Episode 12 – The Year of the Sex Olympics

Appropriately enough for a time we’re all stuck in watching telly, the BFI has reissued Nigel Kneale’s The Year of the Sex Olympics.

After his adaptation of 1984 and the abortive Brave New World, this is Kneale’s attempt predict dystopia and the influence of those earlier works shine through.

So for this lockdown special we’ll don our gold paint and consult our custard pie experts as we examine the programme that predicted the rise of Love Island, Gogglebox and the Doctor Who story Vengeance on Varos. On the way, we’ll look at look at what Kneale is actually critiquing.

Is it the free love generation? It is mass media manipulation or does he just really hates TV execs? We have two guests this time, writers, film historians and curators Vic Pratt and William Fowler, whose work on the BFI Flipside series is vital in highlighting the weird and wonderful in British cinema. And we can highly recommend their book, The Bodies Beneath.