Month: April 2022

New Survivors: Crusade audiobook to be narrated by Carolyn Seymour

Survivors: Crusade - Big Finish audiobook

BIG FINISH HAVE confirmed the release of a new and original Survivors audiobook set in the timeline of the first TV series. Scheduled for release in May 2022, Survivors: Crusade will be narrated by Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant).

Written by Big Finish regular Doris V Sutherland, and produced by Peter Anghelides, Survivors: Crusade is set in and around The Grange community, shortly after the tragedies of the episode Law and Order, and will explore how the characters of Greg Preston, Jenny Richards, Abby Grant and the others respond to the arrival of a group of “religious fanatics” who are determined to distinguish “perceived sinners” from “would-be saints”.  

The Big Finish press release (19 April) provides more details of what will be the third Survivors audiobook to be voiced by Seymour – following Survivors and Survivors: Ghosts and Demons.

Survivors: Crusade will be released as a digital download, and is available to pre-order from the Big Finish site.

Carolyn Seymour - pictured in the studio recording Survivors audio material for Big Finish

The Survivors Are On a Crusade

Carolyn Seymour, famed for playing Survivors heroine Abby Grant on TV and audio since 1975, narrates this eerie post-apocalyptic tale following a community of survivors of a global plague.

This five-hour epic picks up after the intense TV episode, Law and Order, in which a wrongful execution transpired. The survivors are still reeling when a group of religious fanatics arrive, triggering a clash between perceived sinners and would-be saints.  

Survivors: Crusade, written by Doris V Sutherland, is now available to pre-order as a digital download for just £9.99, exclusively here.

The survivors are usually prepared to welcome strangers into their community. But when members of a dangerous sect turn up in a double-decker bus on a crusade, a tense power struggle with a cunning new opponent result in murder and betrayal.

Will Abby be forced to leave her friends and everything they have built in their community? Or can the residents of the Grange discover the importance of their own faith in each other?

NOTE: Survivors contains adult material and is not suitable for younger listeners. 

Producer Peter Anghelides said: “Writer Doris V Sutherland is no stranger to Big Finish, and regular listeners will know her work from our Doctor Who, Bernice Summerfield, and Omega Factor ranges. So, I am delighted that she has written for Survivors, with this audiobook script that brings new danger right into the heart of the Grange.” 

Doris V Sutherland added: “It was a true pleasure to write a new story for Abby, Greg, Jenny and the other characters from Survivors, and I’m particularly honoured to have Carolyn Seymour — Abby herself — reading Crusade. The fact that I was given the opportunity at all shows that Terry Nation‘s series still holds appeal for viewers (and listeners) nearly 45 years since it ended. My main hope is that I was able to recapture the feel of Survivors and stay true to the characters, while also telling a new story with a new set of challenges for this post-apocalyptic world.”

Praise for Survivors: Ghosts and Demons:

“Ghosts and Demons is an excellent Survivors story, full-bloodied and not for the faint of heart.” Indie Mac User

“Another strong entry in one of Big Finish’s strongest lines.” SciFi Bulletin

“Future Survivors audiobooks of this calibre would be eagerly anticipated.”
Survivors Mad Dog

Survivors: Crusade is now available to pre-order as a digital download for just £9.99, exclusively from the Big Finish website.

June Brown (Susan, Manhunt) dies aged 95

June Brown as Susan in Manhunt, the opening episode of the third and final series of Survivors

JUNE BROWN, WHO appeared in the opening episode of the third and final series of Survivors, has died at the age of 95.

Brown appears in the role of Susan in ‘Manhunt’, the only episode in the series written by producer Terry Dudley. Susan is a survivor who shares a small settlement with the blacksmith Seth (Dan Meaden) who finds the ill and delirious Jack after he narrowly escapes a wild dog pack on his return from Norway with Greg and Agnes. While Seth makes contact with Charles Vaughan at Challenor, Susan tends to the injured traveller as best she can. The pair then play host to Charles and Jenny, before their two visitors head off in pursuit of Greg Preston hoping to make sense of Jack’s confused account of what awaits them at Wellingham.

Born in Needham Market, Suffolk in 1927, Brown served with the Wrens during World War Two. After the war she was accepted at the Old Vic School in London and subsequently joined the Old Vic company, appearing in touring shows and in productions at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Birmingham Rep. 

WAYMARKER

By the time she was cast in the small guest role in Survivors, Brown had already established a career on the small screen as well as on stage. On TV, she’d appeared in Armchair Mystery Theatre (1964), Z-Cars (1964-72), Dixon of Dock Green (1965-69), The Prince and the Pauper (1976) and many other series.

Amongst fans of genre TV of the period, Brown is especially well-known for playing the role of Lady Eleanor in the Doctor Who story ‘The Time Warrior’ (shown between December 1973 and January 1984).

In 1977, the same year that she featured in Survivors, she also secured guest roles in Crown Court and The Duchess of Duke Street and appeared in a television adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Her role in one episode of Survivors was a minor waymarker in her long career, and was not something that drew much attention (outside of the ranks of Survivors fans) in the years that followed.

Brown continued to win supporting and guest roles in TV series of all kinds, and appeared in numerous stage productions. But it was her audition in 1985 for the role of Dot Cotton in the BBC soap Eastenders that completely transformed Brown’s career.

PANTHEON

Dot was the “chainsmoking, hypochondriac launderette manager of Albert Square”, a role that presented Brown with “a great Dickensian character of detail, humanity and colour” that over time saw Dot secure her place in the “the long-running soap’s female pantheon” (Guardian, 4 April 2022).

Brown would go on to appear in more than 2,300 Eastenders episodes as her character became one of the most fondly-regarded of the show’s ensemble, featuring in any number of major soap storylines. The role won her several industry awards, and Brown was also awarded an MBE in 2008, and an OBE in 2022. Brown retired from the cast of Eastenders in early 2020 at the age of 93.

June Brown: 16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022