The Midwich Cuckoos

Published in 1957, 'The Midwich Cuckoos' was the fourth of John Wyndham's post war novels after 'The Day of the Triffids', 'The Kraken Wakes' & 'The Chrysalids'. 

The book tells of the mysterious 'Dayout' suffered by the population of the town of Midwich and the subsequent discovery that every woman of child bearing age in the village has become pregnant.

Many people will be familiar with the story through the fantastic 1960 MGM movie 'Village of the Damned' starring George Sanders, Barbara Shelley and Martin Stephens as their fabulously creepy 'son', David.  Some of you may even know it through the risible 1995 John Carpenter remake starring Chrisopher Reeve.

The version below is a BBC Radio adaptation from 1982 starring William Gaunt (who played Richard Barrett in 'The Champions'), Charles Kay and Pauline Yates (perhaps most famously known as Elizabeth - wife of Reggie - Perrin) and with music by Roger Limb of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  It's a remarkably well-mannered adaption that seems like it should have been made in 1962 rather than 1982 but it does retain much of the post war character of the original material.

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show live

I first happened across 'The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy' via the magnificence of the TV show.  Radio was never a big part of my life growing up so the original radio play had passed me by and the lack of a bookshop anywhere near where I grew up meant the book had gone unnoticed also.  So, the TV show was a revelation. A glorious, madly funny, revelation.

I managed to track down the first two books a little while later but the radio show eluded me for years.  By the time I did get to finally hear it so entrenched was I with the TV version that it took some effort to get my head around those characters that has been recast from this original version.

One of those was the voice of Trillian. Played by Susan Sheridan who was for me a jarring change from the very distinctive Sandra Dickinson version that I'd grown up with.  Another was the Geoffrey McGivern version of Ford Prefect as opposed to the David Dixon one. The radio show is, of course, fabulous and all the cast are perfectly at home in the roles and that initial "Oh, it's a different actor" aside I soon grew to love it.

So it's with sadness that I noticed this weekend the passing of Ms. Sheridan and so, with my condolences to her family and friends, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share with you, not the original show because it's not online, but the casts triumphant return to the roles with the 2014 live show.

The Quatermass Memoirs

Nigel Kneale
(BBC Audio)

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1996, this is a mix of original TV soundtrack and drama-documentary, in which Nigel Kneale reflects on the 1950s fearful atmosphere in which he wrote the classic 'Quatermass' TV serials. The programme mixes the factual story with a dramatic narrative, in which the now-retired Professor Quatermass (played by Andrew Keir) reluctantly recounts his past exploits to a female journalist. This in turn is interweaved with soundtrack footage from the Quatermass TV dramas.

What a strange little artifact this turned out to be. I’m really not sure what it’s meant to be; part documentary, part drama, part reminiscence / retrospection. Throughout the two discs Nigel Kneale talks about the influences on each of the Quatermass TV series and attempts – rather clumsily – to put each into a socio-political context. Interspersed with this is an odd little dramatisation featuring Andrew Keir reprising his portrayal of the now aged, retired and even crankier Quatermass who is ‘pushed’ into reminiscence of the events of his past by a young researcher turning up at his door.

It was a pleasure to hear Keir and the Kneale sections were diverting enough in their way but on the whole this was a bit of a non event. The attempt at the very end to bring in a set-up for the world of the 1979 TV series was a nice little conceit but, much like the rest of it, rather clumsily done.

Buy it here - UK / US

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Aliens in the Mind

Robert Holmes & Rene Basilico
(BBC)

Strange people are discovered on a remote Scottish island. Classic radio sci-fi starring Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, written by Doctor Who script editor Robert Holmes

Originally starting life as a proposed Doctor Who script (Second Doctor) this was later made into this fantastic sci-fi serial starring real-life friends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price as old college friends – eminent brain surgeon John Cornelius and the laconic parapsychologist Curtis Lark. I’m very pleased that it was turned down. Cushing & Price are in phenomenal form trading banter and handling the often pretty absurd dialogue with aplomb. And, let’s be honest here they both have amazing voices that one could happily listen to all day.

The story details their discovery (via another old friend) of a colony of telepathic ‘mutants’ on a small Scottish island. Amongst their number they identify two women they describe as ‘controllers’, mutants who can control the actions of other mutants. Their investigation into this phenomena leads them to London and an attempt to take over the government which they foil in what must be said is an anticlimactic ending.

The whole thing is gloriously dated and sublimely archaic and great, great, great fun.

Buy it here - Aliens in the Mind (Classic Radio Sci-Fi) - or listen below.



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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much appreciate a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain