BBC Radio Science Fiction Season

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for fans of sci-fi on the BBC Radio network. The digital only station BBC 7 regularly broadcasts science fiction drama, but has been joined by the mainstream stations Radio 3 and Radio 4 for a season of science fiction. The season consists of new dramas, dramatisations and readings of ground breaking books inspired and written by some of the greats including H.G. Wells, J.G. Ballard, Iain M. Banks and Arthur C. Clarke.

I particularly liked the productions of Clarke's masterpiece Rendezvous with Rama, and Iain M. Banks's State Of The Art. I do agree with Kate Chisholm's review in The Spectator where she laments the loss of the Radiophonic Workshop's unearthly sound effects and audio treatment that were once a staple of radio drama, they would have added a lot to the State Of The Art, but it was enjoyable none the less.

Wasn't quite so sure of the apocalyptic The Death Of Grass drama bizarrely broadcast during Woman's Hour While the story and production had merit I thought the casting of David Mitchell as the narrator wasn't quite right, but then I recently spent several sessions catching up with his comedy Peep Show.

I read somewhere (but have lost the link) that the BBC received a number of complaints about the trailer (above) that they used on TV, seems it frightened a number of children! Not sure it would have got the same reaction as the original Exorcist Maze Game did...


I have embedded a 'copy' as the original youtube video has embedding disabled!