George Orwell has rented a Scottish cottage to complete his final novel. Unfortunately, he's been double-booked with the very last person he'd choose a holiday with. 

The first season of Untrue Stories will visit the worlds of both H. G. Wells' The Time Machine and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, exploring how the infamous rivalry between two of Britain's greatest speculative fiction writers culminated in an astonishing, hilarious, and entirely untrue story of meddling with causality and bicycles. 

In this episode, tea and tempers boil over as Orwell and his inadvertent roommate H. G. Wells argue over the fate that awaits humankind. Will society develop into Wells's steam-powered dream, or Orwell's dystopian nightmare? Wells' latest engineering project may allow them to settle their bet... 

Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell, Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells, and Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett. Sound effects were sourced from freesound.org. 

References: 

• Orwell's essay on A Nice Cup of Tea

2022-09-09: This is episode 1, reuploaded and backdated to avert a catastrophe. Apologies for any confusion. 

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at robindouglasjohnson@gmail.com. Share and Enjoy! 

H. G. Wells takes a wrong turn on his time-travelling bicycle, and finds that he and Orwell have both lost their bets. 

Continuing the adventures of George Orwell and H. G. Wells, Wells' inaugural time-travel journey takes him a bit further into the future than he intended: instead of one week, he travels nearly forty years. What he finds matches neither his own predictions nor Orwell's – but is surprising, horrifying, and completely untrue. 

Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell and the telescreen voice, Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells, Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett, Tara Court as Julia, and Liselle Nic Giollobhain as Captain Rutherford. Sound effects were sourced from freesound.org.

7 September 2022: This episode has been edited to enhance audio quality.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at robindouglasjohnson@gmail.com. Share and Enjoy!

Wells and Julia have changed the future, but can they be sure they've changed it for the better? No. 

H. G. Wells' and Julia's tinkering with the timeline has unexpected (and, of course, untrue) results. Julia, born in the future they've just changed, experiences a strange transformation as the timeline ripples... but what does it mean? And all the while, their enemies' power grows ever stronger, leading to the arrival of a character who might finally be able to give them some answers — but if so, they'll be in the next episode. 

Starring Robin Johnson as George Orwell, Patrick Spragg as H. G. Wells, Tara Court as Julia, Liselle Nic Giollabhain as Captain Rutherford, and Joanna Lawrie as Mrs Watchett, plus special guest appearances by Lionel Ritchie, Annie Lennox, Roger Daltry, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Edwin Starr and Tony Fenelle. Sound effects were sourced from freesound.org. 

2022-09-07: This episode has been updated to improve audio quality.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

If you've enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you could leave us a rating on iTunes, Spotify, Podchaser or your favourite podcast site/app — and tell your friends! 

Follow us on 

• twitter: @untrue_stories
• facebook: untruestoriespodcast
• instagram: untrue.stories
• soundcloud: untrue-stories

If you would like to help cover our costs, you can tip us at ko-fi.com/untruestories or buy Untrue Stories merch at our zazzle store. 

Robin can be contacted at robindouglasjohnson@gmail.com. Share and Enjoy!