Fantastic Britain (2016) Online

Fantastic Britain' is an insightful semi-historical documentary about the evolution of British fantasy fiction writing through the centuries. It covers a lot, including the novels of Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis, Joe Abercrombie, Joanne Tolkien and JR Rowling, leading to a concluding interview with an intriguing elder statesman of the fantasy genre, Kevin Crossley Holland. It's not just about the writing but looks at where the British source their material and what makes fantasy such an enduring genre for bestselling UK fiction. It's introduced by a published author called Robin Bennett, who runs a publishing house of his own called Monster Books in Henley. Robin travels the UK, visiting editors, writers, agents and publishers. He conducts his interviews in some quirky settings, meeting the author, James Barclay, whilst meandering along the Thames on a boat, then heading off to the quaint Alice in Wonderland shop in Oxford and catching up with some old chums along the way. It opens the viewer's eyes to just how prolific the UK continues to be in this ever growing industry and how competitive it is a business model. Whether you're a reader or not, this is great fun with the narrative provided by Imogen Stubbs. It's an award winning documentary for good reason and hearing some of the big name authors explain their individual thought processes and inspirations adds an interesting angle.

Fantastic Britain' is an hour long UK documentary about the dominance of British authors in today's globally competitive fantasy fiction world. It's introduced and narrated by Robin Bennett, himself a gifted young writer who heads up an independent publishing firm called Monster Books in England. The likable Robin takes the viewer on a historical journey, interviewing a number of esteemed UK writers, editors and publishers from various walks of fantasy fiction life along the way. It's well paced and, unlike many TV productions about English literature, it's engaging for viewers without ever being highbrow, snobby or boringly academic. In fact, in places, it's funny and oozes English eccentricity in a likable and oftentimes self deprecating way.

Fantastic Britain' is a one off and well presented independent documentary, written and presented by the utterly charming British author, Robin Bennett. Robin is a writer with a UK publishing company called Monster Books and this background makes the documentary all the more interesting - this guy knows his stuff. It's partly a historical account of UK fantasy fiction writing through the ages, going back to the days of King Arthur. It's also a geographical account, travelling throughout the country and dissecting how the British have drawn inspiration from many other nations through the centuries. In fact, Joanne Harris, the author of 'Chocolat', says in one of Robin's interviews that the British are "...pirates. Quite civilised pirates but we are pirates". Honest! And it's an exploration of how the publishing industry operates, how staggeringly competitive it is and the level of talent and commitment required of any new writer in order to break through. By the time the programme ends, you're left wondering just how any new writer still manages to come up with an original idea within a fantasy fiction genre already broken into multiple sub-genres, many of which I didn't even know existed! I enjoyed this and learned a lot - I'd never even thought of Alice in Wonderland as fantasy fiction yet here, Lewis Carroll is described as the "granddaddy of them all'!

Overall a very cute and whimsical little documentary that examines British writers dominance of the fantasy genre. The presenter Robin Bennett himself could easily be hiding a wand under his boating hat (could be Harry Potters uncle who went missing at sea and returned with sticks of rock and a grin on his face) and always great to hear a word or 2 from Kevin Crossley-Holland, who contributes nobility and incredible dignity. Of course, the star of the show is the British countryside and the fantastic architecture

Overall a great way to waste an hour and now I am off to dream about being Alice.