Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston)
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Updated: December 23 2020 09:43
I'm just happy that they are doing it, and even happier, I suppose, that there are people out there who want to buy it.
INTERVIEW series two
What's your take on the first series of Big Finish Survivors audio adventures? Have you had a chance to listen to them?
I haven't heard the first episodes that we’ve done. I know a lot of actors do, but I don't watch or listen to the stuff that I do. They sent me a lovely little package of stuff, and it's all sat by my computer at home and I haven't listened to any of it.
All the cast received an e-mail saying that it was doing pretty well, press wise. So I'm afraid I was vain enough to look up online and see what people had to say. I thought generally the reaction was better than pretty good.
I keep hoping that my children might listen to it, but they haven't bothered to either. Maybe that says something about their view of their dad's acting ability, or the sort of thing he did or use to do! No, I'm just happy that they are doing it, and even happier, I suppose, that there are people out there who want to buy it. The fact that this is all continuing 40 years on is extraordinary, actually.
What's your view of the character of Greg Preston? Do you see him as heroic?
When we were working on Survivors the first time around back in the 1970s, I could never have told you who Greg was, or what his character was. I just did the lines and did the scenes as I saw them, and as they felt natural to do. There was never any conscious thing on my part saying "this is the way in which this character has got to go." And in these Big Finish Survivors stories, I'm just happy to do things in the way that they're hoping for. It's just the way that these writers have seen my character. and we'll see how he moves through these different episodes and situations.
The fact that this is all continuing 40 years on is extraordinary, actually.
Ian McCulloch
The thing that has struck me when thinking about this in relation to the original series is actually how much of a bastard Greg could be. Looking back I can remember he killed people, suffocated a sick child, strangled someone with his bare hands, and passed on deadly diseases. For an action and adventure series, this was nasty stuff.
I was on the Pete Murray radio show once - it was about 100 years ago. It was midday thing, rather like the Jimmy Young show. The producer came up to me, and she'd seen an episode of Survivors the night before and she said "you're a real romantic, aren't you?" And in the same way that you're asking if he's "heroic" – to me he wasn't really romantic, and he wasn't a hero. He was doing whatever it was the person who wrote the scripts was asking him to do! The other thing that I wanted to say is that in the episode that Carolyn said was the difficult one for her, "Law and Order” - yes, it is a difficult decision to say "right, we're going to kill the guilty party". But my character is the one who then went and did it. To me, that was not really "heroic".
The cast of Survivors in the audio realm is expanding in this second series
The way that they worked it, was how they introduced the story in the first place – mainly with John Bank's character Daniel coming through, and then filtering in other characters gradually. Things are just expanding more as things go on, with this next set of four stories.
So you are enjoying the studio work?
I thought generally the reaction to the first series was better than pretty good.
Ian McCulloch
Maybe that's because I haven't done very much of it, but all the way down on the train I am just thinking "I am going to be in that little boxed off room, with headphones on my ears, having to lift this off the page and make it sound like a proper, real conversation." I remember the first time that I auditioned for Z Cars. In Z Cars, so many of the conversations in the script were single words and two words. And I just couldn't do it. It was all interjection, interjection. And I found it impossible. I didn't get the job anyway! So I obviously wasn't very good at it. The people who do this sort of thing well, like the people who do the audio books – like Martin Jarvis – are absolutely brilliant. So I hope that I'm getting there.
And you're happy just to wait and see what happens? Greg's journey will be whatever it is.
It is fun to do. I always have a fun time when I come here; they look after you really. It is a brave thing for Big Finish to take on, especially coming all of these years after the original. The powers that be were obviously happy with it and wanted to move on and to do some more.
Have you thought about flexing your Survivors writing muscles again? You are unique among the cast in contributing scripts to the television series.
Just before we came in here I was talking to Louise Jameson about the experience of seeing your name on the front of a script for the first time. It really makes you feel so chuffed. When we left for the last time on the last day, they had a confab next door with all of the writers in there. That was them getting their heads together to work out what they wanted to knock out in the next series; the series that we are doing now. It's a nice thing to think about, and I would be happy to give it a shot but it's not a medium I honestly know that much about. If they do more episodes I can suggest something. We'll see what happens.
Survivors: New Dawn 4
The final series of this new Survivors audio adventure is available to buy on CD and as a digital download from Big Finish.
"Abby and Jenny begin a new phase in their own journey as listeners, many of whom have followed the series from series one released back in 2014, come to the end of theirs. It’s been a remarkable, often unsettling, and always compelling series made by a creative team who have shown time and again their determination to grasp the full dramatic potential of Terry Nation’s inspired original premise."
Survivors: A World Away
Survivors: New Dawn 3
The third and penultimate series of this new Survivors audio adventure is available to buy on CD and as a digital download from Big Finish.
"Big Finish's Survivors stories have always distinguished themselves by their ability to surprise and to shock... Together with the decline and fall of the New Federal Government, Tate's fate is a salutory reminder that there are no guarantees that the next generation of survivors will face a brighter future - even as the horrors of the pandemic fade into memory."
Survivors: A World Away
Survivors: Crusade
An original Survivors audiobook, narrated by Carolyn Seymour, is available to buy as a digital download from Big Finish.
"This astute, cautionary tale of the threat that distorted religious certainty can pose to the survivors of The Death is the kind of grown-up and probing storytelling for which the series' setting is so conducive... Seymour's narration is... as perceptive and mellifluous as ever."
Survivors: A World Away
Survivors: New Dawn 2
The second series of this new Survivors audio adventure is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"The New Dawn series has been a compelling, well-executed foray into a 'future' post-pandemic Britain never before attempted in the Survivors universe. Big Finish regularly jumps around within and beyond the established canon of TV series in its range, and that option would remain open in the world of Survivors. Who knows what will come next? If New Dawn 2 marks the end of Survivors journey on audio, then that will mean that an accomplished, inventive and assured series concludes with a remarkable and satisfying endpoint."
Survivors: A World Away
Survivors: Ghosts and Demons
This original Survivors audiobook, narrated by Carolyn Seymour, is available to buy as a digital download from Big Finish.
"Ghosts and Demons is a fantastic addition to the audio literature of Survivors. Author Ethan Milsea uses the cautionary tale of the predatory Tommy as a means to explore the different fears and nightmares that haunt those who have experienced the trauma of The Death and survived. This story, which locks itself in to the first TV series' timeline, delivers admirably on what can often be an elusive ambition: to be both in-keeping with the existing dramatic terrain and to break open new and fertile ground."
Survivors: A World Away
Survivors: New Dawn 1
The first series of this new Survivors audio adventure is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"The first series of New Dawn retains the core sense of jeopardy that made the original post-Death context of Survivors so compelling. Yet it does in a way that is original and genuinely exhilarating. Imagining how the country might have moved on more than two decades after the pandemic provides Survivors with a new 'what if' premise that crackles with potential"
Survivors: A World Away
Survivors: series nine
The ninth series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"There's still great potential here, as the UK begins to emerge from the dark ages of The Death, for more stories set in this uniquely realised dystopia, should sufficient numbers of those who have yet to purchase copies of this extraordinary audio series belatedly recognise the error of their ways. If that doesn't happen, this will remain a stunning finale for what must be celebrated as a consistently compelling audio drama, 5/5"
Cultbox
Survivors: series eight
The eight series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"This latest boxset delivers an impressive mix of large scale, high stakes and small scale, intimate stories which set in motion the events which will come to an explosive conclusion in the final set in this current run of post-apocalyptic dramas, 5/5 "
Cultbox
Survivors: series seven
The seventh series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"At times harrowing, at other moments uplifting, and never anything other than completely riveting listening, this latest series of Survivors audios delivers drama that is simply unmissable. As the series leaves behind the timeline of the TV incarnation of the show, Big Finish's writers, cast and crew are all clearly brimming with fully deserved confidence. The two series of new Survivors audios coming in 2018 could scarcely be a more exciting or (in the best sense of the word) a more unpredictable prospect, 10/10"
Starburst
Survivors: series six
The sixth series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"After five extraordinarily well-received box sets, each of which offered a self-contained and themed collection of four episodes, the sixth series of Survivors audio adventures confidently takes a fresh approach... It's a liberating shift in format and, under the keenly judged direction of Ken Bentley, these scripts make exceptional use of the opportunity to tell diverse, if equally compelling, standalone stories, 10/10"
Starburst
Survivors: series five
The fifth series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to buy (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"As it explores the highest stakes possible, this develops into the most thrilling and compelling set of stories in Big Finish's Survivors series to date: which, considering the exceptional quality of the drama in the preceding four instalments, is quite some achievement. This is extraordinary, exemplary human drama; by any standard, 10/10"
Starburst
Survivors: series four
The fourth series of new Survivors audio adventures is available to purchase (in CD and download formats) from Big Finish.
"Intelligent, literate and superbly scripted and performed, this is a post-apocalyptic drama of the highest possible calibre. Determined to avoid the predictable tropes of that genre, it invites its listeners to navigate a moral minefield in a way that few other dramas of this type would attempt. This comes recommended without reservation"
Starburst
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)