Month: June 2018

Recording completes on the eighth series of Survivors audio adventures

Big Finish - Survivors - logo

RECORDING ON THE eighth series of Survivors audio adventures, scheduled for release in November, has completed – Big Finish has reported (2 June 2018).

Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) and Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards) will both be returning to their roles in the series, as will Helen Goldwyn (Ruth) and George Watkins (Craig).

Joining the Survivors‘ audio cast for the first time will be Wendy Craig and, in the role of Peter Grant, Joel James Davison.

Series eight will be jointly produced by Emma Haigh and David Richardson, with Matt Fitton returning as script editor, and Ken Bentley continuing to direct proceedings.

Christopher Hatherall returns to the Survivors writing team, and is this time round joined by established Big Finish scribes Jane Slavin and Roland Moore and newcomer Lisa McMullin.

Series eight is currently available for pre-order from the Big Finish web site, and all previous releases remain available for purchase.

See Big Finish’s news story in full below.

Survivors Series 8

Recording has wrapped on Series 8 of Big Finish’s audio drama of Terry Nation’s Survivors, and here are more details on the continued struggles for the survivors of The Death…

Four new stories from the world of Survivors arrive in Series Eight out in November this year.

  • Bandit Train by Christopher Hatherall
  • Robert by Jane Slavin
  • The Lost Boys by Lisa McMullin
  • Village of Dust by Roland Moore

Survivors Series Eight sees actors Carolyn Seymour and Lucy Fleming reprising their TV roles as Abby Grant and Jenny. Helen Goldwyn also returns as Ruth and George Watkins returns as Craig – both characters who appeared in Survivors Series 6.

Plus actress Wendy Craig, who listeners will recognise from TV shows Nanny, Butterflies, …And Mother Makes Three and …And Mother Makes Five guest stars, and in a major twist, Joel James Davison (the son of Fifth Doctor Peter Davison) joins the ongoing series as Peter Grant, Abby’s long-lost son. Could it be that Abby and Peter will finally meet?

Survivors Series Eight is directed by Ken Bentley, script edited by Matt Fitton and produced by Emma Haigh and David Richardson. And we have a new Big Finish writer in this series as Lisa McMullin joins fellow scribes Christopher Hatherall, Jane Slavin and Roland Moore.

Survivors is based on an original concept and characters from the 1975 television series by Terry Nation (creator of the Daleks and Blake’s 7). The show ran for three seasons and was known to be as thought-provoking and character-driven as it was terrifying.

The world has ended. The ‘Death’ pandemic crossed continents, sparing only a fraction of the global population.

The survivors are now trying to pick up the pieces and rebuild society – to create a new future.

But with no cities, no laws, no technology, everyone must start over. And the worst of human nature has survived along with the best…

Survivors remains one of Big Finish’s most critically acclaimed series, with regular top mark reviews. The powerful performances and strong scripts in these tales of survival and the continuation of hope and humanity in a ravaged world must be heard to be believed.

You can pre-order Series Eight of Survivors today at £25 on CD or £20 on download. Or save money in a bundle and pre-order Series Eight and Nine together at £50 on CD or £40 on download.

If you’re new to the world of Survivors you can listen to Survivors: Revelation by Matt Fitton, the first episode from Survivors Series One on a free download from Big Finish.

Wendy Craig and Jane Slavin - Survivors S8
Jane Slavin and Wendy Craig – Survivors audios series eight

One Hour to Zero – Children’s Film Foundation

THE 1976 CHILDREN’S Film Foundation drama One Hour to Zero is a “countdown thriller”, which shows the life of an ordinary Welsh village thrown into crisis as a nearby experimental nuclear power station threatens to explode.

Made by Charles Barker Films, One Hour to Zero was written by John Tully, produced by Jean Wadlow and directed by Jeremy Summers. It was shot on film and mainly on location, with Trawsfyndd in Gwynedd providing the village locations and Trawsfynydd nuclear power station serving at the site of the apparently doomed plant. Music for the production was provided by Anthony Isaac (who wrote the Survivors theme), and the cast includes Morris Perry (Fenton, Mad Dog) and Hazel McBride (Alice, Bridgehead)

The drama has the familiar tone and style of Children’s Film Foundation stories, but – given its target audience – was amongst the more disturbing of the titles in the CFF catalogue.

It’s definitely worth a hour of your time, if you enjoy watching people: wandering through eerily empty streets; knocking on neighbours’ doors to find no-one home; driving around in Land Rovers; clambering their way through old quarries; working out of an emergency centre of operations; fruitlessly waving at helicopters as they fly over; looting cash-and-carry stores; struggling to retrieve a case full of stolen bank notes; worrying about whether the atomic power stations are dangerous (and if they can be shut down properly); and battling to regain control of an abandoned power plant.

There’s also something oddly familiar about seeing a roguish Welsh itinerant hiding out in the hills (someone who encourages another stray to “stay with me, I’ll see you’re alright”); a parent frantically searching for a missing son; and Morris Perry as a pessimistic academic convinced that the end is nigh as the clock ticks down towards disaster…

Set in the fictional Welsh village of Llynfawr, Steve (Toby Bridge) runs away from home after an argument with his father. His sister Maureen (Jayne Collins) enlists the help of his friend Paul (Andrew Ashby) to find him, although Paul is initially unwilling to help. He eventually finds Steve in an abandoned slate quarry. On their return they find the village deserted and are unaware that the village has been evacuated due to the danger of an explosion at a nearby power station. They are unable to contact the outside world as the village’s only public telephone was earlier vandalised by Paul in an attempt to get money from it. Steve’s father returns to the power station in an attempt to correct the problem and prevent disaster. He eventually succeeds with seconds to spare. Meanwhile, the opportunity to rob the cash and carry has not passed Mike Ellis (Dudley Sutton) by…

One Hour to Zero - main cast

One Hour to Zero - main cast