''Brian Gulliver's Travels'' is a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

comedy series and also a novel created and written by

Bill Dare Bill Dare is an English author and creator/producer of radio and television comedy programmes. Biography Dare is an author and producer/devisor of various (mainly comedy) programmes mainly for BBC Radio and television, including ''The Mary Whi ...

, first broadcast on 21 February 2011 on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. A second series first broadcast on 25 June 2012 on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

. The series is a modern

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

of the

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

novel ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

''.

Plot

The series revolves around the character Brian Gulliver, played by

Neil Pearson Neil John Pearson (born 27 April 1959) is a British actor, known for his work on television. He was nominated for the 1994 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for '' Between the Lines'' (1992–1994). His other television roles include ''Drop the D ...

. Gulliver is a

travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or tourist attractions without recommending particular package deals or tour operators. A travelogue film is an early type of travel ...

presenter who at the beginning of series is revealed to have been missing for six years, claiming to have travelled to the previously undiscovered

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

of Clafrenia. His stories lead him to being put in

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

where they believe that he is suffering some sort of

delusion A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some o ...

. In each episode he is visited by his daughter Rachel (

Mariah Gale Mariah Gale (born c.1980) is a British actress of film, stage and television. Early life She was born in Australia to an Australian mother and British father, both architects. She grew up in England. She studied at Birmingham University and the G ...

), who writes about the countries that he claims to have visited.

Production

''Brian Gulliver's Travels'' is created and written by Bill Dare. According to the BBC website: "For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring udyardKipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi." The BBC website also says that the original ''Gulliver's Travels'' was the only book that Dare read whilst he was at university.

The Book

The novel, inspired by some stories in the radio series, is published by Pilrig Press, 4 July 2013. It begins:

Reception

Of the novel, Ian Hislop wrote: "A modern tale that keeps the flavour of the original classic, cleverly managing to provoke both laughter - and thought".

Gillian Reynolds Gillian Reynolds (née Morton; born 15 November 1935) is an English radio critic. After writing for ''The Guardian'' from 1967 to 1974, she was the radio critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' for over 42 years, from 1975 to 2018. She then continued ...

, radio critic for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', praised ''Brian Gulliver's Travels'' saying that Gulliver was a "marvellous character" and that the series was "allusive, relevant, full of surprises, satirical in the true spirit of Swift. And very funny." Talking about the first episode, which was a satire on health and doctors, she said: "A nimbler reflection on achieving a national state of health is hard to imagine." A review of the first episode in ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...

'' said that, "the point of Bill Dare's highly original format was to both satirise and issue a warning about the

nanny state Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice. The term likens such a government to the role that a nanny has in child rearing. An early ...

" and that, "The series began on an amusing and thought-provoking note."

Merchandise

The first episode of ''Brian Gulliver's Travels'' was made available on the BBC's "Comedy of the Week"

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

on 28 February 2011. Likewise, the first episode of the second series was also released in the "Comedy of the Week"

(9 August 2012). The entire first series was released by AudioGo on 8 August 2011. The novel is available at many retail outlets and online stores including Amazon, Waterstones, and Pilrig Press.

Episodes

Series One

Series Two

References

External links

* *{{British Comedy Guide, radio, brian_gullivers_travels BBC Radio comedy programmes BBC Radio 4 programmes BBC Radio 4 Extra programmes 2011 radio programme debuts Satirical radio programmes British satirical radio programmes