The Kraken Wakes (1998) by John Wyndham, starring Jonathan Cake
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
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Another of Wyndham's darkly inflected sci-fi tales, this one slightly echoes Capek's War With The Newts as much as Wells's War of the Worlds, while still evoking Wyndham's very particular British ethos. It's been adapted for BBC radio many times - apt, since the lead character is a British radio journalist - and even since this 1998 version there have been two more significant BBC versions...
MYSTERIOUS MAGPIE is a channel devoted to ghost and horror stories on British radio, and to dark tales of every kind. I have another channel, MYSTICAL MAGPIE, which is all about stories of fantasy, mythology, and adventure: / @mysticalmagpie-wo5fn
If you're interested to learn about the century-long history of ghost and horror stories broadcast at Christmas on British television and radio, you might like to check out HOLLY WRAITHS (and its companion volume HOLLY TERRORS), an A-Z guide available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Lulu.com.
Dare I say that I liked John Wyndham's work before I discovered your channel, and now I not only like his work, I am a Wyndham junkie. Thank you for my newest addiction. I love all the Wyndham content you have been spoiling us with.
Like many I discovered Wyndham through The Day of the Triffids - in my case the BBC tv serial the early 1980s, which I can definitely recommend. I do have some more Wyndham that I'll upload in due course, including other versions of Kraken and Midwich (including a version starring Bill Nighy), but also The Chrysalids...
@@mysteriousmagpie I would love to hear them. My Wyndham adventures started with the 1962 The Day of the Triffids movie when they showed it on TV back in the 80s and I went and read the book. there after I discovered Midwich and now thanks to you the Kraken. I also know of some of his other work. His work ages well and I think he is timeless.
@@WolfShadowwhisper Yes, I read Triffids in the 1980s, and mostly it felt pretty current and relatable. As a child who grew up in the countryside I found it all too easy to imagine triffids lurking in the hedgerows, and there's even a plant in the UK called a Cuckoo Pint which genuinely resembles a tiny triffid. I shall be posting Wyndham's 'Chocky' soon, which is a story about a child who has an imaginary friend who isn't at all imaginary - it stars Owen Teale, whose reading of The Omen is also up on the channel.
@@mysteriousmagpie Never heard of Chocky so I am looking forward to that. Oh I also have to give an honourable mention to the movie E.T., I think it was at the end of the movie we saw a glimpse of a Triffid in E.T's ship, making Spielberg a fan of either Wyndham or the Triffid movies, we are in good company.
@@WolfShadowwhisper Ha, I never noticed that before! The Triffids are a classic monster and even though I'm not so much of a fan of the 60s film I still love their triffids and will always consider the latin species name it invented for them, Triffidus Celestus, to be 'official'. Chocky is a really good story and though it's from the point of view of a father it was successfully adapted as a children's TV series (shifting the main perspective from the father to his son). Now you're becoming familiar with Wyndham you may start to see his influence elsewhere - for example the film 28 Days Later is often thought of as a zombie movie, but it has at least as much in common with The Day of the Triffids - and even The Walking Dead seems to have borrowed its opening from Day of the Triffids, with the hero waking in hospital to discover the world has collapsed in his absence. The writer John Christopher wrote a 'response' to The Day of the Triffids called The Death of Grass, which is frankly terrifying. He imagines a world where a disease that kills all species of grass has run rampant - but all of our crops are types of grass, and so the world is plunged into starvation and societal collapse without a single triffid to help. Most disturbing, the government and people of the UK don't wait for the disease to take hold - they get on with the collapse themselves, scrabbling to get whatever food and resources they can, at whatever the cost. There's also a novel and film called Blindness which is inspired by Wyndham (and it's just struck me, I have a radio adaptation of it so that can go on the list for the channel). You might also be interested to know that there was a sequel to The Day of the Triffids, 'Night of the Triffids', which was adapted as an audio drama some years back. If you come to read any Wyndham there's also a sort of prequel to Triffids called Plan For Chaos, though that's never been adapted for radio or TV.
I read this book at school many many years ago and it was somewhat frowned upon as farfetched but it really captivated me, more so than the Triffids. I really cant understand why no movie based on this has not been made it would have been great, especially now with melting ice caps and rising sea levels forecast. Mr Wyndham was a true genius.
It is a curious oversight, you're right; there's a more recent BBC radio version of Kraken (which I've also uploaded to this channel) which was adapted by Val McDiarmid, and she took the opportunity to set the story now and sharpen a few of the edges in respect of the themes that, as you say, are increasingly relevant to us today...
I appreciate you posting this adaptation. It's my favorite.
My favourite adaptation! Thank you ❤
Glad to be of service. Several Wyndham plays on the channel, with more to come...
It is fascinating how inventors and science fiction writers have repeatedly "foreseen" the future - numerous authors wrote about travelling to the moon from the 17th century /Jules Verne with Nautilus and deep sea divers / top of my list is DaVinci etc. etc....but here Wyndham in 1953 writes about melting ice caps in a time when the world was busy rebuilding itself post WWII and the Cold War has in full swing.
It's certainly a story that has become all the more alarming over time - there's a much more recent radio adaptation which is very definitely adapted with our contemporary concerns in mind. This said, I suppose it might be that John Wyndham was channelling a very old fear, of an all-destroying flood. Any child raised with stories from the Bible learns that God's all-destroying wrath came in the form of a great flood, after all... As it happens, the Czech writer Karel Capek wrote a story called War With The Newts which ends in quite a similar way to The Kraken Wakes - though in that story it is not aliens but another terrestrial species, sea-dwelling intelligent reptiles, that cause the flood.
@@mysteriousmagpieI’ve not read War with the Newts - I’ll look it up. It’s been interesting over the recent years hearing with the people believing that mere humans could cause havoc to earth and yes we have improved some of our ways - I’m old enough to remember the smog problems but Mother Nature has never let us forget that all she needs to do is shrug her shoulders and we are reminded of our insignificance and helplessness when faced with her mighty power. Earth has been through ice ages and therefore melting ice before - whether humans survive the melt and the subsequent freeze is highly doubtful. Thanks for your feedback.
Enjoyable, but the BBC reading of the book by Stephen Moore remains my favorite rendition.
Im so glad i discovered your channel. I love John Wyndham's work. I think the first I saw was Day of the Triffids. That was pretty scary watching that when I was young. I'm gradually working through your uploads. From someone who suffers from insomnia, I'd like to thank you. Best regards.
If you mean the 1980s serial then that was my introduction to Wyndham too - scary, as you say... and scarier still because there were funny little plants growing at the top of my garden that I thought must be Triffids. As you'll see, my channel was originally straight ghost/horror, but I think some sci-fi, like John Wyndham's, is scary enough to be at home here. I've uploaded several John Wyndham stories so far, but in a few days I'll be uploading a newer, 'concert' version of The Kraken Wakes, which I recommend. It stars Tamsin Greig and features a full orchestral score...
WOW!!! this was exciting!!
Thanks , great story !
This is awesome but the CBC (BBC? no, CBS as in Canadian Broadcast Company) version most.
I still need to hear that version - somebody posted it to Internet Archive a few years back...
I can heartily recommend the CBC version.
Thank you...I wonder what I shall do if doomsday comes.
Have a spot of tea with marmalade toast.
You'll be OK
well- that was a big slice of ham.
Obviously a modern version judging from all the blasphemy. The earlier BBC versions had more respect for people's beliefs in God.
ruclips.net/video/o2eLVjovmWI/видео.htmlsi=eqLkqb7OXS_IB5JP
We got rid of blasphemy laws centuries ago in the civilized world.
Get over it