BBC – Page 5 – SFFaudio

BBCR4 + RA.cc: The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Back in 2003 BBC Radio 4 produced a five part series of fantastic tales called, simply, Five Fantastic Tales.

Among them was a vignette, a horror tale, The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick. It’s the only audio production of this obscure story ever done.

Unfortunately, the reading is abridged.

Fortunately, it is well read by Liza Ross and is available, via torrent, from RadioArchive.cc!

The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick

Here is the illustration, by Tom Beecham, from the original publication in Fantasy Fiction, June 1953:

The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 Extra: Pratchett, Gaiman, Gibson, Bradbury

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here are three new short stories set to air on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Marionettes, Inc.
By Ray Bradbury; Read by ???
1 Broadcast – Approx. 15 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Broadcast: October 8, 2012

Fragments Of A Hologram Rose
By William Gibson; Read by Jon Strickland
1 Broadcast – Approx. 15 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Broadcast: October 9, 2012

Tomorrow’s News Yesterday
By Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman; Read by Jon Strickland
1 Broadcast – Approx. 15 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Broadcast: October 10, 2012

[Many thanks to Dave for the spot!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBCWS+RA.cc: John Christopher’s The Death Of Grass RADIO DRAMA (1986)

SFFaudio Online Audio

There’s a one hour BBC World Service radio drama adaptation of John Christopher’s The Death Of Grass available as a torrent over on RadioArchive.cc. Broadcast on March 15, 1986 the programme is a highly compressed adaptation. But, it keeps a surprising number of the key scenes as well as managing to sustain the novel’s unique atmosphere.

All the world’s grain crops fail and martial law is declared. Engineer John Custance leads his family, and an assortment of other survivors, from London to Cumbria in a desperate attempt to survive the coming global famine. and assorted hangers on North after all the crops fail and martial law is declared.

Dramatized by Pat Hooker

Cast:
Bernard Brown as John Custance
Gwen Cheryl as Ann
Colin Starkey as Roger
Anne Jameson as Olivia
David Gough as Perry

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Midas Plague by Frederik Pohl

SFFaudio Online Audio

“the curse of want gives way to the curse of plenty”
-Frederik Pohl, in the anthology Nightmare Age

Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, as a part of “The Shape of Things to Come” season in 1991 (a series of plays looking at the future) The Midas Plague was adapted from the acclaimed novella by Frederik Pohl.

Now, thanks to the terrific service RadioArchive.cc you can experience this positively smirk inducing satire of a consumer society flipped on it’s head.

Here’s my description of the premise:

Morey Fry lives in a post-scarcity world where cheap production has made commodities, consumer goods, and food ubiquitous. The “poor” are forced to spend their lives in a constant state of frantic consumption, continually upgrading their devices, clothes, jewelry, and appliances. But “poor” Morey can only wear-out his shirts so fast, and taking double cream in his coffee is giving a sick feeling. Meanwhile a black market in counterfeit ration book stamps flourishes, yet Morey is an honest man. When poverty stricken Morey marries a “rich” girl from the right side of the tracks they move into his well appointed mansion. There, the efficient household staff of robot butlers, valets, maids, cooks, and footmen foist endless consumer goods upon them both at a furious rate, something that upsets Morey’s new “wealthy” spouse – after all she’s is accustomed to a certain luxurious lifestyle.

The Midas Plague, illustrated by Emsh - from Galaxy, April 1954

The Midas Plague
Adapted by Mark Power from the story by Frederik Pohl; Performed by a full cast
1 MP3 (via TORRENT) – Approx. 44 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: September 4, 1991

Directed by Alec Reid

Cast:
Morrey Fry – Michael Drew
Cheri Fry – Diane White
Howland – Alan Covenay
Judge Elon – Eric Allen
Grace Elon – Caroline Hunt
Semmelweiss – Nick Chivers
Newman – Nick Chivers
Fairless – Clarence Smith
Sam – Clarence Smith
Wally – Richard Pearce
Blaine – Richard Pearce
Tanaquil – Catherine Neal
Wainwright – Fraser Kerr
Henry, the Robot – Geoffrey Collins
Profirio – Geoffrey Collins

More illustrations from the publication in Galaxy, April 1954:
The Midas Plague, illustrated by Emsh - from Galaxy, April 1954

The Midas Plague can also be found in…
Ballantine Books - Nightmare Age edited by Frederik Pohl

and…
The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume II, B

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: Ideas: Iceberg Ship Habbakuk

SFFaudio Online Audio

The 47 year old radio show, Ideas, is consistently the best evening education program on the radio. Prior to the web its ephemeral broadcasts could only be recaptured by sending away for expensive audio cassette copies. That made it appointment listening. Actually, Ideas, at least in part, is how I came to love evening classes.

After an evening seminar, I’d drive along Highway 101 with the sun’s last crepuscular rays shining rosily into the darkening sky, listening to Lister Sinclair introduce a new lecture series, a two part documentary, or some other aural exploration of condensed wisdom.

Since the dawning of the Ideas podcast I’ve not listened to the radio broadcast very often. And there’s a mawkish loss in that, perhaps. But ideas and Ideas should be accessible, and they have become so.

Here’s the latest.

Iceberg Ship Habbakuk:

1942: Hitler’s U-Boats are ravaging merchant ships that Britain depends on for its survival. Enter a plan, for a gigantic warship, to help the Allies win the Battle of the Atlantic. It will be built in Canada and made from … ice! Richard Longley tells the story of iceberg ship Habbakuk, in all its icy eccentricity.

|MP3|

Podcast feed: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/ideas.xml

Incidentally a few years ago BBC radio broadcast a play, penned by Steve Walker, on the same subject.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBCR4+RA.cc: Mr Jupitus In The Age Of Steampunk

SFFaudio Online Audio

I only know Phill Jupitus from his appearances on Stephen Fry’s, I want to say game show?, QI. From that I gathered he was a comedian, but apparently he’s also a fan of steampunk. In any case he’s the host of this one off “factual” BBC programme about the phenomenon. It’s entitled Mr Jupitus In The Age of Steampunk.

Mr Jupitus In The Age Of Steampunk

Here’s the description:

If you’ve ever encountered a person with flying goggles, clad in tweeds and clutching a mahogany laptop or brass smartphone on a chain, what’s the explanation? Phill Jupitus steps into an era where the 19th and 21st centuries charmingly collide, to investigate the time travelling cult known as Steampunk.

Travelling back to the steam-powered future, Phill discovers a cast of modern characters – engineers, scientists, writers, artists and inventors – taking their inspiration from the Victorian and Edwardian arts and sciences, and from the fiction of H.G. Wells.

“It’s still the early twenty-first century. The Victorian world, the Edwardian world carried on”, explains Ian Crichton aka Herr Doktor amongst an array of fantastical homemade devices: digital camera modified with rivets, brass-etched ray gun, steam pistol and a space helmet like that worn by Lionel Jeffries in The First Men on The Moon. “We’ve got steam-powered cars on the streets. We’ve got huge dirigibles flying to Japan”.

Steampunk speculates on an imaginary overlap between the 19th century and the present day. Phill investigates at a Steampunk convivial, The Houses of Parliament, on an x-ray ward, at a punk gig and in a shed in suburban Surrey.

With Dr Chandrika Nath from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology ; consultant radiologist Dr Adrian Thomas; comedian Andrew O’Neill; science fiction author, Adam Roberts and lecturer in 19th Century Literature, Dr Christine Ferguson.

Producer: Tamsin Hughes
A Testbed Production for BBC Radio 4.

I got the MP3 version via a torrent listed over on RadioArchive.cc.

Posted by Jesse Willis