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:
- Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant)
- Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards)
- Louise Jameson (Jackie Burchall)
- Peter Bankole (Zack Bakare / Freddie Faulkner)
- Barney Fishwick (Robin)
- Clive Hayward (John Bedwell)
- Belinda Lang (Celia Tate)
- James MacCallum (Arthur)
- Glen McCready (Ulrik Larson)
- Cameron Percival (Tobias Cross)
- Jonathan Rigby (Leonard Cross)
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.