Science Fiction Britannia, thoughts so far

The BBC 4 season Science Fiction Britannia has started.

So far I've watched an episode of Doctor Who, Jon Pertwee era, the first episode of The Martians And Us and the interview with Iain Banks.

The Martians And Us is an excellent documentary, chronicling the history of UK SF. It started at HG Wells, through Olaf Stapledon, the Quatermass TV shows, Arthur C Clarker and up to the film version of 2001 A Space Odessey. There were interview sections with a whole range of people, including Sir Arthur C Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Brian Alsiss, Brian Stapleford, Kim Newman and China Mievillle. Very interesting and well done.

The interview with Iain Banks was a serious hour long discussion with Mark Lawson (he does serious arts shows). And when I say an hour, it's the BBC, so no commercials and a real hour of talking. It was entertaining, with Banks talking at high velocity about politics, religion, writing SF, mainstream novels... Lots of stuff.

There's lots more to come in November, and I'm looking forward to it.

As usual for the BBC the supporting website is excellent, with clips, links and the full version of My Science Fiction Life online.