ARTHUR C. CLARKE INTRODUCES

RADIO 51

SCI-FI DRAMA ON NIGHTFALL

April 26, 1983.

       Arthur C. Clarke is the author of 30 books of fiction and non-fiction, 20 million copies of which have been translated into more than 30 languages. He is regarded as a key thinker in modern science, but it was the film 2001: A Space Odyssey for which he was co-author with Stanley Kubrick in 1968, based on Clarke's short story, The Sentinel, that made his name as a brilliant creator of cosmic vision. The film set the standards for all subsequent space movies.

       Clarke, who calls himself "a failed recluse" because he vowed he'd never write the sequel, last year published 2010: Odyssey Two, which has been on the bestseller list for months. Also in 1982, the British writer was recorded in Sri Lanka, where he makes his home, for a BBC Radio series, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Science Fiction.

       Two of these dramatized stories will be broadcast on CBC Radio's Nightfall, Fridays at 7.30 p.m., 8 Nfld.

       Clarke introduces and sets the scene for his own story, A Fall of Moondust, May 20, 27 and June 3. The time is the 21st century; the place, the moon. There has been a moonquake, and the tourist cruiser Selene is sinking into a sea of moondust.

       The two most familiar names in the cast are film actor Barry Foster and Canadian Libby Morris. Dramatization is by Andrew Lynch and production is by Glyn Dearman who directed La Svengali and Foreign Bodies for CBC Radio Drama.

       Next, Clarke introduces The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, the English sci-fi writer who died in 1969. His other best-known works are The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos. Heard June 10, 17 and 24, The Chrysalids is a chilling post-nuclear catastrophe story set on earth. It was dramatized by Barbara Clegg and produced by Michael Bartlett.