

Doctor Who: Real Time (A 6th Doctor Adventure)
By Gary Russell; Performed by a FULL CAST
25 Streaming Real Audio Files – Approx. 60 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
WEBCASTER: BBC.co.uk
WEBCAST: 2002

There has been a series of mysterious vanishings on the desert planet Chronos in the 33rd century. Survey teams working for a university seem to have simply vanished amongst the pyramids on the planet. Alongside two other survey teams and an expert on cybernetics, the Doctor and Evelyn learn the deadly truth: that the planet Chronos is being used as a base for one of the Doctor’s oldest and deadliest foes — the Cybermen.

An extended version of Doctor Who: Real Time was released on CD by Big Finish Productions. The additional scenes are designed to help the plot along, including an opening scene set inside the TARDIS. Buying it would probably make listening about 10 times easier.

In 2003, the BBC commissioned Big Finish Productions to remake Shada (a famously uncompleted Doctor Who adventure) as an audio play. The result was webcast in six episodic segments, accompanied by limited Flash animation, on the BBC website using illustrations provided by comic strip artist Lee Sullivan. The illustrations are still available, but I’ve seen them and find they don’t add to the story.

For an expanisve list of Doctor Who on audio check out THIS Wikipedia entry. For an even more complete listing check out THIS one!

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7’s The 7th Dimension does the classics: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Brave New World

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BBC7’s the 7th Dimension will be airing two Science Fiction classics back to back starting monday weekdays for two weeks. First, Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001: A Space Odyssey as produced by radio legend Dirk Maggs. Followed by a definitely abridged version of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Details follow…

2001: A Space Odyssey
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by William Roberts
10 X 15 Minute Episodes – Approx. 2.5 Hours [ABRIDGED?]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Monday to Friday at 6:30pm (repeats 12:30am) UK Time*
When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it’s at least 3 million years old; the spaceship Discovery, its highly trained crew and self-aware, ultra-capable computer, HAL are sent to investigate.

*This has been broadcast twice before: (in 2001 on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC7 in November 2005)

Brave New World
By Aldous Huxley; Read by Anton Lesser
10 X 15 Minute Episodes – Approx. 2.5 Hours [ABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Monday to Friday at 6:45pm (repeats 12:45am) UK Time*
A nightmare vision of the future, where humans are battery farmed and cloning and consumerism is rife.

*This has been broadcast at least once before on BBC Radio 4

These will both be avilable via the Listen Again service shortly after they air.

posted byJesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 re-airs the Philip K. Dick documentary Confessions Of A Crap Artist

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BBC Radio 4 has re-aired the half-hour documentary we told you about back in January on the transcendant experience near the end of Philip K. Dick‘s life. “Confessions of a Crap Artist” by Ken Hollings isn’t specifically about the PKD novel of the same name but it is a documentary about the last years of his life he encountered something so strange and troubling he couldn’t stop writing about it.

You can use the “Listen Again” feature on the BBC4 website HERE to hear it.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 7’s The 7th Dimension does Understand by Ted Chiang

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BBC7’s the 7th Dimension will be re-airing a truly AWESOME unabridged reading of Ted Chiang‘s novelette Understand.

This story has been broadcast on BBC Radio 7 previously and it blew my mind when I first heard it! This sort of unabridged reading is what makes me so attuned to what The 7th Dimension is up to. If you listen to no other BBC Radio production this year listen to this one!

Here’s a teaser: 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. In the tradition of Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon. It was originally published in “Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine” in 1991.

Understand
By Ted Chiang; Read by Rashan Stone
4 half-hour segments – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 7
AIRING: Saturdays for four weeks @ 6pm (repeats 12am) UK Time

This will be available via the Listen Again service shortly after it airs.

posted by Jesse Willis

2 new BBC Radio programmes of interest…

Online Audio

Our UK correspondent codenamed “Roy” writes:

“Just spotted an item in the latest Radio Times that might be of interest to at least a section of the SFFAudio audience…….

Star Trek At 40 – Where No-One Has Gone Before
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 2
Broadcast: Tuesday October 3rd – 20:30-21:30

Roy sez: “I don’t suppose this will be the only Star Trek anniversary documentary and it remains to be seen if this will have any unique insights, but I for one will be tuned in. It will likely be available via ‘listen again‘ for a week or so, but archiving of R2 is not perhaps as comprehensive as other BBC stations.”

And over on Radio 4:

Tomorrow, Today!
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Friday October 6th – 11:30-12:00

A new four part comedy series, a spoof on life in the BBC’s Light Entertainment Unit: A BBC Producer in 1961 struggles to make a radio soap set in the unimaginably futuristic world of 2006.

Roy sez: “Much of the BBC’s radio comedy output has been poorly received by both critics & listeners over the last few years so I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything on the scale of Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy, but the cast looks pretty high-powered (Peter Bowles, Cheryl Campbell and John Fortune amongst other British stalwarts) so I live in hope.”

We do to. Thanks Roy!

posted by Jesse Willis