What’s it called?
Forest 404
What’s it about?
Without giving too many plot spoilers, it’s an eco-themed drama set in a dystopian future in which some kind of cataclysmic event has destroyed the world we would recognise – here referred to as the Slow Times – and replaced it with the Fast Times. In this era, people live off-world or in a towering skyscrapers so crowded in that they’re deprived of natural light. Our hero, Pan, is a “librarian” in the “heavy data” section of an organisation devoted to deleting obsolete recordings – such as audio from the moon landings, Bohemian Rhapsody and the speeches of Barack Obama. Then one day she hears a recording of a rain forest, and everything changes …
Who’s in it?
Pan is played by Pearl Mackie, aka Doctor Who companion Bill Potts, who stepped into the TARDIS in the company of 12th doctor, Peter Capaldi. Pippa Haywood is her boss, Daria. The series is produced by the BBC.
Best bits so far?
Writer Timothy X Atack and director Becky Ripley have done a great job with the story and the sound design is awesome – play this through good speakers if you can – but what really marks out Forest 404 is the addition material in the form of stand-alone soundscapes (the rain forest that Pan listens to, a frog chorus, bird song in a British wood) and talks from experts on everything from why nature is good for us to the prospect of having to vote for a government run by AI.
Fun fact …
The music is by award-winning electronic composer Simon Green, better known by his stage name of Bonobo which, as our more erudite readers will know, is also the name of an endangered, forest-dwelling chimpanzee of the Pan genus.
For fans of ...
Bladerunner, Doctor Who, David Attenborough
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