Adrian Lukis (James Gillison)
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Updated: December 23 2020 09:43
Gillison is a man who eventually decides that he will have to be the one who leads the chosen few out of the darkness and into the light
INTERVIEW series one
Can you remember, or have you since caught up with the original Survivors TV series?
I do remember. Actually my memory of it was that it was grainy black-and-white and I thought that Jenny Seagrove was in it. So I got it completely wrong. Because it was colour, and Jenny Seagrove wasn't in it! I got it completely wrong. But I am certainly old enough to have been around at the time.
Often with Big Finish dramas the setting is very much in the realm of fantasy and science fiction. But Survivors is set in a real time and place: in the pretty bleak context of 1970s Britain and of the Cold War. As an actor how does working in the real historic context compare to playing an alien on the Planet Zog?
The Cold War gave many people a sense that 'the end of the world' could well be just around the corner.
Adrian Lukis
No. I love those Planet Zog stories! I was just reminiscing with one of the other actors who said 'well, I played a giant blob who had to go around making squeaky monster noises.' I remember doing one of these things where I had to be eaten by extra-terrestrial ants, I think. And I remember the director Ken Bentley saying 'OK, at the moment, I think you're screaming a bit too much. I think right now they're just nibbling your feet.' And then the next take it was 'OK, this one is more painful because now he’s working his way up your thigh.' And then it was 'Right, this one is where you’re literally being eaten.' So there is a certain fantasy level to that. Survivors I find truer and more akin to serious drama. I must say that, personally, I found this more of a page-turner, because so much of the other audio dramas are – intentionally – complete fantasy.
There's a difference, isn't there? When you’re invading the planet Phetos' central compound with Queen Zardinia and her extra-terrestrial helpers making monster noises, there’s a 'campness' to that sort of acting. I think if we were to employ the same kind of slightly over-theatrical approach it just wouldn't sit as comfortably with this sort of material. This is a much more real sort of work.
In the mid-1970s, as you pointed out, the Cold War gave many people a sense that 'the end of the world' could well be just around the corner. I think there was a lot of very serious debate in society at the time. Hence the context for something like Survivors being commissioned, and then written, and then filmed.
It would be hard to say that those themes don't resonate in the present day, wouldn't it?
Well, if we take the things we read in the press, we can see that the world's population is going to double in the next 50 years, or whatever. Food is going to be stretched. Water is going to be a big problem.
Could you introduce your own character, and say a little about what sort of a person he is?
I'm playing Doctor Gillison, an academic. He's a lecturer in Sociology at Feltham Polytechnic. And in rather a brainwave of the writers, we hear him in a lecturer talking about Emile Durkheim, who was – as is touched on in the script – one of the early founders of the discipline of sociology. So what, in the realm of theory, he is lecturing to his class about becomes a terrible reality when this virus strikes.
A strong man is needed, he thinks. And if people have to be expended along the way, then so be it
Adrian Lukis
When people are reduced to the level of simply trying to survive – the barbarity and what I suppose is the immorality – you see the desire and the need to create structure, so that people can survive in teams and groups. It's a good part, and he's a man who eventually decides that he will have to be the one who leads the chosen few out of the darkness and into the light.
And does that bring out the best in him?
I think that he's misunderstood! [Laughs] 'You must have a strong man in charge', he'd claim. He sees himself as a man who is trying to bring order to the survivors and to save mankind. And a strong man is needed, he thinks. And if people have to be expended along the way, then so be it – because the few must survive. And I think he would justify himself completely in those terms. There's no room, he'd certainly claim, for wishy-washy morality.
Has it been an enjoyable production to work on?
For me, the thing that I enjoy most about this is standing in my little booth, watching the other actors in their booth, while we're all working. One of the actors that I saw today was pretending to hold a gun, waving it around while he was doing his performance. At various times we've been beaten up, or been beating someone else up; and cavorting around our little booths watching each other is quite funny.
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The fourth series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to purchase (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
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Survivors: series three
The third series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to purchase (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
Survivors: series two
The second series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to purchase (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
Survivors: audio-book
A full-length audiobook of Terry Nation's Survivors novel (in CD and download formats) read by Carolyn Seymour.
Survivors: series one
The first series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to purchase (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
Latest updates
New Dawn 3 reviews added
Added: 17 May 2023
Review of Crusade audiobook added
Added: 21 June 2022
New Dawn 2 reviews added
Added: 02 March 2022
New Dawn 1 and Ghosts and Demons reviews added
Added: 03 January 2022
Links
Original TV series (1975-1977)
- Survivors: A World Away (main site)
- Survivors: A World Away (news blog)
- Survivors: Mad Dog (special episode site)