In October 2023 I was invited to take part in an Experimental Stories project. These are regular collaborations between BBC Radio 4 and OKRE (a development charity attached to the Wellcome Trust). The objective is to bring scientists and audio creatives together to tell stories about the future of science and humanity. This process supported Oliver Emanuel’s amazing piece about antibiotic resistance (and Elvis) ‘The Truth about Hawaii’. in 2018.
Of course, I’d wanted to be invited onto Experimental Stories for years! In previous dramas I'd looked at aphasia neurology, pollinator robots, animal consciousness and using human hibernation to reduce resource consumption. ‘Titanium’ my biography of Gagarin and ‘Moon’ about Apollo 11 involved a collaboration with NASA scientists.
I was even more excited when I found out this year’s theme was ‘climate change and health’, something both me and producer John Norton are passionate about. But the BBC wanted it to be hopeful and entertaining. Tricky…
The first meeting was a speed dating event. I’m not kidding. Twenty creatives and twenty scientists met at Coal Drops Yard Kings Cross, and we moved from table-to-table exchanging two-minute conversations. Everyone then ranked the people we most wanted to work with. I met so many fascinating people in so many diverse areas, it was hard to choose. I made a mixed selection of hard-data experts and social/health-science champions.
I was delighted to be paired with Prof Andy Morse (meteorology and climate impacts on society, particularly infectious disease vectors) and Omnia El Omrani (COP Health Envoy and climate and health policy at Imperial College).
Omnia offered access to an amazing resource: interviews with 34 people (pictured) from communities impacted by climate change globally. These are the people shown here. You can listen to them all at 'Connecting Climate Minds Lived Experiences' . We're very grateful to be able to include them in the drama.
Next step was to hear the OKRE brief in more detail and thrash out some ideas. We told stories, chucked thoughts at each other, sifted, rejected. I wanted to understand what happens at COP conferences: to demystify the process and language for me and the audience. John was interested in a '‘sleepers awake to find the world changed’ story. Andy was interested disease vectors (insects) moving with climate change.
Tying all this together with OKRE’s health agenda took imaginative leaps in multiple directions, but distilled to this: a dengue infected mosquito infiltrates a COP conference in Paris and gives the UKs hapless Energy minister a fever-dream of two possible futures. Meanwhile a climate campaigner holds an exhibition in the Green Zone (the open-to-the public area of COP) . This features Omnia’s testimonies. I also threw in a lobbyist, a flash flood and a silver lining.
The research phase was intensive, covering everything from mosquito courtship songs to the security protocol at COP. I spoke to Leah Wawro, a policy analyst who attends COPs supporting ministers and delegates. I also spoke to an ‘oil industry insider’ who explained how lobbying works. That was a heart-stopping, chilling conversation. The output of all this is a biting political comedy driven by a talking mosquito.
The script was tweaked in the recording, keeping pace with the latest news and language about the UKs Carbon Capture agenda. But the tragedy behind this comedy is the response to climate change isn’t moving fast enough. The satire is likely to be current for some time to come.
But mosquitos have survived two extinction events already. There’s hope!
The Mosquito was directed and produced by John Norton at BBC Wales
Sound engineering and design by Catherine Robinson
First broadcast 12/11/24 to coincide with COP 29 Azerbaijan
(Mosquito art by Midjourney AI)
Comments