The Day of the Triffids
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2021
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Killer plants, a blinding meteor shower, the spread of an unknown disease: John Wyndham's 1951 novel explores ideas about the hazards of bio-engineering and what happens when society breaks down. Matthew Sweet is joined by writers Amy Binns and Tanvir Bush, broadcaster Peter White and New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon to look at the book that spawned film, TV and radio adaptations and discuss what resonance it has today.
Amy Binns has written a biography of John Wyndham - 'Hidden Wyndham: Love, Life, Letters'. Tanvir Bush is a writer and photographer whose most recent novel is 'Cull'. Peter White is the BBC's Disability Affairs Correspondent and presents You and Yours on Radio 4. He presented a documentary exploring science-fiction and blindness https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0931fvq Sarah Dillon is Professor of English at Cambridge University and a Radio 3 New Generation Thinker. Her most recent book is 'Storylistening: Narrative Evidence and Public Reasoning'.
You can find other Free Thinking conversations exploring a range of films, books, artworks and TV series which are Landmarks of Culture on the website - everything from Jaws and The Quatermass Experiment to the writing of Günter Grass, Audre Lorde and Lorraine Hansberry. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44
Producer: Torquill MacLeod
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can I just say? |
| 0:01.5 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:05.6 | So nice. |
| 0:06.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC sounds. |
| 0:08.8 | Different paces, different heights. |
| 0:10.6 | The roof is buckling. |
| 0:11.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:25.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:35.8 | BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:39.3 | It's the Arts and Ideas podcast, and it's the end of the world. |
| 0:43.5 | It ended with blinding comets, plague, and killer plants. |
| 0:47.9 | Join me, Matthew Sweet and guests, and wake up in the day of the Triffids after these messages. |
| 1:10.8 | Hiya, I'm Linton Stevens. I just wanted to tell you about the Classical Fixed podcast. It's a great way to discover classical music. I mean, it's kind of something you just know exists. I was never really like an avid listener. I'm sort of impressively illiterate. Each week I mix my guest a playlist. |
| 1:12.4 | They take a listen in their own time, |
| 1:15.5 | then we get together and they tell me honestly what they thought. |
... |
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