A sci-fi comedy-drama putting surreal new spins on classic speculative fiction. When George Orwell and H. G. Wells accidentally double-book a getaway cottage, an argument about tea escalates into an aeon-spanning adventure of time travel and political machination. A full cast audio drama from award-winning writer Robin Johnson.
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Halloween special featuring bitter karella's Hugo-nominated microfiction The Midnight Pals!
In a quest to resurrect a Morlock, Orwell and Wells find themselves in a weird metaphysical forest inhabited by historical horror writers, and attempt to impress Mary Shelley, H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe around the campfire.
If you've enjoyed Untrue Stories, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app—thank you!
00:39: Unannounced Halloween collaboration, and Season 2 of Untrue Stories
00:54: Turpentine Productions' H. G. Wells Has His Regrets
01:19: The Audio Verse Awards
01:48: Some other audio dramas I've been enjoying
02:51: Featured trailer for H. G. Wells Has His Regrets
You can listen to nominees for the Audio Verse Awards at their nominee showcase at https://anchor.fm/audioverseawards, then cast your ballot at https://audioverseawards.net/vote/. The first round of voting is open until Sunday 30 October. It would mean a lot to us if you included Untrue Stories on your ballot.
Halloween special featuring the Midnight Pals (trailer)
Season 1
Monday, October 17, 2022 • Duration 02:11
Coming this Halloween, a crossover Hugo-nominated twitter microfiction The Midnight Pals! Wells and Orwell sit round the campfire with Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley and H. P. Lovecraft in an uncharacteristically spooky episode of Untrue Stories.
If you've enjoyed Untrue Stories, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app—thank you!
Complete Season 1 omnibus: The Adventures of George Orwell and H. G. Wells
Season 1 · Episode 7
Tuesday, September 6, 2022 • Duration 01:42:20
A supercut of all season 1 episodes for convenient bingeing.
George Orwell has rented a getaway cottage on a remote Scottish island to finish work on his groundbreaking novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Unfortunately, he finds he's been double-booked with the last person he'd choose to take a holiday with—his annoying literary nemesis, H. G. Wells! An argument about the destiny of humanity and the right way to make a cup of tea escalates into an aeon-spanning adventure of time travel and political machination, as Orwell conspires with other classic dystopian science fiction authors to use Wells's time-travel technology to shape the world into the dark future of their own books.
This omnibus episode includes all six main episodes of Untrue Stories' first season, plus its three bonus mini-episodes, two of which have been integrated into the main continuity and the third of which is included as a post-credit scene. The episodes are linked together with short music cues, leaving all the credits to the end. There have also been numerous improvements to audio quality, particularly in the earlier episodes.
Episode 1: A Nice Cup of Tea (0:00:58—0:14:27)
Episode 2: The Wheels of Chance (0:14:30—0:28:15)
Episode 3: Battle Ground (0:28:19—0:33:21 and 0:34:58—0:40:06)
Mini-episode #1: Evil George Orwell (0:33:20—0:34:59)
Episode 4: How a Nation Is Exploited (0:40:09—0:56:17)
Episode 5: Man Becomes a Different Animal (0:56:20—1:11:02)
Episode 6: The Wonderful Visit (1:11:05—1:21:50 and 1:27:59—1:33:33)
Mini-episode #2: Exile to Hell (1:21:51—1:27:58)
Mini-episode #3: The Telescreen Programme: Newspeak Phrasebook (post-credit scene) (1:37:02—1:42:21)
CAST:
Robin Johnson as George Orwell
Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells
Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett
Tara Court as Julia
Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Captain Rutherford
Simon Beck as Aldous Huxley
Alexander Walsh as Yevgeny Zamyatin, Isaac Asimov and the radio/telescreen announcer
David Court as Ray Bradbury
6. The Wonderful Visit
Season 1 · Episode 6
Saturday, September 3, 2022 • Duration 20:00
Orwell, Wells and their pals gather in 1948 for the astonishing season finale.
Wells arrives back on the Isle of Jura with an uninvited guest, where things come to a head as even more time travelling science fiction writers arrive to interfere.
This episode marks Untrue Stories' first season finale. Producing Untrue Stories is the most fun I've had for ages. I'd like to thank everybody in the cast for being part of my daft thing, and the audiodrama communities on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, who are all much nicer than the ambient niceness on those hellsites. We're of course indebted to all the speculative fiction writers we've messed about with—George Orwell, H. G. Wells, Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood, Isaac Asimov, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Alice Ilgenfritz Jones, Ella Merchant, John Wyndham, and any I've forgotten—and to you for listening. Thank you!
The Telescreen Programme: Newspeak Phrasebook
Season 1
Sunday, August 21, 2022 • Duration 06:28
Brush up your Newspeak with a selection of typical scenes from Oceanian everyday life, with Oldspeak translation.
As a bonus mini-episode, we bring you a telescreen programme from the world of Orwell's 1984. Learn about Oceania's official language, Newspeak, maked hardworkwise by Oceania's goodest brainers to plusficient your talkfulness while decriming your think.
The lyrics of the Oceanian National Anthem, Oceania, 'Tis For Thee, were extrapolated by Robin from a title by George Orwell. The anthem was sung by several of Robin and two of Eve Morris, and accompanied by an unaccompanied public domain recording of The Internationale.
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Wells arrives in a distant future where humanity as we know it is extinct. How will he get his bicycle repaired now?
Following H. G. Wells' hurried departure from Orwell's world of 1984, his malfunctioning time-bicycle veers into the far and bizarre future that he will one day chronicle in his own novella, The Time Machine. Facing off against super-evolved pale blue cannibals, he's relieved to run into a couple of unexpected familiar faces.
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Classic sci-fi authors in their own worlds (1-minute trailer)
Season 1
Thursday, August 4, 2022 • Duration 01:00
What happens when two giants of speculative fiction double-book a getaway cottage...
A one-minute trailer for Season 1 of Untrue Stories, in which George Orwell and H. G. Wells argue about tea, go time travelling, and sort of accidentally-on-purpose overthrow western democracy. Includes material from episodes one through five.
Untrue Stories is a comedy-drama sci-fi serial that puts its own surreal spin on classic science fiction.
Written and produced by Robin Johnson. Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell and the voiceover; Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells; Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett; Tara Court as Julia; Alexander Walsh as the BBC announcer and Isaac Asimov; Liselle Nic Giollabhain as Thought Captain Rutherford; and Canavan Connolly as the Morlock. The music was composed and performed by Robin Johnson on kalimba, mountain dulcimer and electric bass, and sound effects were sourced from freesound.org (all effects used were released under a CC0 "no rights reserved" licence.)
If you enjoy the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends!
Big Brother makes an unofficial visit to the Inner Hebrides joycamp to pay his personal respects to a special prisoner.
This is a mini-episode taking place some time between the events of episode 4 "How a Nation is Exploited". Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell, Alexander Walsh as Isaac Asimov, Eve Morris as the joycamp commander, Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells, and Lionel Ritchie, Bill Withers and Curt Smith as Sonny Walk-Man.
References
Isaac Asimov's review of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four can be read here.
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If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at .
Mini-episode: Evil George Orwell
Season 1
Tuesday, July 19, 2022 • Duration 01:55
Bonus mini-episode! George Orwell meets the version of George Orwell that internet weirdos often seem to confuse him with. Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell and Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Thought Police Officer Rutherford.
A transcript of this episode is available here. There's also a (slightly shortened) version of it as an illustrated, subtitled social media video here.
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Untrue Stories, a podcast by Robin Johnson - Stats, Episodes and Rankings - My Podcast Data
If you've enjoyed Untrue Stories, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app—thank you!
Eve Morris as the joycamp commander and Oldspeak interpreter
Additional voices by Robin, Eve and Alexander
Sound effects were sourced from freesound dot org, and include sounds made by the users alecbark, anagar, caitlin-100, ccomics88, deleted-user-56114036, djgriffin, fabrizio84, fillsoko, floodmix, hasean, ikbenraar, inchadney, inspectorj, iwanplay, juanfg, katelyn100, keweldog, keithpeter, m1a2t3z4, mootmcnoodles, prim-ordial, panska-tlolkova-matilda, sin2xv0, sophielhall3535, soundsnapfx, timbre, vpp-2015, webbfilmsuk, and wlabarron. Original music was by Robin Johnson. The Internationale (as used as accompaniment for Oceania, 'Tis For Thee) was a public domain recording by the Belinskogo Radio Orchestra.
A transcript of this omnibus episode is available here.
If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app — thank you!
If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends!
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