BIG FINISH HAVE confirmed the full cast details for the upcoming Survivors: New Dawn 3 audio boxset, due for release next month.
The cast for the three episodes in the set is as follows:
Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant)
Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards)
Tom Alexander (Former-Ranger / Cleric)
Daisy Badger (Debra Adams)
Sean Connolly (Mike Ferguson / Groom)
Mark Elstob (Andrew / Terry Matthews)
Jonathan Keeble (Mark Osborne)
Belinda Lang (Celia Tate)
Hannah Raymond-Cox (Boo / Judy Lawson)
Enzo Squillino Jnr (Phil Harris)
Sam Stafford (Robin Page)
Survivors: New Dawn 3 will be released in April 2023 and is still 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.
IAN MCCULLOCH (GREG Preston, Survivors) will appear at the CT Horrorfest 2022 Convention in Connecticut this weekend (16-17 September 2022).
McCulloch is best know in horror circles for his three post-Survivors roles in Italian horror movies, and outlines his interest in meeting fans of his work in a brief promotional video for the event.
Scottish born actor Ian McCulloch rose to fame playing Greg Preston on the 1970s’ British Sci-Fi television show Survivors about a genetically engineered germ that wipes out almost the entire population of Earth.
His popularity there caught the attention of Italian filmmakers as he went on to star in a handful of the classics – including his role as Peter West in Lucio Fulci’s 1979 masterpiece Zombie (aka Zombi 2)!
Please join us in welcoming Ian McCulloch to CT HorrorFest 2022!
Films: Zombie (aka Zombi 2), Zombie Holocaust (aka Doctor Butcher M.D.), Contamination, Moonlighting, Where Eagles Dare, It!, Cromwell
Television: Survivors, Hammer House of Horror, Doctor Who, High Road, Taggart
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).
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.
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.
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.
PETER BOWLES, who played the role of Abby Grant’s husband David in the very first Survivors episode The Fourth Horseman, has died of cancer at the age of 85.
“He was lovely,” Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) recalled on the episode commentary for the DD Video release of the first series of Survivors on DVD. “He was just wonderful as my husband.”
By the time he was casting for The Fourth Horseman, director Pennant Roberts had been aware of Bowles’ rising stage and screen career for many years. The pair had first met while Bowles had been working at the Bristol Vic in the early 1960s.
Audience expectation
By 1974, when Roberts was looking to cast the role of the home-counties businessman David Grant, he knew he needed an actor with real presence; someone that – despite his character’s privileged social status – TV audiences would identify with. By that time, Bowles “had established himself”, Roberts recalled in 2003. He was “not as established as he became subsequently” but he was an actor that, in 1975, many TV viewers would have recognised.
That was an important consideration, because Terry Nation’s script for The Fourth Horseman deliberately confounds audience expectation about David Grant’s likely fate. The plotline strongly suggests that the ailing Abby might die, while her as-yet unaffected husband could survive the outbreak.
What Bowles captures so well is the sense of displacement that David Grant feels
“To make the story work you had to feel that [he] was another lead actor” on a par with Seymour, Roberts explained. Someone who could become a series’ regular. So when David Grant subsequently dies, his unexpected death “has a real effect on the viewer,” Roberts reflected.
The character of David Grant only appears in a few pivotal scenes before he succumbs to the virus, but Bowles’ performance leaves a memorable impression. As the virus reaches his commuter-belt village, Bowles brilliantly captures David’s rising panic – as his world comes apart, and Abby falls ill. What begins as irritation at a difficult journey home from a disrupted office, ends with David’s desperate attempts to save Abby’s life and his recognition of the full, terrible reality of the pandemic.
INNER-ALARM
What Bowles captures so well is the sense of displacement that David Grant feels. In conversation with Abby at their dinner table, it’s clear he’s attempting to silence his inner-alarm about the worsening situation in the country through denial. By the time he races off into the night to find Doctor Gordon, the businessman – who’s used to being in charge of every aspect of his life – is now struggling in a world in which nothing is any longer under his control. The fact that David dies alone (and unseen) on his living room couch, while Abby battles through the virus upstairs, only adds to the poignancy – and indeed the shock – of his passing.
Born in London in 1936, Bowles would begin his sixty-year acting career by securing a scholarship for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), going on to join The Old Vic Company. It was the start of a lengthy and diverse stage career, which saw Bowles appear in more than 40 productions over the years.
Finely judged comedic performances were balanced by serious dramatic roles
His interest in theatre never diminished, even as he secured success and recognition for his TV roles. One of his final theatrical performances, at the age of 81, was as Father Merrin in a stage version of The Exorcist.
Whilst he enjoyed a low-key career as a movie actor, appearing in films such as The Offence (1972), Try This One For Size (1989) and The Steal (1995), it was his work in television that secured him the most attention.
Good life
Famously turning down the role of Jerry Leadbetter in The Good Life in favour of some more theatre work, Bowles later found fame in TV sit-coms including Only When I Laugh (1979-82), The Bounder (1982-83) and Executive Stress (1987-88). He drew most plaudits for his role as the self-made businessman Richard DeVere in To The Manor Born (1979-2007), alongside Penelope Keith. It remained a hugely popular show throughout its run, consistently attracting huge viewing figures.
But those finely judged comedic performances were also balanced by serious dramatic roles. Building on one-off appearances in a wide variety of TV series in the 1960s, including The Baron, Softly Softly and Take Three Girls (in which Seymour starred), Bowles would go on to take more substantive roles in series such as Rumpole of the Bailey (1979-82), The Irish R.M. (1983-85), Lytton’s Diary (1985-86) and many others. His last major small-screen role was as the Duke of Wellington in Victoria (2016-2019).
Bowles’ impressive acting career saw him take on a varied and contrasting roles over course of six decades, allowing him to showcase his talents in both comedy and straight drama. He was often cast in the guise of the dapper gentleman or the charming professional rogue, but he was always keen to avoid typecasting.
Without in any sense discounting his impressive corpus of work, for enthusiasts of Survivors Peter Bowles will always be indelibly associated with the role of the doomed David Grant. David’s abrupt death comes as a body-blow to Abby Grant, confirming that her former life has gone forever. Like the passing of Jenny Richards’ flatmate Pat, this intimate, personal loss is a potent on-screen metaphor for what is, by the closing credits of The Fourth Horseman, confirmed to be a global human catastrophe.
The final image of the episode shows Abby driving away from the flames consuming the Grants’ home – an improvised funeral pyre for David Grant- and towards whatever life now awaits her.
IAN McCULLOCH (GREG Preston) will take part in an ‘in conversation’ session at the upcoming Uni-Versal 22 mini-festival hosted by the University of Aberdeen on 5 March 2022.
With this strand of Uni-Versal focusing on the history of film, McCulloch will be reflecting, in particular, on his post-Survivors work on three Italian cult horror movies. Pre-publicity for the event summarises his screen career as follows:
Ian McCulloch is a Scottish actor best known for his performance as Greg Preston in Survivors (1975). In the 1970s and 80s, McCulloch found himself in classics of Italian horror, playing Peter West, the lead male character in Lucio Fulci’s notorious Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) and also displaying his thespian skills in Luigi Cozzi’s iconic splatter template Contamination (1980).
UNI-Versal Film: In Conversation with Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters) Room KCF8, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX Saturday 5 March 2022 – 20:00-22:30
Tickets: £5.00-£8.00 Tickets became available to purchase online from 10:00 on 1 February 2022.
UPDATE – 1 FEBRUARY 2022: Organisers have now confirmed that the event will include a screening of the most well-regarded of McCulloch’s three Italian horror movies Zombie Flesh Eaters. As a result, the runtime of the event has now been extended to 22:30.
ROBERT GILLESPIE, WHO appeared in two separate roles in Survivors, is about to publish his second book of reminiscences about “a life in sitcom, TV, film and theatre”.
Gillespie’s first role in Survivors came in 1975 in the third episode Gone Away, when he featured as John Milner – a reluctant member of Wormley’s militia, who is disarmed by Jenny Richards at the Cash-and-Carry stand-off, and who later enables Abby, Greg and Jenny to escape after the gang track down their centre of operations at the church.
Gillespie returned to Survivors in 1977, featuring in three episodes of the third series as Sam Meade, a recovering heroin addict who is determined to prevent the return of power and industry in post-Death Britain. As Charles’ group works to bring the first Scottish hydroelectric station online, would-be saboteur Meade falls to his death in the plant’s inlet turbines.
Two roles
No other actor in the original Survivors appeared in two completely distinct and unconnected roles.
Gillespie’s new book Are You Going to do That Little Jump?, is a sequel to a first volume of recollections from a supporting and character actor’s life and career published in 2017. “Robert was pleased enough with sales to launch part two which picks up where part one left off,” his publicist explains. “Part one was mostly about theatre, but part two has more of a focus on TV and film” and in particular his career in sitcom.
This new volume does include a “passing reference” to Gillespie’s work on Survivors and a photo of him as Sam Meade. “His memories of the production are hazy”, the publicist concedes, “but he does talk about going down a live mine shaft whilst on location.” That would have been during the production of The Enemy, the first episode in which Meade’s character appears.
Book launch
As part of the promotional campaign, Gillespie is hosting a “big bash book launch” featuring “chats, clips and Q&As” at 19:00 on 6 October 2021. Advanced registration for the event is available online.
Ordering details for Are You Going to do That Little Jump? will be available shortly. “Robert is launching a new website very soon,” the publicist explains. It is anticipated that the book will be available for sale direct from Gillespie’s site. The new website will also offer “extensive archive material” from across the actor’s decades’ long career.
