Seymour the Fractal Cat is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 comedy serial featuring Paul Bown

Paul Bown

Paul Bown is an English actor. He is best known as one of the leading roles of the Granada Television comedy Watching . Bown has also appeared in various plays and shows, including an advert for Toffee Crisp in the 1980s and more recently as Philip Reid in BBC's Holby City...

, John Hegley

John Hegley

John Richard Hegley is an English performance poet, comedian, musician and songwriter.-Early life:He was born in the Newington Green area of Islington, London, England, into a Roman Catholic household. He was brought up in Luton and Bristol...

 and Greg Proops

Greg Proops

Gregory Everett "Greg" Proops is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his work as an improvisational comedian on the UK and U.S. versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway?...

. It was written by Gary Parker, and first broadcast on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 in 1996. It is rebroadcast from time to time on BBC Radio 7.

Plot summary

Computer programmer Jeremy Stone (Paul Bown) has been "let go" by his somewhat sinister employer. He makes use of his free time to create his dream program, the "Chaos Analysis Transformer", or CAT. He does not know that his computer Omni-Tec (voiced by John Hegley) is part of the Large Artificial Intelligence Network (LAIN) and is therefore sentient. Omni-Tec uses the CAT to re-wire the brain of Jeremy's cat Seymour, making him also intelligent and self-aware. Seymour is voiced by Greg Proops.

There then follows a series of comic misadventures, as Jeremy tries to deal with Seymour's ability to talk. He consults a psychiatrist, Natalie (Nisha Nayar

Nisha Nayar

Nisha K. Nayar is a British actress, perhaps best known for her recurring role as Elaine 'The Pain' Boyak in The Story of Tracy Beaker.- Filmography :- External links :...

) who becomes embroiled in the tangled events as Jeremy's former employer attempts to steal the CAT and also use LAIN to further its aim to dominate the world of the Internet. Jeremy turns to his friend Michael (Robert Bathurst

Robert Bathurst

Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...

) who caves under pressure and starts working for the "bad guys". The story dives in and out of virtual reality (where Seymour is delighted to find that he has a full set of gonad

Gonad

The gonad is the organ that makes gametes. The gonads in males are the testes and the gonads in females are the ovaries. The product, gametes, are haploid germ cells. For example, spermatozoon and egg cells are gametes...

s again, and can enjoy females to the full) until Jeremy is able to strike a bargain with LAIN.

Episodes

1. "Strange Attractors"
2. "Fractal Infinity"
3. "Simplexity"
4. "Phase Space"
5. "Catastrophe Theory"

External links

• Entry at epguides.com
• Entry at radiohaha.com
• Entry at radiolistings.co.uk