''It Is Rocket Science'' is a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

comedy about the history and development of

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

, written and performed by Helen Keen. The series also stars

Peter Serafinowicz Peter Szymon Serafinowicz ( ; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. His film roles include the voice of Darth Maul in '' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' (1999), Pete in '' Shaun of the Dead' ...

and Susy Kane and is produced by

Gareth Edwards Gareth Edwards may refer to: *Gareth Edwards (Berkshire cricketer) (born 1973), English cricketer *Gareth Edwards (filmmaker) (born 1975), British filmmaker *Gareth Edwards (producer) (born 1965), British radio and television writer and producer *Ga ...

. It was first broadcast in March 2011. The premise of the show is that, lacking a big budget, "award winning comedian and part time local authority temporary administrative assistant" Keen has built a ‘super computer’ named The Voice of Space to narrate her peculiar but factually accurate history of space travel, and recreate the voices of various of historical and illustrative characters. Throughout the series The Voice of Space is referred to as possessing the attributes/spare parts of various types of vintage home computers (particularly

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

, as heard in episode 1) and household kitchen equipment. Keen has said that The Voice of Space's unique pronunciation of words such as universe (‘oooniverse’) which has drawn comment is intended as an affectionate tribute to the vocal styling of the presenters of her favourite space themed TV programmes, particularly e.g. Carl Sagan's pronunciation of Cosmos (which sounded unusual to her as an English person).It Is Rocket Science website
/ref> The radio series is an adaptation of Keen's debut

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

show, also called ''It Is Rocket Science'', which, when it previewed at the Buxton Fringe 2008 was nominated as Best Show and won the Best Individual Comedy Performer award. The show then embarked on a tour of science and arts festivals throughout the UK and Ireland before being commissioned as a radio series. A second series was broadcast in May and June 2012, and a third series in April 2014.

Episode lists

First series

Second series

Third series

Awards

In 2013 ''It Is Rocket Science'' won the WISE Media Award. This was presented to Helen Keen by

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950) is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of King ...

in a ceremony at the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

. The show was nominated for the 2015

Writers' Guild of Great Britain The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG). History The u ...

Award for Best Radio Comedy and won the 2015 Royal Society Radio Prize presented by the

Association of British Science Writers The Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) is the UK society for Science writing, science writers, science journalists and science communicators. Founded in 1947, the ABSW exists to help those who write about science and technology, and ...

References

External links

*
Helen Keen's website
BBC Radio comedy programmes 2011 radio programme debuts {{UK-radio-show-stub