Hitching a ride on the Mad Dog steam engine

Engine 48773 on the Severn Valley Railway, arriving at Hampton Loade station on August 30 2001

TWENTY YEARS AGO today (30 August), Survivors fans began a four-day location trip – in the midst of a Foot and Mouth epidemic – with a visit to the Severn Valley Railway.

But it’s only in the last couple of months that it’s become clear that – even though those present were not aware if it – the attendees on this Reunion enjoyed an additional Survivors‘ location experience.

The steam locomotive pulling the train that the Survivors aficionados boarded at Kidderminster station, and which took them to Hampton Loade station, was the original engine used for the filming of Mad Dog back in 1977. It’s the train on which Charles Vaughan escapes his pursuers in the Peak District before arriving, exhausted and unconscious, at this same station.

The reason that the connection was not apparent at the time of the trip was that the locomotive (which bore the number 8233 at the time Mad Dog was filmed) was later reassigned its original service number 48773. This fact was confirmed as part of a return visit to the Severn Valley Railway during the Mad Dog 2019 location trip. It was not until a recent rewatch of Adrian Hulme’s video memento of the 2001 trip that the significance of the previously disregarded engine number suddenly became apparent.

This means that, while it was engine 8233 that was Charles’ salvation in Mad Dog, and it was engine 48773 that pulled the train from Kidderminster to Hampton Loade on 30 August 2001 – it’s one and the same engine.

Engine 8233 / 48773 has since been withdrawn from service and is currently on display in the SVR engine house adjacent to Highley Station pending a full overhaul and complete refurbishment.

So while there’s no prospect of fans being able to take another trip courtesy of the pulling power of the ‘Mad Dog express’ any time soon, one lucky group of enthusiasts already enjoyed that experience some twenty years ago today – even if they had no idea of their luck at the time.

Survivors fans on the platform at Hampton Loade station on August 30 2001
The sign for Hampton Loade station, taken on August 30 2001
Survivors fans at Kidderminster station on August 30 2001

Cast and story details confirmed for Survivors: New Dawn 1 audio

BIG FINISH HAVE confirmed full cast details for the forthcoming new Survivors audio boxset Survivors: New Dawn 1. More details about the plot of each of the three stories in the set have also been released.

A new press release from the company confirms that the New Dawn series sees Abby Grant and Jenny Richards “reuniting fifteen years after they parted ways, as they face a renewed fight for survival against foes old and new.”

“The brief was to set our stories several years after the end of the last audio series, some twenty years after the Death first devastated the world,” explains scriptwriter and series script editor Andrew Smith. “It’s been so interesting to add this extra development to the series, and to place our characters in settings where society is beginning to knit together again, with a few of the trappings of everyday life restored. We’ve imagined how Britain –and to some extent the rest of the world – would look after all that time.”

“The New Dawn of the series title signifies that this is a time of hope for our characters and for the wider population, particularly with the imminent prospect of democratic elections in Britain. But that future is more uncertain, and society is less orderly, than many believe. There’s still lawlessness and corruption, and people being terrible in true Survivors fashion – and we’ve stuck Abby Grant and Jenny Richards right in the thick of it.”

Smith – is an experienced writer for Survivors on audio, who most recently scripted Conflict, the closing episode of series nine of the original Big Finish audio run – is delighted at the series’ return.

“It’s been a treat to return to the world of Survivors, which has always been one of my favourite Big Finish writing gigs,” he says.

The newly released New Dawn 1 plot summaries introduce the stories of Tethered, My Generation and Behind You.

Survivors: New Dawn 1

The world has ended. The 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 only a handful of towns and cities starting to rise from the ashes, and governance and law-making in a fragile, fledgling state, everyone must start over. And the worst of human nature has survived along with the best.

Abby Grant and Jenny Richards return to an England devastated by disease, and face a renewed fight for survival…

1.1 Tethered

Abby Grant is heading home on a tragic mission when she meets an apparent Good Samaritan, who may be nothing of the sort. And in Cambridge, the seat of the New Federal Government, the Prime Minister tasks Law Minister Jenny Richards with a secret assignment. Both women soon find themselves in deadly peril.

— Written by Andrew Smith

1.2 My Generation

Abby is on the run, and Jenny risks her future to protect her. An old friend, Jackie Burchall, is also eager to help. But when Abby falls in with an activist group called The Veil, it jeopardises everyone.

— Written by Katharine Armitage

1.3 Behind You

Abby remembers Leonard Cross as the awful children’s entertainer who came to one of her son’s birthday parties before the Death. She doesn’t expect to find herself relying on him as she recovers from injury and tragedy. And he may be even more awful than she knows…


— Written by Roland Moore


Big Finish have also confirmed the full cast details for the series, which are as follows:

Survivors: New Dawn 1 will be released in November 2021 and is currently available for pre-order, in both CD and digital download formats, from the Big Finish site.

Survivors: New Dawn 2 will be released in February 2022 and is also available for pre-order. Both releases can also be pre-ordered, in both formats, as part of a Big Finish bundle.

The Spectator observes Survivors on Britbox

The Spectator - Survivors feature - 21 August 2021 edition

THE LATEST EDITION of the UK political weekly The Spectator (21 August 2021) includes a feature reflecting on the availability of Survivors on the Britbox platform.

The inclusion of all three series of Survivors on Britbox has led to renewed media interest in the show, of which The Spectator‘s TV review is one of the latest examples.

Reviewer James Delingpole relies on many of the familiar ‘isn’t old TV funny, and wasn’t everything gentle and innocent in the old days’ tropes that afflict many contemporary press reflections on Survivors and other shows from the same decade.

He misrepresents Brian Aldiss’ conception of the ‘cosy catastrophe’. Whilst skimming through series one, he’s clearly skipped Corn Dolly (and he has not ventured beyond A Beginning at all). His understanding of 1970s’ Outside Broadcast production techniques is also pretty limited.

However, he does resist the temptation to use any of the tedious comparisons between Survivors and other shows that many of his contemporaries sucuumb to. He also concludes that, from his observations so far, he’d “much rather live in post-apocalyptic 1970s Britain than the much uglier and more freedom-deprived modern one.”

James Delingpole. 2021. ‘Apocalypse, Seventies-style: BritBox Survivors reviewed’, The Spectator, 21 August. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/apocalypse-seventies-style-britboxs-survivors-reviewed

* The online version of The Spectator allows guest access to a small number of free article views without subscription.

Big Finish release first trailer for new Survivors audio New Dawn 1

BIG FINISH HAVE today (17 August 2021) released the first trailer for the new audio boxset Survivors: New Dawn 1.

The trailer features the original series characters Abby Grant (Carolyn Seymour) and Jenny Richards (Lucy Fleming) encountering new survivors in a Britain beginning to reshape itself several years on from The Death. It’s a country in which government, civil society and industry is returning, but which is clearly stressed by tensions and conflicts of all kinds.

Survivors: New Dawn 1 is available for pre-order, in both CD and digital download formats, from the Big Finish site.

Survivors: New Dawn 2 will be released in February 2022 and is also available for pre-order. Both releases can also be pre-ordered, in both formats, as part of a Big Finish bundle.

Big Finish offer Survivors audio bundle deal

BIG FINISH ARE offering a bundle of all nine series of Survivors audio boxsets – in either digital download and CD formats – at up to a 50% discount, until 23:59 (UK time) on 12 August 2021.

Those who have yet to explore the Big Finish Survivors audio universe now have the (time-limited opportunity) to do just that at a bargain price.

Two options are available. There’s the Survivors Series 01-9 + Audiobook (CD & Download) at £95.00; and there’s the Survivors Series 01-9 + Audiobook (Download) – £152.00.

The first option includes series one as a download, because the CD pressing of that release is now out of print.

Both bundles include the audiobook version of Terry Nation’s Survivors novel, narrated by Carolyn Seymour.

Big Finish reveal cover for Survivors: New Dawn 1 audio

Big Finish - Survivors - New Dawn 1 cover

BIG FINISH HAVE revealed the cover image for new Survivors audio New Dawn 1, starring Lucy Fleming and Carolyn Seymour, due for release in November 2021.

The cover features images of Abby Grant, Jenny Richards, Jackie Burchall and two as-yet-unnamed other characters.

The character of Jackie Burchall (played by Louise Jameson) was first introduced in Exodus, the second episode of the first series of Big Finish’s Survivors audio released back in June 2015.

Survivors: New Dawn 1 is available for pre-order, in both CD and digital download formats, from the Big Finish site.

Survivors: New Dawn 2 will be released in February 2022 and is also available for pre-order. Both releases can also be pre-ordered, in both formats, as part of a Big Finish bundle.

As part of a ‘Terry Nation Celebration’ (August 8 2021 would have been Nation’s 91st birthday), Big Finish are offering significant discounts on previously released instalments in their Survivors audio range. These deals expire at 23:59 (UK time) on 12 August 2021.

UPDATE: Cover artist Tom Newsom has shared a version of the artwork without the Big Finish text elements:

Tom Newsom's artwork for the Big Finish - Survivors - New Dawn 1 cover