TERRY JONES - STARSHIP TITANIC (320kbs-m4a/129mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 21st December 2024
A tale of interstellar skulduggery, romance and unhinged robots based in Douglas Adams's universe.
Michael Palin stars in Terry Jones's comic novel.
Far off in the centre of one of the less well-chartered quadrants of the universe, a vast civilisation is preparing to launch the most technologically advanced starship ever - Starship Titanic.
While the galaxy's media looks on, it unfortunately undergoes SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure) and disappears.
Leovinus, the designer of the ship, uncovers shoddy workmanship, poor cybernetics and a series of increasingly eccentric robots. The owners, Scraliontis and Brobostigan, were intent on destroying the ship and claiming the insurance.
Meanwhile in Oxfordshire, four humans are inspecting a property they intend buying, only to see it crushed under the re-materialising Starship. This disaster is swiftly followed by an invitation from an over-attentive robot to come aboard, and Lucy, Dan and Nettie are catapulted into a series of increasingly bizarre encounters.
Stylistically emulating the work of the great Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the late Terry Jones weaves a fabulously mad and comic tale.
Adapted by Ian Billings.
With a special guest appearance by Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
Encyclopedia Galatica .... Michael Palin
Scraliontis .... Simon Jones
Leovinus .... Nicholas Boulton
Brobostigan .... Nicholas Boulton
Dan .... Rupert Degas
Hackett .... Rupert Degas
The Parrot .... Rupert Degas
The Journalist .... Philip Pope
The Gondolier .... Philip Pope
Nettie .... Alana Ramsey
The Computer .... Alana Ramsey
The LiftBot .... Ian Billings
The Engine Room Door .... Ian Billings
Loss Adjuster One .... Ian Billings
Lucy .... Rebecca Yeo
Loss Adjuster Two .... Rebecca Yeo
Nigel .... Tom Alexander
The Gondolier .... Tom Alexander
The Bomb .... Tom Alexander
Titania .... Laura Lithgow
Music by Philip Pope.
Director: Dirk Maggs
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in December 2021.