''The Mysterious Secrets Of Uncle Bertie's Botanarium'' is a

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

podcast produced by South Coast Shenanigans and

Stitcher Stitcher is a media company that specializes in the creation, distribution, and monetization of podcasts. Stitcher creates original shows through networks such as Earwolf and Witness Docs. Stitcher provides ad sales and distribution services to ...

and hosted by

Jemaine Clement Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement (born 10 January 1974) is a New Zealand actor, comedian, musician and filmmaker. He has released several albums with Bret McKenzie as the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and created a comedy series of the ...

Background

The podcast was originally intended to be a film, which had a video trailer released in 2011, but creating a film was too expensive so the creators considered making a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

radio program A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

instead. They decided on creating a podcast, which debuted March 16, 2016 exclusively on ''Howl.fm''. The show was released on February 1, 2017 for free on other platforms. The podcast was a 12 episodes series. The podcast stars

as Lord Joseph Banks and the show was written and produced by

Duncan Sarkies Duncan Sarkies is a New Zealand screenwriter, playwright, novelist, stand-up comic and short story writer. Sarkies grew up in the South Island city of Dunedin and is the brother of Robert Sarkies a New Zealand film director who is also a scrip ...

, Stephen Templer, and James Milne. Milne, also known as

Lawrence Arabia Lawrence Arabia is the musical guise of New Zealand artist and composer James Milne. In 2006, Lawrence Arabia released his self-titled debut album and the debut album from his band The Reduction Agents, ''The Dance Reduction Agents''. Both al ...

created the music for the podcast. The podcast is a story about the British botanist

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

in an parallel world with an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

. The show contains elements of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

adventure fiction Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of Romance (prose fiction)#Definition, romance fiction. History In t ...

, and

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

Reception

Karl Puschmann wrote in ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'' that the podcast is a "lavishly produced, epic-sized, comedy-adventure". Diana Brown wrote in ''

Black Information Network Black Information Network (BIN) is a radio network and content brand owned by iHeartMedia. Launched on June 30, 2020, it is an all-news radio network of stations targeting the African American community, carrying mostly important national news hea ...

'' that the show is "Lush, fantastical, and very funny".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mysterious Secrets Of Uncle Bertie's Botanarium, The Audio podcasts 2016 podcast debuts 2016 podcast endings Historical fiction podcasts Comedy podcasts Fantasy podcasts Scripted podcasts