British Sci-Fi Shows -18 - Journey to the Centre of the Earth

(4.7 stars; 6 reviews)

British Sci-Fi Shows No 18 This is the eight-part radio serial produced for BBC Radio 4 by Howard Jones in 1963. It starred Bernard Horsfall and Jeffrey Banks. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Text: Wikipedia Disclaimer: By uploading these files, I make no claim to ownership or copyright. These recordings have been acquired from publicly available sources on the Internet, and my goal has been to put together a collection of every available episode where possible. I will add to these collections if I discover new episodes or if any new episodes become available. Additionally, while I tried to put together a collection that contains the best version of each episode that I could, there may be better copies of some recordings available from collectors and dealers, and I encourage you to reach out to them if you are so inclined. If they are not in the public domain, notify me and they will be deleted.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

Chapters

Centre of the Earth - Part 1 - The Great Discoverery	25:10
Centre of the Earth - Part 2 - The Shadow of Scapari	26:58
Centre of the Earth - Part 3 - Lost	26:46
Centre of the Earth - Part 4 - The Central Sea	27:51
Centre of the Earth - Part 5 - The Battle of the Monsters	25:55
Centre of the Earth - Part 6 - The Hurricane	26:32
Centre of the Earth - Part 7 - The Mysterious Dagger	26:37
Centre of the Earth - Part 8 - The Journey is Ended	27:08

Reviews

Old-timey Adventure

(3 stars)

Connor Dykes

The age and genre of this classic definitely show, as a kind of imagined ideal of the serial adventure genre at the tail end of the age of exploration and Victorian scientific optimism about man's greatness in the form of boldness, pluck and intelligence. It's a kind of variant on the theme of man vs nature, with the premise being one of the wildest that it almost verges on the fantastical and even whimsical. The characters are stock and flat, but the voice readers for the BBC give them plenty of vivacity, though the accent and tone is very much of the time, which lends once again the vibe of having discovered an old record or dusty forgotten book, which may have been popular in its day but is now more of a curiosity out of time.