Lightly dismissed as ‘middle-class catastrophes’ and ‘cosy
disasters’, John Wyndham’s novels, written chiefly in the 1950s and 1960s, are
still chillingly shocking and disturbing dramas that make the reader question
what we, as humans, are doing to our planet and, crucially, whether we are
alone in the vastness of those universes beyond our own.
The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich
Cuckoos are probably read less now than at any time in their publishing
history (although it is interesting to see that H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds
is currently on one GCSE English Literature syllabus). Wyndham’s novels are,
perhaps, ‘an easy read’, but much of their appeal is the way he turns upside down a tranquil world where
the last thing on people’s minds is the thought that anything could prevent
life from continuing as it had done since the turmoil and upheaval of the
protracted end to the Second World War.
These BBC radio dramatisations are enjoyable first of all
for the retelling of the novels, but then for the insight we are given into the
radio writers, actors, producers and audiences at the time of the original
broadcasts. The accents of the lead actors in The Day of the Triffids,
for example – Gary Watson, who made his name in countless
television dramas, and Barbara Shelley, famous for her Hammer
Film roles (playing Bill Masen and Josella Playton) – sound to modern ears frightfully cut glass.
Few actors today would even attempt such accents, but they are perfect for this
post-war apocalypse (dramatised by BBC radio drama pioneer Giles Cooper and
first broadcast in 1968). But that is part of the appeal of this collection.
A fascinating feature of The Day of the Triffids is that
the transcriptions are episodes shortened for sale to foreign
broadcasters, most of whom needed time for commercials. Anything deemed ‘inappropriate’
for a overseas audience was routinely cut. Twelve minutes of the deleted
material is included here on the final CD of Triffids.
Of the other broadcasts, The Kraken Wakes, from 1998, is
rather prescient in the light of the rise in sea levels through global warming.
As the Thames breaks its banks and then submerges the Houses of Parliament, the
listener is left realising that this modern-day Noah’s Flood is perhaps not so
far-fetched.
Chocky (from 1998) is fascinating, as a schoolboy
communicates with an entity from the future, a ‘girl’ (although there is only
one gender on her planet) who is trying to impart the secrets of an energy
source that will save the Earth from eventual destruction. Fables of Nikola
Tesla’s inventions and conspiracy theories that the petro-chemical industry in
the USA tried to interfere with work on the electric car all spring to mind as
twelve-year-old Matthew is kidnapped, hypnotised and threatened when it is revealed
that he may be the conduit for a new science emanating from a different world. The dramatisation is gripping and absorbing and John
Constable’s script is excellent, building as it does to its inevitable
denouement. John Tydeman produced a
version for BBC Radio in 1967; it would be great to be able to hear that
version too.
Perhaps the best of the six here is Dan Rebellato’s 2003
production of The Midwich Cuckoos (again, there was an earlier version by
William Ingram). Bill Nighy and Sarah Parish are perfect as Richard and Janet,
who are fortunate enough to stay away from the village of Midwich on the night
when all the women, young and old, married and single, find themselves ‘with
child’. Controversial for its time, and disturbing still today, issues of
abortion, eugenics and egg-sharing are not far from the surface of this
intriguing and disturbing mystery, displaying just how current Wyndham still is
in the second decade of the twenty-first century.
Essential.
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