Frank Burnet

Wild Hackney nominated for two BBC Audio Drama Awards

Frank Burnet — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:09:58 +0000

Wild Hackney has been nominated for two BBC Audio Drama Awards in the Best Online Audio Drama and Innovation categories.

The drama is set in the aftermath of the inundation of the East London flood plains, a not so wild guess at what sea level rise might mean to the low lying coastal world capitals. Public Engagement with climate change given the upstream treatment?

Wild Hackney

Frank Burnet — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:51:19 +0000

Fresh from winning a Silver Sony Award for Night in Hackney Francesca my daughter and producer has given me the chance to narrate another piece Wild Hackney that takes its inspiration from the Victorian Gothic novel After London by Richard Jefferies that describes London reverting to nature after a flood, with only a few survivors roaming the marshland under which the once great city is submerged. Francesca at her compositional best in exploring a scenario that might still become a reality [although it's a huge comfort that we could all take refuge in the Olympic Stadium].

Science comes to the Canterbury Festival

Frank Burnet — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:35:01 +0000

Very excited as the programme for the science strand I devised for the Canterbury Festival is published. It’s all about science and performance, my two great loves and features some of the liveliest minds at that fascinating boundary between science and the arts.

Get down to Canterbury between October 18th and 22nd if you can.

“Night in Hackney” nominated for Sony Best Internet Programme Award

Frank Burnet — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:31:35 +0000

Just found out that my daughter Francesca’s programme that takes you through a typical Hackney night and for which I got the acting credit for the narration is shortlisted for a Sony Radio Academy Award. Great feeling to get nominated for an acting award again after all these years. To listen to the programme go to: Night in Hackney

Finally the proof I needed

Frank Burnet — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:45:44 +0000

Dr Thiswont Hurt

Harley Street

London

To whom it may concern

This has cost Francis Burnet a great deal of money and is to certify that he suffers from an extremely common genetic condition caused by the absence of the so called “Green Gene” on the Y chromosome.

If you should mistakenly serve him salad you might have to use the Heimlich anti-choking manoeuvre as illustrated below

Yours in the money

Dr T. Hurt

[Specialist in mens' problems by appointment of His Royal Highness Prince Philip]

Франк Бърнет

Frank Burnet — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:53:20 +0000

Will be featuring in the first Sofia Science Festival in May and just tried unsuccessfullyto read the blurb on the Festival website, but do suspect that Франк Бърнет is Frank Burnet [but a lot classier]

Unforgettables 2011

Frank Burnet — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:48:49 +0000

Watching the Egyptian revolution unfold on TV and suddenly realising that Essam Sharaf an extraordinarily warm and intelligent man who I spent time with in both London and Alexandria in December had become Prime Minister of Egypt by popular acclaim

The “Taking Science to People” and “Why and How to Communicate your Research” guides can now be downloaded free from the relevant pages

Frank Burnet — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:12:47 +0000

Unforgettables 2010

Frank Burnet — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:33:27 +0000

The Great Pyramid of Giza

It doesn’t matter how often you have seen pictures. Standing in its shadow you are one of the Pharaoh’s subjects

Egyptian Driving

Makes the Italians look like road safety fetishists. There are no discernible rules of the road and undertaking and overtaking are equally attractive options. However fast you are travelling

Dad’s 90^th

Setting the record for the number of inebriated super seniors you could serve champagne, salmon and trifle to in what an estate agent would have described as, a surprisingly roomy dining room.

Tripoli Airport

An unscheduled ash cloud generated stop off during a four day journey back from Saudi to Canterbury. The passenger lounge was an exact replica of a 1950’s British Railways canteen and someone nicked my luggage.

The Swiss getting quite excited

I happened to be in Bern the evening that Switzerland beat Spain in the World Cup

Sci-Art in New York

An amazing conference combined with chance to take the anal temperature of the western world’s economy. Was there just a teensy bit less conviction in those “Have a Nice Days”? Well maybe, but it’s hard to measure something that already scored 9 on the Rictus Positive Attitude Scale.

Night in Hackney

Narrating this New York Radio Festival Gold Award winning podcast produced by my eldest Francesca. Night in Hackney

Taking science to rich people

Frank Burnet — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:23:33 +0000

Its an obvious gap in the audience profile, right up there with pensioners who cant find a child to take them to a science centre and those elusive young adults. My chance came when word spread that I was doing science shows for kids in the local Scuola Elementaria. It reached a lady who was looking for something different to give her niece for her Birthday. She decided it should be me. No, I didn’t have to jump out of a cake but i did feel a little like something the cat brought in. Maybe its not going to be a major thread in my continuing work related active engagement portfolio but it may be an alternative to applying to grant schemes that have gone down the rabbit hole.