''Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World'' is a thirteen-part British television series looking at unexplained phenomena from around the world. It was produced by
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
for the
ITV network and first broadcast on 6 September 1980.
Each program is introduced and book-ended by author and inventor of the communications satellite
Arthur C. Clarke in short sequences filmed in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. The bulk of the episodes are narrated by
Gordon Honeycombe. The series was produced by
John Fanshawe and
John Fairley, and directed by
Peter Jones,
Michael Weigall and
Charles Flynn. It also featured a unique soundtrack composed by British artist
Alan Hawkshaw.
In 1980,
Book Club Associates
Book Club Associates (BCA) was a mail-order and online book selling company in the United Kingdom. It came to dominate the mail-order book-club business in the U.K. in the 1970s and 1980s through extensive advertising in Sunday newspaper colour s ...
published a hardcover book with the same name, authored by Simon Welfare and John Fairley, where the contents of the show were further explored. It featured an introduction written by Clarke as well as his remarks at the end of each chapter or topic. In 1985, a paperback of this book was released by HarperCollins Publishers.
The series was followed by ''
Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers'' in 1985 and ''
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe'' in 1994.
Episodes
Home release
In January 2008 the original series was released on DVD in the UK by Network and Granada. It features all of the 13 original episodes unedited and remastered.
A collection DVD Box Set of all three Arthur C. Clarke documentary series, ''Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World'', ''Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers'' and ''Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe'' was released in July 2013 by
Visual Entertainment, which also re-released them separately in September 2013.
See also
*
''In Search of...'' – a similar U.S. television show hosted by
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy ( ; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor and director, famous for playing Spock in the ''Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes Development of Spock, originating Spock in Star Trek: T ...
beginning in the late 1970s
References
* Shirlow, R. (2021). Revisiting the mysterious world of Arthur C Clarke. ''
Fortean Times'' no. 410
ct. 32–39.
* Shirlow, R. (2021). Revisiting ''Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World'': part 2. ''
Fortean Times'' no. 411
ov. 42–47.
* Shirlow, R. (2021). Revisiting ''Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World'': part 3. ''
Fortean Times'' no. 412
ec. 44–49.
External links
''Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World''*
*
{{Cryptozoology
1980 British television series debuts
1980 British television series endings
ITV documentaries
UFO-related television
Paranormal television
Cryptozoological television series
Television series by Arthur C. Clarke
Television series by ITV Studios
Television series by Yorkshire Television
British English-language television shows