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

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

podcast produced by South Coast Shenanigans and

Stitcher Stitcher was a media company that specialized in the creation, distribution, and monetization of podcasts. Stitcher created original shows through networks such as Earwolf and Witness Docs. Stitcher provided ad sales and distribution services to ...

and hosted by Jemaine Clement.

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 self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

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 netw ...

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 24 episodes series. The podcast stars Jemaine Clement as Lord Joseph Banks and the show was written and produced by Duncan Sarkies, Stephen Templer, and James Milne. Milne, also known as Lawrence Arabia 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 Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

in a parallel world with an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

. The show contains elements of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

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 dramatic 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. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

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 in New Zealand, ...

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

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

'' 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