Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant, Survivors) guest stars in a new Big Finish podcast released on 30 October.
Nick Briggs and Benji Clifford present a special Hallowe’en podcast, with all the latest news from the audio world of Big Finish Productions. Carolyn Seymour, Abby Grant from Survivors, is the guest star!
This is also a special, trailer-packed podcast, so listen out for some great audio teasers. Here’s a handy list of timings so you can locate your favourite bits…
05:06 The Big Finish News. Packed with trailers! And Benji makes an owl noise, allegedly. There’s also some spooky lighting. Great on audio.
20.35 Listeners’ Emails. You can contact us at podcast@bigfinish.com. WARNING! This edition features socks.
45:27 The Guest Star Interview. Carolyn Seymour, famous for Survivors, has a cosy chat with Nick. Highly recommended, naturally.
52:00 The Randomoid Selectortron. And ‘Ram’ is on fine form, choosing something rather appropriate.
58:50 The Latest Releases. A quick round-up.
01:01:45The Prisoner. The latest instalment of our serialization of Departure and Arrival, the first episode of our acclaimed re-imagining of the 1960s TV classic. With Celia Imrie as Number Two.
You can download this podcast for free or stream it below. Go on, treat yourself…
An illustrated two-page preview of series five of Big Finish’s Survivors audio adventures appears in the new issue of Starburst magazine (No 430, November 2016). Written by the author of this web site, the features includes commentary from stars Carolyn Seymour, Ian McCulloch and Lucy Fleming, producer David Richardson and script editor Matt Fitton.
Due for release in November 2016, series five of Survivors audios is available for pre-order on the Big Finish web site; where digital download and CD copies of the previous four series, and the audio-rook reading of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel, are also available for purchase.
Big Finish have today (9 June 2016) released the fourth series of original Survivors audio dramas. Series four serves up four new stories from writers Ken Bentley, Louise Jameson, Christopher Hatherall and Matt Fitton, and features, amongst a full cast, Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston), Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Louise Jameson (Jackie Burchall), Zoë Tapper (Evelyn Piper) and Ramon Tikaram (Theo).
The fifth series of Big Finish’s Survivors audio adventures (scheduled for release in November 2016) will focus on the outbreak and spread of a second deadly virus – which threatens the survival of communities only now emerging from the aftermath of The Death.
Recording of series five is now well underway, and features scripts by three returning Survivors script writers: Simon Clark (Contact, series three); Andrew Smith (Judges, series one; Rescue, series three); and Christopher Hatherall (Collision, series four).
It has also been revealed that series five will also feature Doctor Who actors Neve McIntosh and Richard Hope. Also joining original cast members Carolyn Seymour, Ian McCulloch, Lucy Fleming will be the returning Fiona Sheehan, and Barnaby Edwards, Sean Biggerstaff, Andy Secombe, Fintan McKeown, Alex Clatworthy, Roger May and Elizabeth Payne. Further casting announcements are to follow. Read the full update from Big Finish below:
Survivors: Doctor Who stars join Series 5!
Big Finish’s post-apocalyptic series continues in November – with Neve McIntosh and Richard Hope joining the fight for survival!
It begins with just a few people falling ill. Another flu virus that spreads around the globe. And then the reports begin that people are dying…
When most of the world’s population is wiped out, a handful of survivors are left to pick up the pieces.
Cities become graveyards. Technology becomes largely obsolete. Mankind must start again. But viruses are survivors too…
Based on Terry Nation‘s classic television series, Survivors continues the story of a virus-ravaged Britain, featuring the cast and characters of the original program.
Ahead of the June launch of Survivors: Series 4, Big Finish is delighted to announce that recording is underway on November’s Series 5, guest starring a pair of actors well known to Doctor Who fans!
Neve McIntosh and Richard Hope appeared together in the 2010 Doctor Who story The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, portraying classic foes the Silurians. Since then they have become the recurring faces of the creatures for the series, with Neve memorably starring as Madame Vastra, the leader of the Paternoster Gang.
‘We spent a lot of time thinking of potential names to play the pivotal character of Carol Baker in this set,’ says producer David Richardson. ‘And director Ken Bentley presented me with Neve – which I think is inspired casting. This will actually be Neve’s second role for Big Finish. But what was the first? Ah, you’ll have to wait for that announcement!’
Neve and Richard will join the fifth series of Survivors alongside regulars Carolyn Seymour, Ian McCulloch, Lucy Fleming and Fiona Sheehan. Also appearing will be Barnaby Edwards, Sean Biggerstaff, Andy Secombe, Fintan McKeown, Alex Clatworthy, Roger May and Elizabeth Payne with further cast members to be announced.
‘Series 5 could be subtitled The Second Coming,’; says David. ‘It explores a really powerful storyline – what would happen if the plague broke out all over again?’
Survivors: Series 5 will contain four new stories, written by Andrew Smith, Christopher Hatherall and Simon Clark. It can be pre-ordered today for just £25 on CD or £20 to download.
Survivors: Series 4 will be released in June, continuing the story of the Whitecross community and guest starring Zoë Tapper as Evelyn Piper. You can listen to a trailer for the new box-set below:
Three previous series are still available to order, alongside an audiobook of Terry Nation's original novel, performed by Carolyn Seymour.
Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) is joining the cast of a new theatrical production of Shadowlands. He is stepping in to the role of Major W.H. Lewis (Warnie) with less than ten days before the tour begins, following the enforced withdrawal of Tony Slattery from the production due to ill-health. Lill’s first day in rehearsal was yesterday (8 February). Producers, Jon and Anne-Marie Woodley of Birdsong Productions, said:
“We are very sorry that Tony has had to leave and along with all the company of Shadowlands, we send our love and best wishes. We are delighted that Denis has so kindly agreed to step in at such short notice to take on the role of Warnie. Having both previously worked with Denis, we know he will be a lovely addition to the talented cast and crew of Shadowlands.”
Describing the production, they add:
The cast of Shadowlands will be led by Stephen Boxer (Humans, The Iron Lady, Garrow’s Law, Doctors) as C.S. Lewis and Amanda Ryan (The Forsyte Saga, Shameless) as Joy Davidman, along with Denis Lill (The Royal, Only Fools and Horses, Rumpole of the Bailey) as Major W.H. Lewis ‘Warnie’. They will be joined by Simon Shackleton as Professor Christopher Riley, Jeffrey Harmer as Rev ‘Harry’ Harrington, Ian Marr as Alan Gregg, Richard Holliday as Dr Maurice Oakley and Shannon Rewcroft as Douglas, with Holly Smith and Alistair Higgins playing multiple supporting roles.
Shadowlands, by William Nicholson, tells the love story of C.S. Lewis, Oxford don and author of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters, and American poet Joy Davidman. What begins as a formal meeting of two very different minds slowly develops into a feeling of connection and love. Lewis finds his quiet life with his brother Warnie disrupted by the outspoken, feisty Davidman, whose uninhibited behaviour offers a sharp contrast to the rigid sensibilities of the male-dominated university. Each provides the other with new ways of viewing the world, but Lewis’s Christian faith is tested when Joy is diagnosed with cancer.
Tickets are available for all dates on the tour, which begins in Guilford on 18 February 2016, and plays at venues across the country, before concluding in London at the end of July.
Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) appears in the current episode of Midsomer Murders (Series 18, Episode 4) “A Dying Art”, in the role of frustrated and under-achieving artist Simeon Rowling: one of number of suspects in a typical Midsomer Murders‘ killing spree.
Art comes to the picturesque Midsomer village of Angel’s Rise with the opening of a new Sculpture Park. But when its launch is marred by murder, DCI Barnaby and DS Nelson have to get creative to crack a case where art imitates death, and everything has a deeper meaning.
Since John Nettles stood down at the end of the thirteenth series, the lead role in Midsomer Murders (in the guise of DCI Barnaby) has been taken by Neil Dudgeon – who in 2008 appeared in a memorable guest starring role in the third episode of the remake of Survivors (as the paranoid former farmer Sean, who has locked himself and his young children in isolation in a vain attempt to protect them from contact with the infected).
Denis Lill – Midsomer Murders – ‘A Dying Art’ – Series 18 – Episode 4
An article in yesterday’s Daily Mail (11 December 2015), which revisits the making of the 1945 classic British film Brief Encounter, includes reflections on the work of Celia Johnson by her daughter, Survivors‘ actress Lucy Fleming. She recalls:
Celia Johnson was in many ways just like Laura Jesson, agrees her daughter, the actress Lucy Fleming, today. ‘She was very moral and wouldn’t have liked that kind of situation to arise in her own life,’ says Lucy, 68, who is married to the actor Simon Williams and was best known for her role in Seventies series Survivors. ‘People loved working with her. She was fun. She had a great sense of humour.’
Author, scriptwriter and long-time Survivors enthusiast Simon Clark discusses the writing of third series Big Finish Survivors episode Contact in a brand new interview. Clark recalls the time he visited the studio to listen to the actors at work.
I have to put on record what how terrific it was to be there at the recording. It is marvellous, heart-warming, and it’s hard to put into words the emotion that filled me when I sat there in the studio and heard the actors bring my script to life in such a vivid and powerful way.
Based on Terry Nation’s cult post-apocalyptic drama, Survivors: Series 4 presents a quartet of new stories from the world of the original television programme.
After the harrowing events of Survivors: Series 3, the new series finds Greg (Ian McCulloch) and Jenny (Lucy Fleming) out on the road, reaching out to other survivors on behalf of the Whitecross Community. Their journey will bring them back into contact with Jackie (Louise Jameson) and Molly (Fiona Sheehan) – and a new community headed by Theo, an inspirational leader played by Ramon Tikaram (UNIT: The New Series, The Prisoner, Happy Valley).
‘I’m delighted that the first three series met with such acclaim,’ says producer David Richardson, ‘and I’m very excited by the new story lines that script editor Matt Fitton and his team of writers have been spinning. There are plenty of shocking twists and turns yet to come…’
Survivors: Series 4 comprises four full-cast dramas, and also features bonus behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew.
4.1 The Old Ways by Ken Bentley
The Government has plans for a national state of emergency. But when Evelyn Piper and her colleagues shelter in the Tartarus bunker, they discover no amount of planning can prepare for the reality of the Death…
4.2 For the Good of the Cause by Louise Jameson
One old friend calls on Greg and Jenny to look after another. Together, they visit a utopian community where the inspirational Theo seems to have founded the perfect way of life…
4.3 Collision by Christopher Hatherall
When the old world collides with the new, casualties are unavoidable. While Greg and Theo work together for the future, Jenny tries to save lives – with the help of a troubled young man called Michael…
4.4 Forgive and Forget by Matt Fitton
As long-buried crimes surface, resentment and recrimination threaten to destroy the peace of the Foundation. Jenny, Jackie and Molly have their own trials to bear, and Greg confronts the truth of this new world head on. For some, nothing will ever be the same…
