Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Researching Ray

A little over a year ago I visited the BBC Written Archive Centre in Caversham, near Reading. I went in search of information on Ray Bradbury's connections to the BBC, and came back with pages of notes relating mainly to BBC radio dramatisations of his work. Among the papers were several dealing with Leviathan '99, Ray's 1968 radio play. From this visit I was able to write a paper giving a detailed account of Bradbury's treatment by BBC radio up until 1970 (the Achives' cut-off date).

In June I paid a second visit to the Archives, this time hoping to fill in some of the gaps in the 'Bradbury at the BBC' story. I wanted to find out more about Leviathan '99, particularly about the production team. I searched through papers relating to H.B.Fortuin, the play's Dutch producer, and Tristram Carey, the play's composer. From this second visit I was able to write a second paper giving an account of the production of Leviathan '99, relating it to Bradbury's novel of the same name which is due for publication sometime in the next year.

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