Trailer for Untrue Stories season 1, "The Adventures of George Orwell and H. G. Wells"
The infamous rivalry between two classic speculative fiction writers leads to a thrilling and bizarre story of tea, bicycles and time travel in Untrue Stories' first season, The Adventures of George Orwell and H. G. Wells.
Untrue Stories is a comedy-drama sci-fi serial that puts its own surreal spin on classic speculative fiction.
Written and produced by Robin Johnson and starring Robin Johnson, Patrick Spragg, Tara Court, Joanna Lawrie and Liselle Nic Giollabhain.
A transcript of this trailer is available here.
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Voiceover: The story you are about to hear is untrue.
[The Untrue Stories theme music, a chill-out style tune played on kalimba and slightly distorted mountain dulcimer, plays in the background]
Mrs Watchett: Mr Wells, this is Mr George Orwell, he's a –
H. G. Wells: – dreadful big-footed Trotskyist hack!
Voiceover: The rivalry between two of speculative fiction's greatest writers
Mrs Watchett: Mr Orwell, this is Mr H. G. Wells, who's –
George Orwell: – an archaic techno-pacifist dinosaur!
Voiceover: The story of a wholly remarkable book.
Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Mrs Watchett: "It was a bright cold day in April. Winston Smith adjusted his aviator sunglasses –"
Orwell: Chilling, isn't it?
Mrs Watchett: "– as he drove his convertible past the bowling alley."
Orwell: A society driven by conspicuous consumerism and ridiculous clothing fads!
Voiceover: Time travel.
Orwell: Wells, are you telling me that you, popular novelist and former upholsterer's apprentice, have constructed a genuine working time machine... out of a bicycle?
Wells: I will travel into the future.
[Sound effects (FX): wibbly wobbly time travel noise. Bicycle bell.]
Julia: We're in a totalitarian dictatorship, there's a perpetual war, and nobody in the world can make a decent brew.
Voiceover: An astonishing...
Wells: What on earth happened?
Julia: The book warned people. If we went down the road of capitalism, by the 1980s we'd have built a society of vain, selfish people. Everyone was so afraid of that that they went to the other extreme.
Voiceover: ...thrilling...
[FX: helicopter.]
Captain Rutherford: [Megaphone effect] Stop! Thought Police!
Rutherford: You are under arrest for crimes against the state.
[FX: glass breaking.]
Rutherford: If you have not committed any crimes, they will be committed retrospectively on your behalf.
[FX: sci-fi ray gun. Wall collapsing.]
Julia: Aagh!
Voiceover: ...and entirely untrue story...
[FX: whistle of a boiling kettle]
Voiceover: ...of tea...
Orwell: There are eleven rules to making a nice cup of tea, and they are all golden.
[FX: bicycle wheels turning]
Voiceover: ...bicycles...
Wells: My invention!
[FX: bicycle bell]
Orwell: I am sorry to break it to you, Wells, but the bicycle has already been invented.
Voiceover: ...and meddling with causality.
[FX: wibbly time travel noise]
Wells: We've made the future even worse.
[FX: pneumatic pump]
Orwell: Did a large iron lung just materialise in the room?
Voiceover: The Adventures of George Orwell and H. G. Wells.
Rutherford: Tea, Big Brother?
Voiceover: Season One of Untrue Stories, a new comedy-drama literary satire serial podcast from award-eligible scriptwriter Robin Johnson.
[Theme music ends.]
Julia: Indian tea. Brewed in a china teapot. Warmed on the hob. Five point two spoons to the litre. Unstrained. Poured whilst boiling. Shaken not stirred. Cylindrical cup. Semi-skimmed milk. Tea in first. No sugar.