The BBC have produced many stand-alone stories as well as short serials (up to several dozen episodes with the same characters, exploring a single story thread). But they have also produced many short anthologies of stand-alone stories which explore a common theme (e.g., ghost stories, or the stories J.G. Ballard). Since these stories are often difficult to find except as part of an anthology, I have decided to list them here as part of those anthologies.

Note: some of the anthologies, below, have their own archive page.

• Appointment with Fear (6)
• Chillers (4)
• Dangerous Visions (8)
• Darker Side of the Border, The (3)
• Fear on 4 (47)
• Fright Night (2)
• Golden Apples of the Sun, The (8)
• Great Scott (3)
• Haunted (23)
• Maiden Music Productions (6)
• Man in Black, The (20)
• M.R. James Stories (5)
• Price of Fear, The (25)
• Professor Challenger (3)
• Red Room, The (9)
• Shape of Things to Come, The (8)
• Spine Chillers (5)
• Storytellers (12)
• Tales of the Bizarre (6)
• Unmade Movies (5)
• Weird Tales (11)

2025

Outlawed by a fearful public, bio-engineering becomes a black-market commodity, the arena of organized crime, underhanded multi-national corporations, and the desperately terminally ill.

Aliens in the Mind

A six-part serial about two doctors who uncover a colony of mental mutants on a remote island in the Hebrides. There seems to be a conspiracy underfoot, and it must be stopped before the mutants can undermine the government—or is it already too late? Stars Vincent Price and Peter Cushing.

Alpha

"A computer so all-knowing it seems to have an independent life of its own." --- BBC Radio 4

see also "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (Miscellaneous Shows), "ALICE" and "Darling Deadly Dolores" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater)

Alternative to Suicide, An

A low-grade technician, psychologically programmed to service aboard a deep-space explorer ship, is sent back to Earth by the 'Company' for rehab following an accident. As part of his corporate 'vacation', he is introduced to a woman altered to resemble a former lover, and when the two fall in love, he begins to question his assigned lifestyle and pursue his ultimate potential—with serious consequences for the Company.

Babylon Run, The

Bravo 74

Burning of the Grass, The

A survey team from Earth arrives on an alien world, seeking mineral rights from the primitive natives in exchange for all the wonderful technological marvels of mankind. The locals, however, appear to be anything but impressed by the offer.

Caves of Steel, The

In an overcrowded New York of the future, a homicide detective and his android partner must overcome social prejudice against robots to investigate the murder of an eminent roboticist, an obvious target of a ring of anti-technology terrorists.

See the CD cover art for this show.

Childhood's End

A poignant SF classic about humankind's first contact, when a super-race calling themselves the Overlords arrive and rid the world of strife and suffering. Not everybody thinks a life without struggle is a good idea, and the Overlords' motives come into question when they refuse to show themselves and children all over the world begin to disappear...

Several different versions were produced by the BBC; a 5-part version was also produced for the CBC's Vanishing Point.

Chimera

Genetic experiments at a lab in the English countryside produce an evolutionary throwback, a quasi-human creature which escapes and goes on a killing spree.

Chocky

A couple become concerned over their young son's increasing fixation with Chocky, his invisible friend. At first it seems a harmless diversion for him, but then Chocky starts to develop a serious attitude problem...

Chosen, The

In a distant future faced with impending social upheaval and collapse, a supercomputer makes an unusual selection from the thousands of cryogenically frozen individuals from the 20th century to be revived—an unremarkable young woman who is apparently the world's only hope for survival.

Closed Planet

A crippled starship is compelled to make landfall on a remote colony world, where the locals refuse to allow the crew to disembark except under the strictest control. What terrible secret are they hiding?

Cold Earth Travelling

An adaptation of a work by Chaucer, with an intriguing, if implausible, concept - three war-weary soldiers in medieval England undertake a quest to seek out Death and kill him, an idea which Death himself finds quite amusing.

Deep Station Emerald

The crew of a research base on the ocean floor discovers a source of cold fusion, the solution to all the world's energy problems. Elation turns to terror, however, when a series of 'accidents' causes several deaths, and a strange virus which mutates DNA is loosed—obviously, someone on board is a killer...

Doppelganger Machine, The

A 1933 mail flight from France to England flies into a fog bank and emerges into an alternate time line 40 years into the future, where a defeated Britain is a mere puppet state of Nazi Europe. Not surprisingly, the crew and passengers quickly arouse the curiosity and suspicion of the fascist authorities.

Dune Roller, The

A meteor crashing into Lake Michigan 300 years ago means trouble for a modern-day group of entomologists engaged in field studies on the sand dunes of the lake's more remote shores. A dormant alien life form awakens and its scattered pieces are murdering people as they attempt to reassemble.

Earthsearch

Returning to Earth after an extended journey in deep space, the generation starship Challenger is disturbed to find that while only110 years have passed on the ship, a million years have passed in the Solar System. The crew of 4—the only survivors of the great meteoroid strike that wiped out most of the crew—find that the Earth has vanished and the Moon is now in the Earth's orbit. Guided by discoveries there, they set out to search for the Earth. They find evidence of an earlier transit of the planet Paradise, which the crew had intended to colonize before the Great Strike, but the Starship's control computers, Angels 1 and 2, have their own agenda for the Challenger's crew.

Earthsearch II

The Angels return to Paradise, and use the resources of the Starship to terraform its climate, sending a great flood to drive the ship's crew off the planet by drowning all the land masses. Back on the ship the crew are forced to resume the search for Earth. The Angels use reprogrammed service androids to force the crew to obey. But someone is broadcasting transmissions designed to destroy organic free will computers. The Angels seek to control the crew's children, to build a 4th generation crew that will be completely subservient.

Fall of Moondust, A

A passenger cruise across the Moon's Sea of Tranquility goes horribly wrong when the cruise liner falls into a sinkhole and is buried beneath the dust.

This production was cut into several parts and re-aired on the CBC anthology series Nightfall.

Fatherland

What if the Third Reich survived World War II? It is 1964, and the Greater German Reich is looking to end its Cold War with the United States by inviting President Joseph Kennedy to a summit on the eve of Hitler's 75th birthday. But when the body of a high-ranking Reichsminister is dragged from a lake, a homicide detective in the Berlin Kriminalpolizei discovers clues to a conspiracy with global implications.

Freebooter, The

A freighter lands for emergency repairs on a desolate world where tensions among the senior officers obstruct repair efforts and blind them to the planet's inhabitants, the last starving remnants of a race who exist only in the metallic dust of the planet and see the newcomers only as a source of food.

With Harold Kasket (narrator), Brenda Kaye (Ria, alien I), David Alder (Keital, alien II), Carleton Hobbs (Lothan, alien III), Peter Marinker (Luke, space-master), Steve Hodson (Sven, land-master), Mary Elliott Nelson (Alison), Kenneth Shanley (Alpha Delta II), Roy Spencer (Ike), Henry Davies (Weevel). Directed by: Graham Gauld.

"Now and then the wind catches the silvery flakes which litter the desert sands. They flash and glitter in the sunlight, never rising more than a foot above the ground and then fall back and lie rocking, waiting for the next gust. Men have peered at this water-less world from their starships and then passed on. Though the atmosphere is breathable, there are no minerals worth exploiting. They have given it a number -- Bravo 74 -- and listed it as a dead world. But they are wrong. The silver dust is the wind-scattered dead of an alien race, and the few places where the glittering flakes are clumped together and lie like cloaks upon the sand, life persists. Each silver mantle is a Being, though man sees only the chance accumulation of shining dust, and the wraith-like creatures cry to one another in voices that men cannot hear." --- from the intro

Ghost Train

Passengers stranded at a remote train station said to be haunted by the ghosts of a tragic derailment years before face a night of increasing horrors.

Ghost Train was also produced for an LP in 1951.

Gormenghast

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The

Arthur Dent, an Earthman, hitchhikes around the galaxy with a zany cast of characters. The plot is somewhat silly, but that's not the point. If you ever feel like you are hanging on edge waiting to find out what happens next you aren't paying attention. The beauty in Douglas Adams' work is in the telling, in the way he crafts each sentence. Sit back, close your eyes and listen.

Broadcast in two, six-part series. The first one ended with each character absolutely meeting their fate... so, naturally, the BBC asked for a second series. Adams carefully extracted each character from their predicament and created a second series with a more fluid, open-ended ending. The BBC never asked for a third.

Originally written for the BBC, this classic tale eventually became a TV series, a movie, a series of books, an LP, and a pet dog. Sound engineering from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The Hobbit

The classic tale of J.R.R. Tolkien first told in 1937 and dramatized many times on stage, radio and on film. This is the tale of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, as he travels with a company of dwarves to the Lonely Mountain for the purpose of... well, it's a bit complicated. Bilbo, a very conservative hobbit, does not hold with 'adventures', but finds himself becoming interested in the affairs of the dwarves and joins their compnay despite himself. What follows is a tale of Grand Adventure, with happiness and joy, sadness and despair.

Hood

England, 1201: King John reigns. The Sheriff of Nottingham, Lord Philip de Nicholay, is betrayed and his tax collections, stolen. Lord William de Warrene holds him accountable but instead of executing him, allows him one last chance to recover the money. Robert de Loxley, Nicholay's childhood friend and competitor for the hand of Maid Marian, offers some friendly advice: enter Sherwood Forest and seek Little John at the wooden bridge...

With Lee Ingleby (Philip De Nicholay), Anthony Milles (Robert De Loxley), Sarah McKendrick (Lady Marion), Peter Greenall (Little John), Damian Cooper (Will Scarlet), Sean Connolly (Brother Tuck), and Billy Miller (Alan-A-Dale and King John).

Host Planet Earth

A brilliant and wilful scientist conceives an interstellar drive, but following the launch of the first manned mission into deepest space, mission command is plagued by inexplicable deaths and mental breakdowns. A reporter teams up with one of the scientists to investigate, and together they uncover evidence of an ancient evil spreading throughout the galaxy, which now may be infecting the crew of the returning ship.

Hunter's Moon

Into the Ether

The US government is employing 'remote viewers'—people who can travel via their psyches to any location—as spies, saboteurs, or worse, whatever the cost in trauma to their 'volunteers'.

It Was on the Spaceship Venus

A farce about a rescue mission to retrieve Earth's top soccer star from the evil clutches of the megalomaniacal ruler of Mars.

Journey Into Space

Perhaps the most successful and popular series to come out of the UK. The four separate serials followed the exploits of astronauts exploring the Moon and Mars who uncover an alien plot to conquer Earth. The show was enough of a hit to inspire fan clubs and retrospective documentaries. The first serial ("Journey to the Moon"/"Operation Luna" -- 6 hours) was broadcast in 1953, but the magnetic tapes were erased shortly thereafter. It was re-recorded in 1958. The second serial ("The Red Planet" -- 9 hours) aired in 1954. The third series ("The World in Peril" -- 10 hours) aired in 1955. A ninety-minute fourth "series" ("Return to Mars" -- 1.5 hours) aired in 1981. "It was the last radio programme in the UK to attract a bigger evening audience than television." --- BBC Audiobooks

Kite Lords, The

After nuclear war has left the Earth in ruins, an airborne alien race arrives to whom 'groundlings' are nothing more than a food supply to be herded, bred, and harvested at will. Men and women are segregated until 'Kitestide', when annually the aliens allow the men to form into rape gangs and hunt the women down. A horrific future, until one young man discovers that 'Kites' can be killed too...

Kraken Wakes, The

A competitive sentient species 'awakes' in the depths of the world's oceans and feeling threatened goes on the offensive. A power struggle for survival ensues between the Kraken and humans.

Last Rose of Summer, The

Letter of Last Resort, The

Background: The concept of 'Mutual Assured Destruction' is simple, yet bizarre. It's the type of concept that only a military mind can feel truly comfortable with. The idea is that national security arises from having an overwhelming supply of nuclear weapons. So many, in fact, that your enemy cannot destroy them all in a 'first strike', and that any such attempt will leave you with enough fire-power to automatically obliterate your enemy in retaliation... even if you yourself are destroyed in the process. Ensuring that both sides would be absolutely destroyed, as it were, protects from anyone using nuclear weapons in the first place.

The UK currently have (4) Vanguard-class submarines equipped with nuclear weapons. Each submarine has (16) Trident II ballistic missiles, and each missile has (12) nuclear warheads... enough fire-power to destroy 192 cities. At all times, at least one of these submarines is armed and on active duty.

Its task is to cruise the ocean depths, avoid detection, and remain hidden. The crew monitor the airwaves; they are aware of current events. In the event of a devastating and decapitating nuclear attack on the UK, an attack that destroys all government... all military installations... all civilization... the submarine captain would open a safe. Inside that safe is another safe. And inside that safe is The Letter of Last Resort with the deceased Prime Minister's orders. The letter might tell the Captain... to fire his nuclear missiles in retaliation. It might tell the Captain... to refrain from retaliating. It might tell him... to act on his own conscience. It might tell him... something else.

This story takes place in the present day. The newly-elected Prime Minister is working late. It's nearly midnight. John, from Appointments, arrives and asks for a few moments of the Prime Minister's time. She agrees. He goes on to explain that he needs her to write a letter, The Letter of Last Resort, because the previous letters were destroyed, unopened, when her predecessor left office. She's bemused by the whole concept, and unsure what to write. And so begins a lengthy discussion about how nuclear deterrent works... and the conditions under which it might not.

With Belinda Lang (Prime Minister), and Simon Chandler (John, from Appointments)

See also: "The Light of a Thousand Suns" (BBC)

Leviathan 99

A futuristic rendition of "Moby Dick", with a rogue comet standing in for the White Whale, and Christopher Lee as a wayward space commander obsessed with avenging himself on it for blinding him. Adaptation written by Ray Bradbury.

Light of a Thousand Suns, The

Cerebus is the first of a new breed of nuclear attack submarines which operates under the principle of Negative Acknowledgement Attack—every 4 hours it must surface and receive a signal from a polar-orbit satellite—if it does not receive a signal for twelve consecutive hours the captain and his crew are under strict orders to launch the submarine's payload.

See also: "The Letter of Last Resort" (BBC)

Lost World, The

Based on the classic novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the story follows the quest of the irascible Professor Edward Challenger to prove the veracity of his claims as to the existence of a South American plateau where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures still thrive.

The BBC have produced 5 separate versions. A more recent semi-dramatized reading was done for Alien Voices.

Machine Stops, The

In a remote future when the world has become virtually uninhabitable, and humanity has retreated underground to die a slow death under the auspices of the Machine, a woman's son declares his intention to violate the fabric of civilization by venturing to the surface. An early 20th century classic of science fiction by E. M. Forster, written as a retort against H. G. Wells' faith in the wonders of a technology-driven future.

Another version of this story was produced for the series 2000x.

Man Who Could Work Miracles, The

George Fotheringay has discovered the secret to performing miracles—all he has to do is ask and it is done. The only thing he can't seem to control are the consequences.

Other versions were produced for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater and Escape

Mars Project, The

The pressures of overpopulation make necessary the terraforming and colonization of Mars, but one scientist's megalomania endangers the future of the human race, and opens the way for an ancient evil to resurface.

Midwich Cuckoos, The

A small town succumbs to a strange force that puts everyone within a 2-mile radius to sleep for 24 hours. Afterwards it is discovered that every woman of child-bearing age that was affected is now pregnant. All of the children are born healthy, highly intelligent, and mostly normal, except for their golden eyes and general creepiness... The novel was also made into a movie called "Village of the Damned".

Neuromancer

Based on the landmark William Gibson novel, a washed up cyber-spy gets a second chance when he is hired into a rich, but unstable ex-war hero's plot to steal data from the world's most powerful and impregnable corporation.

Night of the Wolf

An American judge searching for his missing son comes into contact with the dreaded Northcott family and a descent into lycanthropic madness. Starring Vincent Price and his wife, Coral Browne.

Omegapoint

Nuclear scientists at Britain's top secret Tor Sands installation are baffled by a strange coded broadcast embedded in the computers. The closer the Head of Security comes to cracking the code, the more people start dying... 

Only You Can Save Mankind

While playing a computer game in which he has to save Earth from attacking alien ships, a young boy is surprised when the aliens in the game begin behaving in strange ways not mentioned in the computer manual. Apparently, the leader of the aliens wants to surrender to young Johnny and asks for his help.

Operation Luna

Operation Luna (1953) Part 1: 13 episodes; 6 hrs—Jet Morgan and his three-man crew set out on Man's first mission to land on the Moon. All goes according to plan until they reach the Moon and encounter a series of anomalous occurrences, that may have something to do with a very unusual nearby crater.

See the CD cover art for this show.

Operation: Vega

On the brink of World War Three, the West sends envoys to recruit aid from the penal colony on Venus, only to learn a hard lesson in morality from the sub-culture which has evolved out of the brutal living conditions there.

A more recent version was produced for 2000x (as "The Mission of the Vega").

Orbit One-Zero

An astronomer in residence at an English university receives a call from a colleague who claims to have picked up intelligent signals originating from the edges of the Solar System. His investigation of the matter leads to the discovery of strange glowing cylinders which suck both heat and matter from everything around it. Unchecked, they could turn the Earth into a freezer as cold as deepest space....

Presented as a serial in 6 parts.

Orbital Decay

A British space shuttle mission is endangered by a seemingly foolish American mission specialist, whose agenda includes the covert recovery of a strange object orbiting the Earth.

Perfect Home

Downtown on a rainy night at a bus stop. It's late. A young man from the neighbourhood hospital mutters to himself as he reads the bus schedule. A street-girl approaches him. They strike up a tentative conversation, neither trusting the other. He wants to help. Or does he? She wants to take advantage of his offer and steal his money. Or does she?

With Toby Jones [Heron] and Zoë Tapper [Phylise]

Project: Genesis

Contact with a technologically superior race is made via radio telescope, but it doesn't take long for the aliens to start dictating commands to the poor backward humans. Are their intentions benign or malevolent?

See also "Childhood's End" (BBC)

Proxies, The

Eager to get their hands on anti-gravity crystals on Ganymede, Earth scientists dispatch a robot proxy to negotiate with the primitive natives, who are unwilling to trade for the gems. When the scientists resort to threats, their robotic envoy provides a lesson in ethics, but to whom?

Revenge, The

One man seeks revenge on another.

An experimental project: a thriller written for 11 performers and recorded in binaural sound, but with no written dialogue.

Satisfaction Guaranteed

A husband purchases an android to help out his nervous wife while he is out of town on business, and 'Tony' quickly proceeds to turn her life and her outlook on it upside down.

Shadow of the Pharaoh, The

A six-part historical melodrama set in ancient Egypt, about a young man who finds himself the unwitting enemy of an evil usurper to the throne of Thebes.

Silver Sky, The

Two time travellers from separate worlds are drawn to the same location—a beach on a strange unknown planet with no way back home and stalked by deadly predators.

Slipstream

In the dying days of WW II, a revolutionary new aircraft decimates Allied bombing efforts and threatens to turn the tide of the war. The British mount a commando expedition to capture or destroy the prototype from a Nazi research facility with the reluctant aid of a crack German POW pilot. What they discover has implications reaching far beyond the outcome of the war.

Solaris

Psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to a remote research station studying Solaris—a planet dominated by an ocean of living plasma—to investigate the death of a scientist and the mental disintegration of the entire research team. Despite their total isolation, they seem to have been plagued by 'visitors'. Story by Stanislaw Lem.

Two film versions were made, a lengthy Russian production out of the 70s, and the more recent Hollywood version starring George Clooney.

Songs of Distant Earth, The

A colony world, long cut off from Mother Earth, witnesses the arrival of an outbound starship which must repair its crippled engines. The crew and colonists must face the hard realities of colonizing the stars when they are forced to part once again.

Sophie

A lone astronaut on a long interstellar journey develops romantic feelings for the ship's 'female' computer when 'her' attempts to understand his psyche result in the evolution of an electronic personality.

Sounds in the Sky

An alien colony ship encounters a meteor storm and is forced into the atmosphere of a giant hostile planet where they must find an energy source to regenerate their power core. They find one—in the form of a human brain.

Space Program Alpha

The Earth cruiser Eumenides is dispatched on a salvage and rescue mission into deepest space to retrieve vital medicines from a courier ship attacked by enemy aliens. NOTE: This was a one off for a series targeted to schools called Secondary English 11-14 and aired three times starting on 12-4-86. Of the 38 programs listed, this seemed the only one of the Sci-Fi genre.

Steve Gallagher Trilogy, The

A lengthy serial about the relationship between man and machine in a future where the lines dividing the two become increasingly, and more dangerously, blurred. Never is there a proper title for the trilogy mentioned, though some sources refer to it as the "Last Rose of Summer Trilogy", perhaps because that segment was the original novel upon which the entire story evolved in radio form. Each segment of the trilogy contains its own story line, though naturally it makes more sense as a whole. The series is not actually from the BBC, but a product of Piccadilly Radio out of Manchester, UK.

Last Rose of Summer, The (1978) 2 hrs 30 min—In the future the world's population resides entirely in the City, a megalopolis controlled down to the minutiae of everyday life by Central Command, a supercomputer. A lowly nobody by the name of Mitchell decides that this just won't do. He embarks on a crusade to overthrow the system, hunted down by Randall, one of the hard core 'Elite', enforcers trained since birth to serve the State.

Hunter's Moon (1979) 3 hrs 20 min—The Central Computer destroyed, society is on the verge of collapse, only to be 'saved' by the advent of the Council, tyrants who have seized power in the vacuum. Randall, contaminated by his exposure to Mitchell, is packed off to a polar prison complex. Then a new threat emerges: an alien race arrives—the Wekk—who rape planets to build their Worldships. Having patterned Mitchell's persona into a mechanical simulacrum, they begin building an army of simulacra to overwhelm the Earth. The Council has even sold out to the Wekk to save their own hides. Only Randall, Lobo—a fellow convict—and the Mitchell simulacra stand in their way.

Babylon Run, The (1980) 1 hr 40 min—Hundreds of years later, in a time when Man has spread out to the stars, a commercial charter makes a forced landing on the Babylon asteroid, a luxury resort for the super rich. Their ship damaged, they are dismayed to find the complex abandoned due to an incoming 'something' on a collision course. If that weren't bad enough, there is mutiny brewing, and Babylon itself is not what it seems to be...

See the CD cover art for this show.

There Will Come Soft Rains

A narrative account of an automated house which continues to function long after its human occupants have gone.

Versions were also produced for Dimension X and X Minus One.

Three Men in a Boat

Three ordinary men (to say nothing of their dog) take a boating trip along the Thames in 1889 and have many wonderful adventures. The story is part travelogue, part adventure serial, and provides vivid descriptions and historical details of the places they pass, along with amusing anecdotes from previous trips they have been on.

Reading Link: "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)", by Jerome K. Jerome, available at Project Gutenberg.

Snippet: "Let’s go up the river." He said we should have fresh air, exercise and quiet; the constant change of scene would occupy our minds (including what there was of Harris’s); and the hard work would give us a good appetite, and make us sleep well. Harris said he didn’t think George ought to do anything that would have a tendency to make him sleepier than he always was, as it might be dangerous. He said he didn’t very well understand how George was going to sleep any more than he did now, seeing that there were only twenty-four hours in each day, summer and winter alike; but thought that if he did sleep any more, he might just as well be dead, and so save his board and lodging.

Timeslip

Frank and Paul are two engineers tinkering with a supposedly non-working Electronic Agitator/Molecule Adjustor (for the layman, a copy machine that makes working 3-D copies of anything). When they accidentally and unknowingly create duplicates of themselves, things get a bit confusing. They and their frustrated wives have to solve many existential crises, such as: Who is the original? How do we get rid of the impostors? and Who gets the only pair of house slippers?

Titus Groan

Split into two parts, each 90 min; Part 1—"Titus Groan", Part 2—"Gormenghast"

Mervyn Peake's classic fantasy of intrigue and power-brokering in the ancient moldering castle of Gormenghast. Titus, the young heir to the throne, is threatened by the machinations of Steerpike (played by Sting), a kitchen servant whose sole ambition is to destroy the Groan dynasty that has dominated Gormenghast for 76 generations.

To See the Sun

A researcher travels to Romania to interview a beautiful Countess whose ancestor had been renowned as a vampire.

Tor Sands Experience, The

Scientists at a secret British research facility find themselves 'invaded' by beings from another dimension who are wilfully de-evolving to escape the ramifications of the technology humans are so desperately trying to achieve.

Touch and Go

A team of planetary surveyors working to build a landing field for future colony ships encounters a strange and deadly native creature.

I don't have a copy of this, but it seems quite likely that the above plotline refers to the Kingsley Amis story broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1957. (Thanks to Noelle for tracking this down!) "In Amis' second novel That Uncertain Feeling, we are introduced to John Lewis, assistant librarian in a Welsh town, who reads ASF in his spare time; this being the first indication that Amis is an SF fan himself. This became more apparent in 1957 when the BBC's Third Programme broadcast a pure SF play by Amis, 'Touch and Go'. This was no mundane Jet Morgan stuff about first landings on the Moon in the near future, but an SF story set in the far future concerning the adventures of an advance party on an alien planet. The characters talked quite casually about such topics as hyperspace and anti-grav landing grids, yet this did not destroy the feeling of realism that pervaded the play." --- The Eastercon 1961 programme book

Veldt, The

A couple purchase a holo-theatre to keep their son and daughter amused, but the recreation of the sweltering African savannah the children concoct is anything but amusing...

See also "The House on Chimney Pot Lane" (CBS Radio Mystery Theater).

One of Bradbury's most popular stories. Versions appeared on BBC, Bradbury 13, CBC Playhouse, Dimension X, Mindwebs, and X Minus One

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale

A common, unassuming man fantasizes about an exciting life as a secret agent on Mars, and seeks to fulfil his dreams by having artificial memories implanted into his brain. But reality and fantasy become confused when the implants trigger the repressed memory of a life he never knew he had.

This story was the basis for the film Total Recall.

Why Weren't You Looking?

An alien disregards protocols and contacts the primitive natives of Earth to warn them of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Witch Week

Created especially for BBC Radio 4 Extra, a dramatization of the novel Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones, who wrote about a young wizard at a magical academy 20 years before J.K. Rowling picked the same topic. At Larwood House, a school for witch orphans, witchcraft is utterly forbidden, but there is a rumour going around that there is a witch in class 2Y.

Part of the Chrestomanci children fantasy series. Stars Bill Milner.

"I remember the day they burned the witch. I was young, still in my pushchair, and Bernadine was pushing me through the market square while mum did the shopping. We watched as the bonfire caught and we watched the witch, who was a large fat man with a wobbly astonished face. Maybe he thought his magic would save him at the last moment, but it didn't.... Soon after that they changed the laws. There are no public burnings these days. The bonfires are lit inside the walls of the jails instead, and the Today program simply announces: 'Two witches were burned this morning in the Holloway Jail.' " --- student in class 2Y

Wizard of Earthsea, A

A young boy, Duny, nicknamed Sparrowhawk, has magical gifts which are powerful even for the island of Gont, a land famous for wizards. But when he gains his True Name of Ged and travels to the Island of the Wise to learn the ancient secrets of wizardry, his youthful pride and anger cause him to unleash a terrible darkness into the world. Doomed forever to be hunted by a nameless creature that would devour his soul and turn his powers to evil, the young wizard must journey beyond the edge of the world, battling dragons and encountering many perils, to confront the beast which only he can destroy. Brought to life in this spellbinding BBC Radio 4 dramatisation, A Wizard of Earthsea is a classic tale of high magic, courage and the neverending struggle between good and evil. --- Diversity Website.

Dr Gideon Fell, schoolmaster turned detective, tells the story of "The Barton Case": A young woman, Helen Barton, wakes up on Death Row with amnesia. It is four hours before her execution. Although she can't remember much, she claims she is innocent. Of course she does. Details start to filter in...

A blinded space dock worker sent to hospital is befriended by a super-intelligent nine-year-old girl who can read minds and wants nothing more than to die.

A mousey Army private in the Vietnam War, victimized by a sadistic Sergeant (is there another kind?) and assigned to corpse removal, is on the edge of a Section 8. His only solace is in broadcasting sympathetic messages on the radio to those killed in the fighting, whom he collectively refers to by the call sign of Delta Sly Honey. A harmless emotional release... until Delta Sly Honey returns his call...

Following Humanity's destruction at the 'hands' of a conscious super-computer, five people are kept 'alive' in its belly for its sadistic amusement.

A research team in the Antarctic finds the shell of a spaceship which had crashed in prehistoric times, and the mummified remains of its pilot frozen into the ice. They drag the ice block into their station and it begins to thaw...

Based on a story by John W. Campbell Jr, the publisher of Astounding Stories. This story inspired two Hollywood films, both called "The Thing".

A whaling ship penetrates deep into the Arctic ice, becoming trapped. Then the crew begin to see and hear things that could not possibly exist there.

A journalist investigating a string of unrelated deaths uncovers the terrifying truth behind a strange videotape. Originally produced for BBC's Fright Night. 

A teenage witch inhabits the body of a young woman in order to experience falling in love.

Classic about a lonely lighthouse whose bass fog horn attracts a creature from the Mesozoic out of the deeps.

Versions of this story appeared on Golden Apples of the Sun, Mindwebs, and Theatre 10.30 (as "The Beast"), and served as the inspiration for the film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

Time Safari, Inc. offers hunting enthusiasts the chance of a lifetime, the opportunity to travel back to the Cretaceous to bag the biggest trophy of all time: Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Versions of this story appeared on Bradbury Thirteen, Golden Apples of the Sun, Future Tense (as "An Imbalance of Species"), and SF 68.

See also: "A Gun for Dinosaur" and "Project Mastodon" (both from X Minus One)

Mutant Strain, The

The log entries of the last survivor of a doomed expedition to a planet of inexplicable terrors. Ouda, captain of the Eden-G, and her two co-pilots, Rhe and Poul, are investigating planetary activity in one of the smaller solar systems outside the galaxy when they become stranded on a bizarre planet.

With Bruce Bould (), Simon Gipps-Kent (), Carole Hayman (Ouda, spaceflight captain), and Edward Kelsey ().

Purple Planet, The

Conrad Edwards, the only survivor of an expedition to the Purple Planet cannot convince his psychotherapist of the truth behind his story of the sadistic tortures he and his crew-mates suffered at the hands of the super-advanced, slug-like natives there.

With Bruce Bould (), Simon Gipps-Kent (), Carole Hayman (Dr Angela Newman, crewmember), and Edward Kelsey ().

Space Station Z43

The staff aboard an orbital research station are attacked by a space-borne virus that invades the brain and drives the victims mad with delusions and excruciating pain.

Spiders, The

Suddenly, and without warning, millions of large purplish-blue spiders with thick hairy legs begin appearing all over England. They are disconcertingly ugly, but harmless. Well, mostly harmless. Until they start mutating...

With Nigel Anthony (), Bruce Bould (), Simon Gipps-Kent (), Carole Hayman (), Edward Kelsey (), and Brenda Kempner().

Ten Light Years Away

A rather confused retelling of the Noah's Ark story... this time set on an alien planet facing destruction from an incoming asteroid. When the incoming asteroid is detected a vast, hyper-intelligent computer system, named Deos, springs in to action, directing the inhabitants to build an enormous spaceship (300 rubitz by 50 rubitz by 30 rubitz in size) capable of carrying their entire civilization to a new world ten light years away.

With Nigel Anthony (), Bruce Bould (), Simon Gipps-Kent (), Carole Hayman (), Edward Kelsey (), and Brenda Kempner().

Third Star, The

The International Space Organization launches a missile to destroy the extrasolar star, Armageddon, which is fast approaching and is on a collision course with Earth.

Adrift aboard a space wreck, third rate mechanic Gully Foyle has managed to survive for months in a tool locker, only to be ignored by a passing ship. Finally rescued by the inhabitants of a ramshackle asteroid colony, his search for vengeance on the vessel that abandoned him leads him into conflict and conspiracy involving mega-corporations, covert government agencies, and the secret behind a substance known only as PyrE. The outcome could determine the fate of Earth in its war with the Outer Planets, and maybe much more...

The friendship between a little girl and a Japanese man sparks the memory of a ghost with a vendetta carried over from World War II.  

A down-and-out farmer and his family inherit a Midwestern farm, but only if he is willing to also assume the former owner's second occupation as the Grim Reaper.

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