Category: Audio

BIG FINISH HAVE today (9 December) announced that a new full-cast Survivors audio boxset – the third in the ‘New Dawn’ series – will be released in February 2023.

Survivors: New Dawn 3 will again star Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) and Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards). All three episodes in the new boxset have been written by acclaimed Big Finish director Ken Bentley – who has directed all of Big Finish’s Survivors releases and who previously wrote the audio series two episode Dark Rain.

Survivors: New Dawn 3 is available to pre-order, as both a collector’s edition three-disc CD and digital download combo or as a digital download only, from the Big Finish site.

Although the news was somewhat hidden within the lengthy Big Finish press release, it was also revealed that a fourth boxset in the New Dawn series has been commissioned.

Survivors: New Dawn 4 is scheduled for release in June 2023. Carolyn Seymour and Lucy Fleming are confirmed as cast members, and Ken Bentley is credited as the director, but there is as yet no information on writers or episode titles.

Survivors: New Dawn 4 is also available for pre-order as a collector’s edition three-disc CD and digital download combo or as a digital download only.

The best value for those able to pre-order comes from purchasing a bundle of both New Dawn 3 and New Dawn 4.

A New Age Has Dawned for the Survivors!

The Survivors: New Dawn saga continues with a brand-new box set of atmospheric full-cast audio dramas based on the Terry Nation BBC TV series, due for release in February 2023.

BIG FINISH HAVE announced a time-limited discount on the CD and digital download versions of both of the Survivors: New Dawn audio boxsets.

Survivors: New Dawn 1 and Survivors: New Dawn 2 are available for £19.99 (CD + download) or £16.99 (download only).

The two-part series, which stars Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) and Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards) is set many years on from the events of ninth audio series, and explores developments in post-Death England as the return of civilisation gathers pace – events that give rise to new challenges which could threaten the survival of this tentative new world.

The price reductions are available from the Big Finish site, when the discount code (provided on the Big Finish web page) is entered.

These box sets are now available to purchase at discounted prices until 23:59 (UK time) on 30 November 2022.

You can read reviews of the three episodes of New Dawn 1 and New Dawn 2 elsewhere on the Survivors: A World Away site.

THE LATEST BIG Finish podcast includes further confirmation that the company is planning new Survivors audio dramas – following on from the release of nine full-cast boxsets, three audiobooks and the six story New Dawn series.

In the ‘Listeners Emails’ section of the 13 November 2022 Big Finish podcast, co-hosts Nick Briggs and Benji Clifford discuss the past and future of the company’s Survivors audios, revisiting in particular the New Dawn collections.

“I could wax lyrical about why I love Survivors all day long,” says sound designer Benji Clifford. “But if you like something that’s a little bit different to normal Big Finish offerings, go check it out.”

Asked if more Survivors audios will be commissioned, Big Finish executive producer Nicholas Briggs replies: “Yes, there will be more Survivors.”

News that more Survivors audios would be produced was first confirmed in a ‘Survivors Special‘ edition of the Big Finish podcast, back in May – but, as plans in all creative industries can change over time, it’s encouraging to have this commitment reconfirmed.

Big Finish Podcast. 2022. ‘2022-11-13 UNIT Cops’, 13 November, https://www.bigfinish.com/podcasts/v/2022-11-13-unit-cops.

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.

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.

The Survivors: A World Away review concludes as follows:

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.

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 that Big 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 Podcast. 2022. ‘2022-05-29 Dalek Survivors’, 29 May, https://www.bigfinish.com/podcasts/v/2022-05-29-dalek-survivors.

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.

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.