The planet Mars boasts the most dramatic landscapes in our solar system. In a programme first broadcast in March, 2013, Kevin Fong embarks on a grand tour around the planet with scientists, artists and writers who know its special places intima

Following the Martian Invasion: Episode 5

Mar 10th, 2017 14m 22s

Francis Spufford moves through an eerily silent London from Exhibition Road, where Wells had eagerly attended the lectures of biologist Thomas Huxley, onto the outskirts of Primrose Hill: the last staging post of the Martians who meet their mic

Cells and Celluloid: Aliens on Film

Mar 10th, 2017 57m 42s

With Francien Stock and Adam Rutherford.

Following the Martian Invasion: Episode 4

Mar 9th, 2017 14m 17s

Red weed floats down the Thames by Kew Bridge. The Martians are busy aero-forming Earth to make it more like their dying Martian home. The South East lies in ruins and London is abandoned.Meanwhile in a house in Mortlake, Francis Spufford is jo

Following the Martian Invasion: Episode 3

Mar 8th, 2017 14m 7s

The inexorable progress of the Martian War machines meets an attempt at organized military response at Shepperton. It is desperate and doomed yet not without limited success.Joining Francis along the banks of the Thames to consider a desperate,

We Are The Martians: Start Up Planet

Mar 8th, 2017 42m 26s

For Radio 4's Mars series, Kevin Fong asks: what future do we have on Mars when we finally get there? He talks to scientists and writers about their visions of a human presence and purpose on the Red Planet. This is the third part on this serie

Moving to the Red Planet

Mar 7th, 2017 28m 33s

As we dream of sending humans to Mars, the psychological problems of a mission loom large. As part of Radio 4's Mars season. Claudia Hammond investigates the mind-set behind the desire of those of us who want to colonise the red planet. What do

Following the Martian Invasion: Episode 2

Mar 7th, 2017 14m 28s

Francis Spufford wheels his bicycle along Maybury Road and through Woking to consider the delight which HG Wells took in destroying a place he had only just recently arrived at. Woking, the land of the dead, where the Necropolis railway deposit

We Are the Martians: A New Red World

Mar 7th, 2017 42m 13s

Ken Hollings continues the series that revels in the Mars of imagination, history and science.Feminists, Christians, peace loving druids, vegetarian fruitarian dwarves, Bolsheviks and big science terraformers have all offered up their versions

Following the Martian Invasion: Episode 1

Mar 7th, 2017 14m 29s

Francis Spufford begins his journey following H.G. Wells' Martian invaders at the Basingstoke Canal that runs through Woking. Here Wells canoed with his lover amidst the wild vegetation and dreamed about Mars, at the time widely believed to be

We Are the Martians: Seeing Is Believing

Mar 7th, 2017 46m 40s

Sarah Dillon begins a series revelling in the Mars of imagination, science and history.We are the Martians, perhaps the only consciousness the Red Planet has ever had. The ancients wove their own mythological stories about Mars, its dim redness

Hunting the Martians

Mar 6th, 2017 28m 22s

As part of Radio 4's Mars season, planetary scientist Monica Grady explores the search for life on the Red Planet. As a small rocky planet, Mars is similar in many respects to the Earth and for that reason, many have thought it may harbour some

Rate