KEITH JAYNE, WHO memorably played the role of Mick in the first series Survivors episode Corn Dolly, will be one of the guests at the Whooverville convention in Derby on 3 September 2022.
Whooverville 13 is, as the name suggests, a Doctor Who themed event, celebrating all the different eras of the show. Keith played the role of Will Chandler in the Fifth Doctor story The Awakening (alongside Denis Lill), but is probably best known in genre circles for playing the title role in the 1981 television adaptation of the much-loved children’s story Stig of the Dump.
Advance tickets for Whooverville 13, which proudly promotes itself as “the East Midland’s biggest annual get-together for fans of the BBC TV series Doctor Who” can be purchased online.
Keith has fond memories of his time working on Corn Dolly. “I remember it being a very friendly cast,” he told the Survivors: A World Away site. “As the youngest of them I used to enjoy the cuddles from Annie Hayes [Lorraine] – especially when it was so cold. Lucy and Carolyn were also kind to me. However, of them all, Denis was really helpful.”
Keith did have some concerns about taking on the part of Mick so early in his acting career. “I felt the part was too big for me at that stage,” he concedes. “But with [director] Pennant [Roberts]’s constant encouragement and the kindness afforded me by the other cast members, I got through it.”
#Whooverville 13 Guest Announcement. We are delighted that KEITH JAYNE will be joining us at @derbyquad on Sat 3 Sept. Keith played Will Chandler in the 1984 5th Doctor story The Awakening and is also well known for playing Stig in 1981's #StigOfTheDump and Tom in The Onedin Line pic.twitter.com/BDHRPr4Q0N
COSTUME DESIGNER JUNE Hudson is appearing at a signing event in London on 27 August 2022.
June joined the production team on Survivors in its first year and designed the clothing for the show’s leading series one characters. During her career at the BBC, June worked extensively on Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 amongst other classic shows.
Tickets for the event organised by Fantom Films, at which numerous Doctor Who cast and crew members are appearing, cost £15 (including a free gift).
SIX SURVIVORS AUDIO boxsets and one Survivors audiobook are all available to buy at significantly discounted prices in Big Finish’s latest temporary warehouse sale.
Price reductions have been applied to the series two and series four through eight full-cast Survivors audio boxsets and the audiobook version of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel.
The discounts are available through the Big Finish web site until 23:59 (UK time) on 28 July 2022. (Just keep scrolling down the page until the Survivors content loads.)
Read reviews of all of these releases elsewhere on the Survivors: A World Away site.
IAN McCULLOCH (GREG Preston) will appear at a London Film Fair event on 11 September 2022, at which fans will be able to purchase an autograph and a personal photo shoot with the Survivors actor and script writer.
The London Film Fair will take place at the Royal National Hotel, 38-51 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0DG.
Advance tickets (for entrance to the event) can be purchased online, and anyone unable to attend in person can pre-purchase the autographing of an item.
Joining us for the London Film Fair is IAN MCCULLOCH, the event takes place 11th September 2022 at the Royal National Hotel.
Ian appeared in Survivors and Doctor Who. Fans of the zombie genre will also know Ian for his work on Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie Holocaust and then the horror film Contamination.
THE SILVER ARCHIVE study of the classic series three Survivors episode Mad Dog is now available to buy through the Lulu platform.
This means that it will be much cheaper for readers in the United States, Canada and continental Europe to purchase print copies of the book.
This is because Lulu has print-on-demand facilities in all of these territories and only has to charge domestic (rather than international) postage rates to ship the book to local customers.
We have print facilities located in Australia, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Your order will be routed to the printer closest to the shipping destination to ensure speedy fulfillment and delivery.
Lulu, Where will my book be printed and shipped from?
The electronic version of the book, and the print version of the book for UK-based customers, can still be purchased direct from the web site of the publisher Obverse Books.
‘Saliva only has to make contact with the skin. Rabies doesn’t even need a scratch. If it’s in the bloodstream, it’s too late.’
Mad Dog (1977) is a standout instalment of the third and final series of the BBC’s post-apocalyptic series Survivors. A touchstone in the series’ switch to a tougher, bleaker sensibility, the episode is rightly remembered for its portrayal of rabies and its gripping chase sequences. But it’s also a story offering fascinating insights into the wider human predicament, which dramatize the tension between optimism and cynicism and between altruism and self-interest. Above all, it’s a story that foregrounds the complex relationship between humanity and the natural world in a fictional post-pandemic Britain.
A BID TO draw up plans to reinstate the rail connection between Bakewell and Buxton – which could have led to trains running across the Monsal Dale viaduct once again – has failed to attract government backing.
The Monsal Dale viaduct, and sites across the Monsal Valley, provided evocative locations for the third series Survivors episode Mad Dog – which was recorded entirely on location by the BBC’s Outside Broadcast (OB) camera in 1977 in Monsal Dale, above the Dovedale Valley near Ilam and on the Severn Valley Railway.
A proposal submitted by MEMRAP (the Manchester and East Midlands Rail Action Partnership) had hoped to win financial support from the Department of Transport’s Restoring Your Railway Fund to pay for a full feasibility study of reinstating what it is calling the ‘Peaks and Dales’ line.
Rail tracks and impacts
MEMRAP had argued that replacing the line, which had been removed during the 1960s as a result of the baleful ‘Beeching Cuts’ which decimated sections of the country’s rail network, would deliver economic and social benefits, and boost ‘greener’ public transport links in the Peak District.
While the Peak District National Park Authority, which is responsible for the area of the national park through which any rail line would run, remains fully committed to a “low-carbon and sustainable future for travel and access for all to the national park”, it does not support MEMRAP’s analysis or its proposal.
Because of the importance of the Monsal Trail as a tourist, leisure and recreational attraction, it insists that MEMRAP has not considered the negative impacts – and the loss of facility – that the return of rail to the Monsal Valley would impose.
The Park Authority also argues that MEMRAP has not met the threshold of proven need and that therefore it does “not accept that the reinstatement of the railway on the route of the Monsal Trail” would deliver the benefits that MEMRAP claims.
Unsuccessful bids
More than 80 proposals had been submitted for the most recent round of awards from the Restoring Your Railway Fund. In late June 2022, Rail minister Wendy Morton announced £15m in funding split between nine potential railway schemes.
MEMRAP’s proposal was unsuccessful and attracted no government support.
The nine approved bids were ones able to demonstrate they would “bring significant socio-economic benefits” and presented “a clear narrative around the proposed services and infrastructure requirements.”
Particularly disheartening for MEMRAP’s supporters was that the ‘Peaks and Dales’ proposal was relegated to the largest group of ‘Unsuccessful bids to the Ideas Fund’ – which is effectively the ‘reject pile’. Backers of a far shorter list of schemes were invited to develop a fuller Business Case for future government consideration.
Alternative funds
A MEMRAP spokesperson appeared on East Midlands Today on 26 June to confirm that the campaign would continue to explore alternative sources of funding. There’s still no disguising that, for supporters of the ‘Peaks and Dales’ rail plan, this news is an enormous blow.
Any hopes of trains running across the Monsal Viaduct at any point in the foreseeable future have suffered a serious setback.
A REVIEW OF the new original Survivors audiobook Crusade has been published today on the Survivors: A World Away site.
Written by Doris V Sutherland and narrated by Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) Crusade is set at The Grange settlement during the timeline of the first TV series shortly after the tragedies of the episode Law and Order. Big Finish summarise the story as follows:
The Grange residents are grief-stricken after an out-of-control party lead to a wrongful execution. When strangers turn up to cause chaos, the community is tested to its limit.
Seymour’s narration is, as everyone familiar with her work on audio would expect, exemplary – as perceptive and mellifluous as ever. Seymour is well known for her meticulous preparation ahead of studio sessions which, together with her evident talent and her love for the spoken word form, produce another stand-out performance.
Crusade succeeds as a very different Survivors’ audiobook experience to Nation’s rethought novelisation from 1976 and to 2021’s Ghosts and Demons. 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.
Survivors: Crusade is now available to own as a digital download for just £9.99, exclusively from the Big Finish website.
BIG FINISH HAVE today (30 May 2022) released the new Survivors audiobook Crusade, available for purchase as a digital download from the Big Finish site.
Written by Doris V Sutherland and narrated by Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) Crusade is set at The Grange settlement during the timeline of the first TV series shortly after the tragedies of the episode Law and Order.
Big Finish press release contains the full story behind this new Survivors audio adventure.
Survivors – Crusade is out now!
The Grange residents are grief-stricken after an out-of-control party lead to a wrongful execution. When strangers turn up to cause chaos, the community is tested to its limit.
Survivors originally aired between 1975 and 1977 — following a community of survivors in the midst of a global pandemic known as the Death. Now, in a five-hour tale, the grim aftermath of the TV episode, Law and Order, is explored.
Having played the legendary role of Abby Grant on TV and audio since 1975, Carolyn Seymour returns to read this epic audiobook.
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.
Carolyn Seymour, who’s narrating Survivors: Crusade said: “This script is very different. It brings up some interesting questions for everyone to think about around vital things such as mortality, faith, and what’s right and wrong.
“This required a lot of prep time which was great fun to do – I’ve loved it and have worked really hard on this. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
“This is a lovely follow-on from the audiobooks we’ve already done [in the Big Finish Survivors range] – we’ve done quite a few and they’re all interesting and fabulous. I hope you re-listen to them all and spend hours delving and submerging yourselves into the world of Survivors.”
Survivors: Crusade is now available to own as a digital download for just £9.99, exclusively from the Big Finish website.
IN TODAY’S ‘SURVIVORS Special’ Big Finish podcast (29 May 2022), executive producer Nicholas Briggs confirms that Survivors will be “carrying on” on audio. “There will be another series”, he says. “We had a gap for a while, and we brought it back with New Dawn, two boxsets of that.”
No further details of the forthcoming Survivors audios were revealed, but this news is confirmation thatBig Finish’s Survivors audio range will be continuing, and in full-cast series format.
Together with co-presenter Benji Clifford (who provided music and sound design for several Survivors audio boxsets) Nick Briggs discusses the enduring appeal of Survivors, pays tribute to creator Terry Nation, and reflects on Survivors‘ journey on audio to date.
“Honestly, it’s one of my favourite things that we have done at Big Finish,” says Clifford. “It’s such a unique property.”
The podcast includes a short preview of Survivors: Crusade, the new Survivors audiobook written by Doris V Sutherland and voiced by Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), due for release this week.
The episode also revisits ‘Revelation‘, the first ever Big Finish Survivors story, written by Matt Fitton, and released as part of the first box set back in 2014.
The podcast closes with a fifteen minute drama tease of ‘Cabin Fever‘, the opening episode of Survivors third series on video – and Clifford’s personal favourite.
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”.
Survivors: Crusade will be released as a digital download, and is available to pre-order from the Big Finish site.
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.
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.”
