Big Finish have published the slipcase cover artwork for the fifth series of Survivors audio adventures, which will be released (in CD and digital download formats) in November 2016.
As well as images of Jenny Richards (Lucy Fleming), Greg Preston (Ian McCulloch) and new character Carol Baker (Neve McIntosh), the series five cover will be the first to feature Abby Grant (Carolyn Seymour).
Following the success of its first run, a new season of original dramas (and selected repeats) begins on BBC Radio 4 today (22 May 2016) on the theme of Dangerous Visions: ‘uneasy reflections of the future’. The season, which run until mid-June, includes dramas with dystopian, utopian and post-apocalyptic settings.
Original highlights include: a new version of John Wyndham’s The Kraken Awakes, a contemporary reimagining of William Morris’ utopian classic News from Nowhere, a two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s chilling dystopian vision Brave New World, and a set of four new short dramas under the title Dark Vignettes.
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.
The abandoned village of Imber on Salisbury Plain (the principal filming location for series three Survivors episode Sparks) enjoyed its annual ‘open’ weekend over the Easter holiday break; an event covered this year by an illustrated feature in The Mirror (27 March 2016).
The village of Imber was forcibly evacuated in December 1943, as the military commandeered sites that could be used to prepare troops for the street fighting that would follow the Normandy landings of D-Day. The emptied village was repurposed as a Ministry of Defence training ground. Villagers were never able to return, and the site became sealed-off from public access all year round – except for a single annual open weekend, when visitors were welcomed to view the landmark church and other buildings.
St Giles Church, the main interior and exterior location in Sparks, benefited from a £300,000 restoration project in 2008, sponsored by the Churches Conservation Trust, which prevented the building from falling into a state of complete disrepair.
Audio drama specialists have revealed the cover artwork for the fourth series of original Survivors audio dramas to be released (in CD and digital download formats) in June 2016.
For the first time in the Big Finish Survivors series, this series’ cover features characters from the original TV series – Jenny Richards (Lucy Fleming) and Greg Preston (Ian McCulloch) – who are featured alongside new characters government official Evelyn Piper (Zoë Tapper) and settlement leader Theo (Ramon Tikaram).
Audio drama specialists Big Finish have released the first teaser trailer for the upcoming fourth series of new and original Survivors audio adventures.
The title is now listed on the Simply Media site, and remains available for pre-order on Amazon and other online retailer sites. The Doomwatch DVD boxset (containing all of the remaining episodes from all three series and the 2006 BBC documentary The Cult of… Doomwatch) is released on 4 April 2016.
The 2016 national tour of William Nicholson’s Shadowlands, directed by Alastair Whatley, enjoyed its opening night on 18 February at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, ahead of a national press night on Friday 26 February.
Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) is a late addition to the cast, taking on the role of Major W.H. Lewis ‘Warnie’, joining Stephen Boxer (C S Lewis), Amanda Ryan (Joy Davidman), Simon Shackleton (Professor Christopher Riley), Jeffrey Harmer (Rev ‘Harry’ Harrington), Ian Marr (Alan Gregg), Richard Holliday (Dr Maurice Oakley), Shannon Rewcroft (Douglas), with Holly Smith and Alistair Higgins playing multiple supporting roles.
Broadway World has published a gallery of promotional shots from the production.
Update, 2 March 2016: The touring production has secured an early glowing five-start review from the Guilford Dragon newspaper (23 February), whose theatre critic concludes:
The whole play is acted well and I don’t know who I would give the most credit to. Would it be: Stephen Boxer as Jack (CS Lewis), Amanda Ryan as Joy, Denis Lill as Warnie, Simon Shackleton as Christopher, Alastair Whatley – director or even William Nicholson as the writer. The stage set is minimalist but highly effective.
The whole combination worked for me. The story was brilliantly told, intellectually stimulating, humerous and naturally it was sad. Inevitably, highly emotional too. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening.
Finely acted, Stephen Boxer brought gravitas and humour to the role of CS Lewis who wrote the Narnia books and Christian apologetic novels like The Screwtape Letters, as well as non-fiction work.
Amanda Ryan, playing Joy Gresham, was wonderful as the archetypal American who blew the cobwebs away surrounding the comfortable existence of the scholar.
Her physical descent into frailty when she gets cancer is masterfully portrayed as is her patient manner with the reserved Lewis, who not only has to do battle with his emotions, and his faith, in realising he loves Joy but also, when he loses her.
Denis Lill, endearing as Warnie, is full of strength, concern and a hint of mischief.
The Southern Daily Echo review (2 March 2016) observes, of the Salisbury Playhouse run:
In difficult and emotionally demanding roles, Stephen Boxer as “Jack” Lewis and Amanda Ryan as Joy are both outstanding as the gentle lovers.
CS Lewis is a committed Christian, discovering love late in life, Stephen Boxer conveying brilliantly his agonies over traditional values clashing with his new-found affections.
Joy has been married before, to a violent alcoholic, moving to England for a new life. With a convincing Jewish New York accent, Amanda Ryan nails a beautiful mix between American can-do attitude and her cancer-ridden vulnerability.
As Lewis’s stalwart brother Warnie, Denis Lill is superb, his stiff-upper-lip softening as he helps Joy’s emotionally splintering son.
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
