This interview, which I've not seen for over 40 years, has always stuck with me because of the paintings that we get glimpses of (the original broadcast began with lingering shots of the paintings with Mavis Nicholson reading a passage from Ballard's short story 'Terminal Beach') has really stuck with me because of the paintings. I would have been about 14 at the time and wouldn't have known who Ballard was. Over the years when I thought about this interview I've come to think that it was probably Ballard given my memory of paintings of a derelict tropical compound. Its great seeing it again after all these years. In addition to Ballard's usual sharp responses (especially given what the next 45 years would bring to confirm his visions) the other thing that's interesting about this is the fact that this programme was broadcast on a British commercial TV channel in the middle of the afternoon and aimed at a mainstream audience. Compare that to now when the equivalent would be Lorraine Kelly interviewing Peter Andre about his new fitness book.... TV novacain basically, which is another Ballard prophecy to tick off the list.

My God - he was right about so many things. Both about then, definitely today and most probably in the future as well.

It’s amazing that this interview is over 40 years old and he could be talking about today. He had such foresight. I like the interviewer aswell because they seem very relaxed. It doesn’t seem like he’s there just to promote something.

Ballard's "inner space" oriented science fiction, as well as that prose style of his in so many stories (like surgical precision or a clinician's 'anaysis') really provides a useful, working language for our present. I don't assume he intended to be a visionary or prophetic/prediction-oriented scifi writer but damn, he definitely succeeded at that game (like Philip K. Dick or William Gibson, many others). Managed to access the language of the future without getting so bothered with all the technical 'scientific' details. The Atrocity Exhibition and his short story 'The Drowned Giant' are some of the best stuff I've ever read!

ironically he would have made a terrific Doctor Who

One of my very favorite writers to listen to. So earnest and unaffected.

Little Seed Big Tree -- Ian Brown "This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance." -- Phiip K. Dick "What our children have to fear is not the cars on the highways of tomorrow but our own pleasure in calculating the most elegant parameters of their deaths." -- J. G. Ballard "You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your INFORMED opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant." -- Harlan Ellison

His story about a future where people are forbidden to interact in person and must only communicate through computers - including families - reminds me of the covid times we’re living in now. Let’s just hope we don’t act like this when we do come out the other side. The story is The Intensive Care Unit and it ends with a family tearing themselves apart because they have forgotten how to behave around each other. It’s frightening to think that we could regress in such a way.

A great wit, and a hard critic of snobbery in English literature. I think he was unclassifiable. Like Iain banks.

It's fascinating to watch this now, a great writer, and his view of the world is amazing to me.

What's interesting about this is how they are both trying to make sense of their time, whereas people choose pre-given positions today as if they have stopped trying to make sense of it. They are both uncertain to some degree. Refreshing.

Brilliant. Excellent interview.

Fascinating interview

Such a great writer, so interesting to listen to

Very nice. Great questions too.

most excellent content ThamesTv. I shattered the thumbs up on your video. Keep on up the quality work.

I have just watched an interview from around 1987 which was quite haunting, as was this. Realising that the Internet had not been 'invented' at this time makes his words even more surreal. I love the books of Ballard, and wonder if he is still around - he would be 91 now. 🤔🇬🇧

"nutcases"? compared to people at sports matches, fundamentalist (or non-) churches, Wall St, et al a science fiction super fan is pretty benign.

I love this man.

Ballard claimed that SF was the authentic literature of the 20th century... I would nuance his claim to the millennial arc between the late 20th century and the unfolding 21st century. I encountered Ballard in 1964 via an excellent SF anthology called Spectrum 3. Ballards contribution was The Voices Of Time. The evocative, finely honed prose of this story showed me that SF could be far more than zapping aliens. My first purchase of a Ballard book was The Terminal Beach.... a superb array of short stories. I do think JG Ballard's special vision of the human psyche in the context of a strange, often disturbing future is best conveyed in his short stories.

Although I like MN, You feel she's rather playing to the gallery here with her choice of questions. JGB as usual was spot on, speculating on our future from the vantage of 1977.

I'm fascinated by the paintings in the background. I'm a painter myself. Does anyone know who the artist is? Does anyone know how one would go about finding out who the artist is, this being dated from 1977? Thanks.

Ballard was pretty private about his personal life, but he was honest about it, as well. He rarely said anything about his children or his wife.

Thanks for the upload. I quite like that she's completely ignorant about him and sci-fi in general.

It’s amusing to see how the interviewer’s low opinion of the science fiction “nutcases” is referring to the coders and culture shapers and fans who have inherited the earth.

I was 7 when Ballard did this interview. He was right.

This interviewer is so patronising. But Ballard SHINES.

"You almost believe, don't you, that modern novelists slightly cop out of their responsibility by writing books about the emotions only." -- Mavis Nicholson Ballard believed science fiction to be the "true" literature of the 20th century. Question: Is there, will there be, a "true" literature of the 21st century? Note: During this interview, Ballard gave context to a definition of "true" literature: "... Somebody who responds to a particular set of changes around him... My job is to respond to the world in which I live... and I see science and technology as the transforming factors." -- J. G. Ballard For the 21st century, what are the transforming factors? How have we responded to a particular set of changes around us? How will we respond? Note: As artists, what is our job? During a 1977 lecture, William S. Burroughs answered that question. "I'm postulating that the function of art, and I include in this category creative work in science -- that is, creation in the widest sense -- is to put us in touch with what we know and don't know that we know. You can't tell anybody anything he doesn't know already." -- William S. Burroughs Beyond -- Estas Tonne "... and you know what the beyond is? It's that connection... that connection is like a lighthouse. It's something that we can connect to as a unified field which is beyond words, beyond the mind." -- Estas Tonne "I aim to misbehave." -- Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity

Ballard's ATROCITY EXHIBITION is the most radical--and disturbing-- book I've ever read.

Tell me more about this 'science fiction' of which you speak?

Oh how 'the bad news' is coming true.

She said I haven't read much science fiction (but you're stuff I can't really explain) ...why are you trying to frightening me ...I would have spit out my milk..

The women who wouldn't get his fiction then would be outright antagonistic to him today. I can't imagine him being able to publish a book like Rushing to Paradise in 2020 unless it was self published. Thanks for uploading, it was enjoyable :)

'3 years was enough to institutionalise them' - 2 years into pan-dem-ic

If he thought technology had staggeringly and somewhat alarmingly changed human life back in 1976, boy oh boy would he be doing backflips if he were still alive today...

Want to feel old? Ballard was 47 in this interview, and now (November 2023) the actor that played the young Jim Graham in the movie 'Empire of the Sun', Christian Bale, is 49!

You know the mantra - the geeks will inherent the earth. Gates, Nadella, Cook, Zuckerberg, Bozos, Musk. Tell someone from the 1977 the world of 2020 they would find it incredible.

Both these two were born in 1930.

"Lesser of two weavels" 17:03, smfh.

Look at the global fck up we are living through now ,no matter wot side your on !!💀💀

No way a great conversation like this could take place here in Western Europe right now on tv without degenerating into some sort of social justice activisim.

straight line --- kafka - orwell - sartre - bradbury - ballard - self

She's really focused on this camp thing. wtf

"You should have some qualifications" - "Yes, I live in 1977!" 😁 He talked a lot of sense about threats that have become invisible. It's odd how dismissive they are of 'Si Fi conventions', as if they are a weird cult, full of nutters. People enjoy dressing up and talking about their fav characters - shocking!! Yet (she) would be fine with fanatics of Mr Darcy and the fashion in Jane Austen fiction. Sci-fi & Fantasy Cosplay is so massive now, completely embraced by the media. - Which reminds me, I must clean my body hugging latex suit for next weekends meeting... 😜

He sounds like Stewie from Family Guy

Incomplete.

posh and hyper-intensified

The sage of Shepperton. @devereuxmatthew