Survivors: A World Away – news
The classic 1975-1977 post-apocalyptic BBC TV series Survivors
The feature previewing the release of series six of Big Finish’s Survivors audio dramas, first published in the print edition of Starburst (Issue 438, June 2017 – before the series was released), has now been made freely available to read online on the Starburst web site.
In addition to the review of the new series published in the online edition of Starburst, individual episode reviews of each of the episode reviews in the series have also been published on the S:AWA Big Finish mini-site.
My review of series six of Big Finish’s Survivors audio dramas is published today in the online edition of Starburst magazine. The review, which awards a maximum ten-out-of-ten, rating observes:
After five extraordinarily well-received box sets, each of which offered a self-contained and themed collection of four episodes, the sixth series of Survivors audio adventures confidently takes a fresh approach. This new release offers a quartet of single adventures, all set within the timeline of the third television series, which follow the parallel exploits of Abby Grant, Jenny Richards and Greg Preston before delivering an unexpected reunion in the closing story. It’s a liberating shift in format and, under the keenly judged direction of Ken Bentley, these scripts make exceptional use of the opportunity to tell diverse, if equally compelling, standalone stories.
Series six is available to buy on the Big Finish web site (alongside the previous five series and Carolyn Seymour’s reading of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel). Series seven (November 2017), eight (June 2018) and nine (November 2018) are also available for pre-order.
Big Finish have today (21 June 2017) released the sixth box set in the critically-acclaimed and award-nominated Survivors audio adventure series. Following on from our preview of the new series in Starburst magazine, our review of the new series will follow in the next few days, and next week we’ll start to add new and exclusive interviews with cast and crew to the site.
Abby Grant’s search for her son has taken her all across Britain and back. Following every possible lead, she finds herself on long-abandoned roads to forgotten villages.
But now, two years after the first Death, such communities still wish to protect themselves. And they do not take kindly to strangers.
On a routine trading mission from Whitecross to Evelyn Piper’s Foundation, Jenny Richards and community doctor Ruth Anderson are ambushed by desperate scavengers.
When the tables turn, an escape attempt becomes a struggle for survival. With a young boy’s life hanging in the balance, Ruth’s skills are put to the ultimate test.
Greg Preston has forged links with survivors in Norway to start rebuilding society. He’s ready to return home to his family… until an unexpected visitor drags him into a race across the Scandinavian snows.
Hope for the future lies with a kidnapped scientist, and some will go to any lengths to control that hope.
As her journey continues, Abby encounters a secure and well-ordered community, based inside a prison complex, calling itself ‘Peacetown’.
But the settlement is not as idyllic as its name suggests, and the lockup harbours secrets. Among them, a prisoner. Someone Abby knows of old… A man called Greg Preston.
Series six is available to buy on the Big Finish web site (alongside the previous five series and Carolyn Seymour’s reading of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel). Series seven (November 2017), eight (June 2018) and nine (November 2018) are also available for pre-order.
A two-page, full-colour feature, previewing the sixth series of Big Finish’s Survivors audio adventures released later this month, appears in the new edition of Starburst magazine (Issue 438). The feature includes comments from producer David Richardson and from scriptwriters Andrew Smith, Christopher Hatherall and Simon Clark.
Rich Cross. 2017. ‘True Survivors can stand alone’, Starburst, Issue 438, June, pp. 52-53.
Series six remains available for pre-order on the Big Finish web site (alongside the previous five series and Carolyn Seymour’s reading of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel). Series seven (November 2017), eight (June 2018) and nine (November 2018) are also available for pre-order.
The new edition of Big Finish’s free-to-download Vortex magazine (Issue 100, June 2017), includes a four-page, full-colour feature previewing the release, later this month, of series six of Survivors audio adventures.
The article includes commentary from producer David Richardson, and from writers Ian Potter, Christopher Hatherall, Simon Clark and Andrew Smith.
Series six remains available for pre-order on the Big Finish web site (alongside the previous five series and Carolyn Seymour’s reading of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel). Series seven (November 2017), eight (June 2018) and nine (November 2018) are also available for pre-order.
Kenny Smith. 2017. ‘Keep on Surviving’, Vortex, No 100, June, pp.14-17.
The new Big Finish podcast (29 May 2017, Time War and Survivors), hosted by Nick Briggs and Benji Clifford, includes a guest appearance by producer David Richardson and features (at 55ms:30s) a free fifteen-minute preview of “Beating the Bounds” the opening episode of the sixth series of Survivors audio adventures due to be released next month.
Series six remains available for pre-order on the Big Finish web site (alongside the previous five series and Carolyn Seymour’s reading of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel). Series seven (November 2017), eight (June 2018) and nine (November 2018) are also available for pre-order.
Big Finish have released more details of the sixth series of Survivors audio adventures, scheduled for release this June, including titles, writers and summaries for each of the four episodes and the slipcover design, and have released a new series six trailer. Series six of Survivors audio is available for pre-order from the Big Finish web site.
We’ve got more news – and a trailer – for June’s next set of adventures for the Survivors…
In June, Big Finish releases Survivors – Series 6, the latest in an award-nominated run of stories produced as an audio continuation of Terry Nation‘s reflection of a plague-devasted world and the fight for survival for those who are left. Today we can confirm full cast and story details of this four-story set, along with unveiling the trailer:
6.1 Beating the Bounds by Ian Potter
Abby Grant’s search for her son has taken her all across Britain and back. Following every possible lead, she finds herself on long-abandoned roads to forgotten villages.
But now, two years after the first Death, such communities still wish to protect themselves. And they do not take kindly to strangers.6.2 The Trapping Pit by Christopher Hatherall
On a routine trading mission from Whitecross to Evelyn Piper’s Foundation, Jenny Richards and community doctor Ruth Anderson are ambushed by desperate scavengers.
When the tables turn, an escape attempt becomes a struggle for survival. With a young boy’s life hanging in the balance, Ruth’s skills are put to the ultimate test.
6.3 The Revenge of Heaven by Simon Clark
Greg Preston has forged links with survivors in Norway to start rebuilding society. He’s ready to return home to his family… until an unexpected visitor drags him into a race across the Scandinavian snows.
Hope for the future lies with a kidnapped scientist, and some will go to any lengths to control that hope.
6.4 Lockup by Andrew Smith
As her journey continues, Abby encounters a secure and well-ordered community, based inside a prison complex, calling itself ‘Peacetown’.
But the settlement is not as idyllic as its name suggests, and the lockup harbours secrets. Among them, a prisoner. Someone Abby knows of old… A man called Greg Preston.
Survivors – Series 6 can be pre-ordered today on Download or CD for £20 or £25 respectively. These prices are frozen until the set’s general release at the end of July. If you buy on CD it unlocks a digital version as a Big Finish exclusive, with all digital titles being accessible on the free Big Finish download/playback app available on Apple and Android mobile devices.
Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant, Survivors) narrates a new audio-book version of Jack Gerson’s thriller The Fetch being released by Big Finish later this month (March 2017). Gerson was the creator of The Omega Factor series (and tie-in novel), and Big Finish will release the second series of audio adventures in The Omega Factor range (starring Louise Jameson and John Dorney) in April.
Big Finish are also releasing an audio-book version of Gerson’s The Evil Thereof, read by Barnaby Edwards.
Producer David Richardson explains : “When we started work on The Omega Factor, Natasha Gerson very kindly sent me a couple of her father’s novels as an example of the kind of stories he liked to tell. And I thought, ‘Why has no one ever done audiobooks of these? And so we have, with two brilliant readers – Carolyn and Barney, who do a magnificent job of leading us through these dark, unsettling mysteries…”
Synopsis
It’s the 1980s and Alistair Matheson is forging a quietly ambitious path in Government. All is going to plan until a brief encounter with a man who looks exactly like him throws Alistair’s ordered world into chaos. As this doppelgänger crosses his path time and again a series of events are set in motion with increasingly disturbing consequences. Is this double a spy? A conman? Or could he be something infinitely more sinister?
Written By: Jack Gerson
Directed By: Helen GoldwynCast
Read by Carolyn Seymour
The Fetch is available for pre-order on the Big Finish site, and I’ll be reviewing the release for Starburst magazine.
Both The Fetch and The Evil Thereof can be bought on download for £9.99 each, or collected together in a bundle for £16. If you’re using the free Big Finish Download/Playback App for Android or Apple devices you will be able to listen wherever you are. (Please note these will be large files, and users should be wary of bandwidth usage).
UPDATE, 1 APRIL 2017: My review of Jack Gerson’s The Fetch has now been published in the online edition of Starburst magazine. Of Seymour’s performance, the review suggests that:
Seymour’s reading of Gerson’s prose is simply superb. A performance of complete conviction (that never flags at any point throughout the eight and a half hour running time), Seymour voices the book’s range of characters with impressive confidence. She is just at home with the clipped tones of the officious bureaucrats and politicians as she is with the voices of the oddball, the outsider and the outright disturbing characters that populate the fringes of Matheson’s fast-unravelling world. Seymour invests Matheson with a soft Scottish burr that quietly slides in and out of his speech (just as it would for an aspiring expatriate, eager to advance his position within the Westminster ‘bubble’). Under Helen Goldwyn’s pacey direction, Seymour voices the drama’s chilling and distasteful moments with such restrained finesse that she could clearly bring just the gravitas required to narrate ghost and horror stories.
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UPDATE, 24 APRIL 2017: My review of The Fetch also appears in the print edition of Starburst (#436), now in the shops:
Big Finish has announced (16 January 2017) that Julie Graham, who played the role of Abby Grant in the BBC’s 2008-2010 remake of Survivors, joins the cast for an episode of series six of new Survivors audio adventures. In the story “Revenge of Heaven”, written by Simon Clark, Graham takes on the role of Katherine Tanner in a standalone story that focuses on Greg Preston’s (Ian McCulloch) eventful trip to Norway.
Series six of Survivors audio adventures will be released in June 2017, and is available for pre-order on the Big Finish site. In December 2016, the company confirmed its commitment to releasing (at a minimum) nine series of Survivors audios.
Survivors – series six news
Coming in June, Survivors – Series 6 is the next of Big Finish’s listener-praised audio continuation of Terry Nation‘s 1970s BBC TV show:
“We’re trying something a little different this time,” confirms producer David Richardson, “Each disc is a separate, self-contained story – and I think it’s working beautifully. Set during the third season of the TV show, it allows us to focus individually on our leads Abby (Carolyn Seymour), Greg (Ian McCulloch) and Jenny (Lucy Fleming). Separated geographically, they each face different challenges. But might their paths finally cross again?”
Of particular note in the forthcoming set to Survivors fans is a particular casting. As David explains: “I’ve wanted to work with Julie Graham for ages, and in Simon Clark‘s Revenge of Heaven we had the perfect role for her – Katherine Tanner, an adventurer who helps Greg Preston on his mission in Norway. Needless to say, Julie was fantastic in the part, and it was lovely to sit and chat to her about playing Abby Grant in the re-imagined BBC TV series of Survivors. The show is clearly still very close to her heart.”
Survivors Series 6 is released in June on Download for £20 and CD for £25 – both pre-release prices offering a £5 discount on the price when the set goes on general release later in the year. A CD order automatically unlocks digital access on release.
Check out the entire Survivors range, including the chance for pre-orders on Series 6 through to Series 9, and to catch up with the first five sets, as well as listening to Carolyn Seymour‘s evocative reading of Terry Nation’s original novel. There’s even a free episode – Series 1’s Survivors – Revelation.
Watch this space for more news.
Big Finish have confirmed (21 December 2016) that a further two series of Survivors audio adventures have been given the go-ahead; and will be released in June 2018 (series eight) and December 2018 (series nine) respectively.
Following the release of series five last month, series six and series seven had already been confirmed for release in June 2017 and November 2017.
This excellent news means that (alongside the audio-book version of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel) Big Finish will have created and released no less than 36 original Survivors audio stories by the close of 2018.
Series six, seven, eight and nine are all available for pre-order on the Big Finish web site.
Flashback to 2015… and a pre-release teaser poster for Survivors series two audios…