BBC Documentaries

Max Kidruk: Imagining the future in a science fiction trilogy

Loading player...
How do you imagine the future if you are a science fiction writer living in the present with your country at war? That is the challenge and dilemma for best selling author Max Kidruk. As he nears completion of Collapse, the second volume of a science fiction trilogy The New Dark Ages, his first volume, Colony has sold 60,000 copies in Ukraine. In the real world, Kidruk has had to fight against his own biological frailty and the absolute uncertainty of the times he lives in. The presence of Russians in his fiction is an acknowledgement that the existential national threat of the enemy will not disappear and could grow worse. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all for Kidruk has been to keep his plot relevant. His trilogy is intended as a warning on many levels but real world politics keeps outstripping his wildest imaginings. Mark Burman has been in conversation with Kidruk for the past 18 months as the war has continued to rage.
6 Jul 8PM English United Kingdom Education

Other recent episodes

Mo Salah: Egyptian king

Mo Salah is one of Egypt's biggest and highly influential footballing icons. John Bennett visit his home village of Nagrig to meet the people who helped shape his early career and see the impact he still has on his local community. He explores the journey Salah took from Nagrig to…
12 Aug 8PM 56 min

Tajikistan’s last, lonely hyenas

For decades, conservationists in Tajikistan assumed that the striped hyena – a shy, less vocal cousin of the spotted hyena – was extinct there. But in 2017 a motion-sensitive camera trap in the country’s south-western corner, near the borders with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, detected the presence of a female with…
11 Aug 8PM 26 min

Yoko Nishina: Japanese calligraphy

Yoko Nishina likes to use black Japanese Sumi ink in her calligraphy work because of the variety of colours , from blues through to browns. Craftsmen still use traditional methods to create the ink from vegetable oil lamps with wicks made of reeds. She creates both large and small works…
10 Aug 8PM 27 min

Has Ghana's ‘Year of Return’ been a success?

Back in 2019, Ghana’s then president sent out an invitation to people with African heritage to come to Ghana. It was called the Year of Return - a campaign by Ghana's tourism board to mark 400 years since the first documented African slaves were taken to America. The campaign built…
9 Aug 8PM 26 min

Why are Chinese micro-dramas so popular?

Secret billionaire husbands, blood-thirsty vampire lovers and being reborn as your great-grandmother: these are some of the outrageous plotlines that can be found in Chinese micro-dramas like My Royal Secret Lover, by producer Lin Yicheng. Micro-dramas are a Chinese short form video trend that has expanded globally, racking up hundreds…
9 Aug 8AM 27 min
All episodes