Following up from last Sunday’s Ordeal In Space, BBC Radio 7 and The 7th Dimension are airing their recording of The Green Hills Of Earth. This is another of BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension‘s specially commisioned tales made to celebrate the centenary of Heinlein’s birth. It originally aired last March.

A couple bits of trivia about The Green Hills Of Earth:

-Robert Heinlein credits the title to a line from C. L. Moore‘s influential short story Shambleau.

-A line from The Green Hills Of Earth was heard on another heavenly body. The Lunar Excursion Module crew of Apollo 15 – who went on to name a crater after the main character – heard Joseph P. Allen (one of the mission scientists in Houston) quote from the story. Have a listen |MOV|. Transcript:

Allen: “As the space poet Rhysling would say, we’re ready for you to ‘come back again to the homes of men on the cool green hills of Earth.'”

You’ll be able to hear the BBC version of The Green Hills Of Earth on Sunday during the broadcast, and for the following 6 days, via the Listen Again service.

The Green Hills Of Earth
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Adam Sims
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Sunday March 9th 2008 @ 6.30pm & 12.30am (UK TIME)
This is the poignant story of Rhysling, the blind space-going songwriter whose poetic skills rival Rudyard Kipling’s. This yarn is about a radiation-blinded spaceship engineer crisscrossing the solar system writing and singing some of the best lyrics in science fiction. In a fine display of writing skill, the spaceship and crew feel as real to the reader as a contemporary tramp steamer.

Posted by Jesse Willis