A new interview with John Banks (Daniel Connor) discussing his work on the second series of Big Finish Survivors audio dramas has now been added to the Survivors: A World Away Big Finish mini-site. In the interview Banks expresses his delight at the reception of the first series:
I’ve looked on the Big Finish forum and at other places and seen some of the things that people have said about it – and that’s been fantastic. And, obviously, new series have been commissioned – so we must be doing something right. It certainly gives you confidence going in; knowing that there is an audience who are wanting things to continue and to find out what will become of these characters.
In the latest of a new series of interviews on the Survivors A World Away Big Finish mini-site, in which cast and crew discuss work on the second series of Big Finish’s Survivors audio dramas, Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston) takes issue with the idea that Greg should be thought of as ‘heroic’:
The thing that has struck me when thinking about this in relation to the original series is actually how much of a bastard Greg could be. Looking back I can remember he killed people, suffocated a sick child, strangled someone with his bare hands, and passed on deadly diseases. For an action and adventure series, this was nasty stuff.
still the same. She’s the one who has the tacit leadership quality, this innate leadership quality, that everybody responds to. She still “calling the shots”. She seems to be a little more willing to give it up this time. She seems to be listening to other people more, and isn’t given such complete control as she was before.
The second series of the acclaimed Survivors audios is available from the Big Finish shop, along with all the other current entries in the range.
Released on 6 July 2015, Arrow Film‘s new combined DVD and BluRay release of 1980s Italian splatter favourite Contamination (one of three Italian horror movies Ian McCulloch starred in after appearing in Survivors) offers a new print and a range of exclusive special features.
Starring Italian horror veteran Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters), Contamination from director Luigi Cozzi (Starcrash, Hercules) is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of early 1980s Italian splatter.
A cargo ship drifts up the Hudson River. Its crew: all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, turned inside out by an unknown force. Its freight: boxes upon boxes of glowing, pulsating green eggs. It soon becomes clear that these eggs are not of this planet, and someone intends to cultivate them here on Earth. But who? And to what end?
Contamination takes the premise of Ridley Scott’s classic Alien and peppers it with exploding guts galore and dangerously infectious soundtrack from celebrated Italian prog-rockers Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria).
Lucy Fleming (Jenny in Survivors, and niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming) has praised Anthony Horowitz’s new James Bond novel Trigger Mortis, which is based on original, uncompleted ideas from Fleming himself.
It was almost as if Ian had written [Trigger Mortis] himself.
It does feel like a Fleming book,” she said. “It takes place a couple of weeks after Goldfinger – Pussy’s back, which is fantastic, and we’ve got a particularly good villain in Sin – he’s absolutely horrible, a megalomaniac type, but fascinating as well… Pussy Galore is one of the iconic characters from the films and the books… It will be interesting to see what the public make of that.
Each writer has their own style, but I think Anthony is closest to Ian’s style,” said Lucy Fleming. “And he has the page-turning effect of making you think ‘what the hell is going to happen next?’… He’s worked Murder on Wheels in brilliantly – it’s woven into the whole thing. It was just a treatment, really, with the idea for the plot.”
On their Facebook page, Big Finish have today (16 May 2015) posted the first publicity shot showing the reuniting of Carolyn Seymour and Richard Heffer.
This week in the studio – Survivors: Series 3!
Ahead of next months second series, recording has just finished on the third instalment of Big Finish’s revival of the classic post-apocalyptic series – featuring a reunion between two classic characters!
Abby Grant (Carolyn Seymour) is reunited with Jimmy Garland (Richard Heffer). Both characters left the Grange at the end of the first TV series. But where will their struggle for survival take them now?
Recording of the third series of Survivors audio adventures, scheduled for release in November 2015, has completed today at Big Finish’s London studios. Producer David Richardson, actors Chase Masterston, Andrew French and John Banks and scriptwriter Andrew Smith all took to Twitter in the last couple of days whilst working in the studio.
That's #TerryNationsSurvivors Series 3 recorded. Searingly intense on microphone; shamelessly outrageous fun in the green room.
I was fortunate enough to visit the studios on Thursday (14 May), the penultimate day of recording on the series to interview cast and crew (and be mightily impressed by hearing just a glimpse of what’s in store for series three). I’ll be publishing lots of information, insight and opinion from those interviews in the week and months ahead.
In the meantime, if you’ve not already done so – a reminder that series two (scheduled for release in June 2015) is still available for pre-order from the Big Finish site, as is series three (November 2015), series four (June 2016) and series five (November 2016).
Lucy Fleming (Jenny, Survivors) appears in a new play As Good A Time As Any, written and directed by Peter Gill. The play is described as:
a witty and ironic portrait of eight women on a spring morning in London. The play is divided into five choruses. The eight women are the ordinary, unheroic inhabitants of the city, who speak for the continuity of everyday life, and its inexhaustibility. The world of As Good A Time As Any is on the face of it a small one, yet it has an intensity and depth of emotion which make it feel transcendent and universal.
Fleming plays the role of Slyvia, a character described in The Guardian review (5 May 2015) of the production as ‘an upper-middle-class scatterbrain ruefully dwelling on the amorous path not taken.’ She is joined in the production by Roberta Taylor, Tessa Bell Briggs, Indira Joshi, Olivia Llewellyn, Eileen Pollock, Hayley Squires, and Sharlene Whyte.
THE ACTOR HUGH Walters (Vic Thatcher, series one Survivors, “Revenge”- “A Beginning”) has died at the age of 75. Walters, who was was born in Mexborough, Yorkshire, on 2 March 1939, passed away in London on 13 February 2015.
Walters enjoyed a long and successful career as a TV actor, appearing in numerous series including the 1970 version of Ivanhoe, Sentimental Education and Never Say Die. He also appeared in The Fenn Street Gang, The Train Now Standing and three Doctor Who stories: “The Chase” (William Hartnell, 1965), “The Deadly Assassin” (Tom Baker, 1976) and “Revelation of the Daleks” (Colin Baker, 1985).
Walters took over the role of Vic Thatcher part way through the first series of Survivors after the original actor Terry Scully was taken ill and unable to perform in the upcoming episode “Revenge”: the pivotal story for his character. Walters’ introduction in to the role was, at producer Terry Dudley’s insistence, ‘disguised’ by Thatcher’s facial disfigurement in a cry-for-help suicide bid.
Walters excelled in the role, bringing out the vulnerability and warmth in the character of Thatcher (abandoned to his fate by the ruthless Anne Tranter at their quarry hideaway when he is injured in a tractor accident). Walters also captured Thatcher’s devious and deeply driven nature, as he pursues his bid for vengeance against the woman who left him for dead. Thatcher’s eventual acceptance of Tranter’s nature (and her desire for life at any cost) is also sensitively and convincing played by Walters.
By the time of “A Beginning”, Walters’ Thatcher is a more reconciled and enaged figure within the Grange community, contributing to plans to form a new defensive alliance between communities. The character of Thatcher is killed off, along with many others, in the devastating fire which engulfs the Grange at the start of series two. (Vic Thatcher is briefly glimpsed attempting to escape the fire – but Walters did not return to perform this fleeting farewell cameo).
Hugh Thornton Walters (2 March 1939 – 13 February 2015).
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 26: Lucy Fleming (L) and Simon Williams attend an after party following the press night performance of ‘Taken At Midnight‘ at The Institute of Directors on January 26, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Getty Images)
