Untrue Stories

Halloween special featuring bitter karella's Hugo-nominated microfiction The Midnight Pals! 

In a quest to resurrect a Morlock, Orwell and Wells find themselves in a weird metaphysical forest inhabited by historical horror writers, and attempt to impress Mary Shelley, H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe around the campfire.

The Midnight Pals is created by bitter karella. You can follow their antics on Twitter at https://twitter.com/midnight_pals. They are currently crowdfunding for their third book! More details at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/submitted-for-the-approval-of-the-midnight-pals-3

CAST 

• Robin Johnson as George Orwell
• Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells
• Tara Court as Julia
• Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett
• Rachel Pulliam as Ursula Le Guin
• Rebecca Thibodeaux as the newspaper seller
• Alexander Walsh as the servant
• Canavan Connolly as the Morlock

WITH SPECIAL GUEST MIDNIGHT PALS 

• Rebecca D'Souza as Mary Shelley
• Robin Johnson as H. P. Lovecraft
• Canavan Connolly as Edgar Allan Poe

I'm Cthulhu goes to (something like) the tune of Flanders and Swann's The Gnu.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://untrue-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/midnight-pals-halloween-crossover/transcript. 

If you've enjoyed Untrue Stories, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app—thank you! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at https://www.zazzle.co.uk/store/untrue_stories. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy! 

Find all episodes of H. G. Wells Has His Regrets on all the usual podcast sites, and more info at https://hgwellshashisregrets.wordpress.com. 

Timestamps (mm:ss):

• 00:00: Preambulatory waffle
  • 00:16: Crossover special with bitter karella's The Midnight Pals (trailer here: https://untrue-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/midnight-pals-halloween-crossover-trailer)
  • 00:39: Unannounced Halloween collaboration, and Season 2 of Untrue Stories
  • 00:54: Turpentine Productions' H. G. Wells Has His Regrets
  • 01:19: The Audio Verse Awards
  • 01:48: Some other audio dramas I've been enjoying
• 02:51: Featured trailer for H. G. Wells Has His Regrets

You can listen to nominees for the Audio Verse Awards at their nominee showcase at https://anchor.fm/audioverseawards, then cast your ballot at https://audioverseawards.net/vote/. The first round of voting is open until Sunday 30 October. It would mean a lot to us if you included Untrue Stories on your ballot. 

Links to the other audio dramas I recommended: 

• Desert Skies: https://desertskiespodcast.com
• Wireland Ranch: https://wirelandranch.com
• Echoes (in) Between: https://echoesinbetween.podbean.com

A transcript of this content is available at https://untrue-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/hg-wells-has-his-regrets-trailer/transcript.

If you've enjoyed Untrue Stories, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app—thank you! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at https://www.zazzle.co.uk/store/untrue_stories. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy! 

Coming this Halloween, a crossover Hugo-nominated twitter microfiction The Midnight Pals! Wells and Orwell sit round the campfire with Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley and H. P. Lovecraft in an uncharacteristically spooky episode of Untrue Stories. 

The Midnight Pals is created by bitter karella. You can follow their antics on Twitter at https://twitter.com/midnight_pals. 

CAST

• Robin Johnson as George Orwell and H. P. Lovecraft
• Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells
• Canavan Connolly as Edgar Allan Poe
• Rebecca D'Souza as Mary Shelley

A transcript of this trailer is available at https://untrue-stories.simplecast.com/episodes/midnight-pals-halloween-crossover-trailer/transcript. 

If you've enjoyed Untrue Stories, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app—thank you! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at https://www.zazzle.co.uk/store/untrue_stories. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy! 

A supercut of all season 1 episodes for convenient bingeing. 

George Orwell has rented a getaway cottage on a remote Scottish island to finish work on his groundbreaking novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Unfortunately, he finds he's been double-booked with the last person he'd choose to take a holiday with—his annoying literary nemesis, H. G. Wells! An argument about the destiny of humanity and the right way to make a cup of tea escalates into an aeon-spanning adventure of time travel and political machination, as Orwell conspires with other classic dystopian science fiction authors to use Wells's time-travel technology to shape the world into the dark future of their own books. 

This omnibus episode includes all six main episodes of Untrue Stories' first season, plus its three bonus mini-episodes, two of which have been integrated into the main continuity and the third of which is included as a post-credit scene. The episodes are linked together with short music cues, leaving all the credits to the end. There have also been numerous improvements to audio quality, particularly in the earlier episodes. 

• Episode 1: A Nice Cup of Tea (0:00:58—0:14:27)
• Episode 2: The Wheels of Chance (0:14:30—0:28:15)
• Episode 3: Battle Ground (0:28:19—0:33:21 and 0:34:58—0:40:06)
  • Mini-episode #1: Evil George Orwell (0:33:20—0:34:59)
• Episode 4: How a Nation Is Exploited (0:40:09—0:56:17)
• Episode 5: Man Becomes a Different Animal (0:56:20—1:11:02)
• Episode 6: The Wonderful Visit (1:11:05—1:21:50 and 1:27:59—1:33:33)
  • Mini-episode #2: Exile to Hell (1:21:51—1:27:58)
• Mini-episode #3: The Telescreen Programme: Newspeak Phrasebook (post-credit scene) (1:37:02—1:42:21)

CAST: 

• Robin Johnson as George Orwell
• Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells
• Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett
• Tara Court as Julia
• Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Captain Rutherford
• Simon Beck as Aldous Huxley
• Alexander Walsh as Yevgeny Zamyatin, Isaac Asimov and the radio/telescreen announcer
• David Court as Ray Bradbury
• Alex Noussias as Margaret Atwood
• Canavan Connolly as Nebogipfel the Morlock
• Rachel Pulliam as Ursula Le Guin
• Eve Morris as the joycamp commander and Oldspeak interpreter
• Additional voices by Robin, Eve and Alexander

Sound effects were sourced from freesound dot org, and include sounds made by the users alecbark, anagar, caitlin-100, ccomics88, deleted-user-56114036, djgriffin, fabrizio84, fillsoko, floodmix, hasean, ikbenraar, inchadney, inspectorj, iwanplay, juanfg, katelyn100, keweldog, keithpeter, m1a2t3z4, mootmcnoodles, prim-ordial, panska-tlolkova-matilda, sin2xv0, sophielhall3535, soundsnapfx, timbre, vpp-2015, webbfilmsuk, and wlabarron.  Original music was by Robin Johnson. The Internationale (as used as accompaniment for Oceania, 'Tis For Thee) was a public domain recording by the Belinskogo Radio Orchestra. 

A transcript of this omnibus episode is available here. 

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could help us amuse more people by telling your friends about us, and/or leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser, Goodpods or your favourite podcast site/app — thank you! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

14 September 2022: This episode has been updated to enhance audio.

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy! 

Orwell, Wells and their pals gather in 1948 for the astonishing season finale. 

Wells arrives back on  the Isle of Jura with an uninvited guest, where things come to a head as even more time travelling science fiction writers arrive to interfere. 

CAST 

• Robin Johnson as George Orwell
• Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells
• Rachel Pulliam as Ursula Le Guin
• Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Thought Chief Rutherford
• Tara Court as Julia
• Alexander Paul Walsh as Isaac Asimov
• David Court as Ray Bradbury
• Canavan Connolly as Nebogipfel the Morlock
• Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett
• additional voices by Eve Morris, Robin, and Alexander

The music was by Robin Johnson, and sound effects were sourced from freesound.org.

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

This episode marks Untrue Stories' first season finale. Producing Untrue Stories is the most fun I've had for ages. I'd like to thank everybody in the cast for being part of my daft thing, and the audiodrama communities on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, who are all much nicer than the ambient niceness on those hellsites. We're of course indebted to all the speculative fiction writers we've messed about with—George Orwell, H. G. Wells, Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Margaret Atwood, Isaac Asimov, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Alice Ilgenfritz Jones, Ella Merchant, John Wyndham, and any I've forgotten—and to you for listening. Thank you!

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy!

Brush up your Newspeak with a selection of typical scenes from Oceanian everyday life, with Oldspeak translation.

As a bonus mini-episode, we bring you a telescreen programme from the world of Orwell's 1984. Learn about Oceania's official language, Newspeak, maked hardworkwise by Oceania's goodest brainers to plusficient your talkfulness while decriming your think.

CAST 

• Robin Johnson as the shopkeeper and police
• Alexander Paul Walsh as the Announcer and customers
• Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Thought Captain Rutherford
• Eve Morris as the Oldspeak interpreter

The lyrics of the Oceanian National Anthem, Oceania, 'Tis For Thee, were extrapolated by Robin from a title by George Orwell. The anthem was sung by several of Robin and two of Eve Morris, and accompanied by an unaccompanied public domain recording of The Internationale.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy!

Wells arrives in a distant future where humanity as we know it is extinct. How will he get his bicycle repaired now? 

Following H. G. Wells' hurried departure from Orwell's world of 1984, his malfunctioning time-bicycle veers into the far and bizarre future that he will one day chronicle in his own novella, The Time Machine. Facing off against super-evolved pale blue cannibals, he's relieved to run into a couple of unexpected familiar faces. 

CAST: 

• Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells;
• Tara Court as Julia;
• Canavan Connolly as the Morlock;
• Robin Johnson as George Orwell and Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Thought Captain Rutherford.

Written and produced by Robin Johnson, with music by the author and sound effects sourced from freesound.org. 

References: 

• H. G. Wells' The Time Machine is in the public domain, and can be found at Project Gutenberg.

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy!

What happens when two giants of speculative fiction double-book a getaway cottage... 

A one-minute trailer for Season 1 of Untrue Stories, in which George Orwell and H. G. Wells argue about tea, go time travelling, and sort of accidentally-on-purpose overthrow western democracy. Includes material from episodes one through five. 

Untrue Stories is a comedy-drama sci-fi serial that puts its own surreal spin on classic science fiction. 

Written and produced by Robin Johnson. Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell and the voiceover; Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells; Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett; Tara Court as Julia; Alexander Walsh as the BBC announcer and Isaac Asimov; Liselle Nic Giollabhain as Thought Captain Rutherford; and Canavan Connolly as the Morlock.  The music was composed and performed by Robin Johnson on kalimba, mountain dulcimer and electric bass, and sound effects were sourced from freesound.org (all effects used were released under a CC0 "no rights reserved" licence.)

A transcript of this trailer is available here. 

If you enjoy the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy!

Big Brother makes an unofficial visit to the Inner Hebrides joycamp to pay his personal respects to a special prisoner.

This is a mini-episode taking place some time between the events of episode 4 "How a Nation is Exploited". Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell, Alexander Walsh as Isaac Asimov, Eve Morris as the joycamp commander, Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells, and Lionel Ritchie, Bill Withers and Curt Smith as Sonny Walk-Man.

References

• Isaac Asimov's review of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four can be read here.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy!

Bonus mini-episode! George Orwell meets the version of George Orwell that internet weirdos often seem to confuse him with. Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell and Liselle Nic Giollabháin as Thought Police Officer Rutherford. 

A transcript of this episode is available here.
There's also a (slightly shortened) version of it as an illustrated, subtitled social media video here.

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at [email protected]. Share and Enjoy!