Louise Jameson discusses her work on Big Finish’s Survivors dramas

A new interview with Louise Jameson (Jackie Burchall), in which she discusses her highly praised work on the first series of Big Finish’s Survivors audio adventures has been added to the Big Finish Survivors mini-site of Survivors: A World Away.

Says Louise of signing up to take part in the series:

I said ‘yes’ before I’d seen a word. I don’t normally do that, but I trust Big Finish so much. David Richardson has become a really good mate. And as you say, the series was so highly acclaimed too. I didn’t see how it could fail, really. I think they’ve done a fantastic job with the soundscape. They say that the best pictures are on the radio, and I think that they’ve achieved that with Survivors.

Louise Jameson - Jackie Burchall - Big Finish - Survivors - audio dramas

Louise Jameson shares photo of her Survivors script for Big Finish series two

Louise Jameson (Jackie Burchall, Big Finish Survivors) has Tweeted a photo of the front coverage of Mothers’ Courage – her script for the second episode of the second series of Survivors audio dramas. Jameson is the first of the new Survivors audio drama cast to write a script for the Big Finish series.

 
Louise Jameson - Mothers' Courage - Survivors - Big Finish - 2.2

Big Finish confirm release of Survivors novel audio-book

Audio-drama specialists Big Finish have confirmed their intention to release an audio-book version of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel, to be read by Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant). Survivors: Audiobook of Novel will be released as a 6-disc CD set and as a digital download. Both formats are available for pre-order, and will be released in December 2014.

Carolyn Seymour – star of BBC’s popular Survivors series – was in the UK last weekend for Big Finish Day 5 – and it’s been announced what else she was working on while here…

Big Finish are pleased to announce a release of the Survivors novel, written by series creator Terry Nation in 1976. Out in December it will be read by Carolyn Seymour – Abby Grant in the 1975 series, a role she reprised in a special appearance in Big Finish’s first Survivors release in June:

A deadly virus spreads across the world as quickly as the passenger jets that encircle it. Within weeks, most of the global population is dead.

The human race is thrown back into the dark ages. The few left alive must rely on the most basic skills to survive one day to the next.

Abby Grant ventures out into a strange new England, her husband dead, the fate of her son unknown. Jenny Richards flees London. Engineer Greg Preston arrives from abroad. Desperate lone travellers come together, their instinct to form a community, even if that means rebuilding civilisation from scratch. But not all who are left have such high ideals…

And while she has the chance of a new beginning, Abby cannot settle until she knows the truth. Has her son survived?

Survivors: Audiobook of Novel is available as a Download or 6-disc CD set, at a special pre-order price held until the end of December.

Survivors - audio book of Terry Nation's novel

Survivors audio-drama panel at Big Finish Day 5

Big Finish have posted a set of photos on Facebook from the Big Finish Day 5 convention (13 September) – including shots from the Survivors panel, which several attendees have been retweeted:

Survivors cast and crew - Big Finish Day 5


 
Carolyn Seymour - Big Finish Day 5


 
Terry Molloy and Chase Masterson - Big Finish Day 5
https://twitter.com/ChrisDalek/status/511200831027572736/

Kasterborous: “Big Finish to release Nation Survivors novel as audio-book”

In its report on the Big Finish Day 5 Convention the Kasterborous web site reports that Big Finish will be releasing an audio-book version of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel (in addition to the already-announced three series of original Survivors audio-dramas, the first series of which was released in the summer).

In its list of ‘things we learned’ from the Big Finish Day 5, the Kasterborous site suggests:

Big Finish will be releasing an audio book of Terry Nation’s Survivors novel.

Big Finish confirmed the news on 16 September 2014.

Big Finish’s The Night of the Triffids audio – additional behind-the-scenes insights

Audio drama company Big Finish have announced that the upcoming release of Simon Clark’s Day of the Triffids sequel The Night of the Triffids (adapted by the author from his own novel) will be made available with an extensive behind-the-scenes feature:

There’s already been considerable interest in the Big Finish audiobook of Simon Clark’s Night of the Triffids, the sequel to the the John Wyndham classic. Recording on the full cast production completed some months back, along with extensive cast interviews for a making-of feature. The cast (including Doctor Who‘s Nicola Bryant, Robin Hood‘s Sam Troughton) were more than happy to discuss their work in this action-packed sci-fi adventure.

Rather than add a normal ‘making-of’ feature to the existing two-disc release, we’ve decided to add a third disc’s worth of download content free to all purchases via the Big Finish website only. An hour of cast and crew behind-the-scenes interviews, this extra content will only be available to those who purchase (or have already purchased) the title from Big Finish direct

Preview a brief extract from the new new making-of feature:
 

 
The Night of the Triffids is due for release later this month and is still available for pre-order (on CD or through digital download) from the Big Finish store.
 
Big Finish - The Night of the Triffids

Brian Blessed – Who Do You Think You Are?

The force of nature that is Brian Blessed (whose memorable turn as Brod in series three Survivors episode Law of the Jungle is one of the guest-starring highlights of the final series) is the focus of the latest episode of the BBC personal family history show Who Do You Think You Are? (14 August 2014)

Interviewed for the Radio Times, Blessed revealed: “I didn’t want to find some boring king or duke or baron; I was hoping to find normal people 
with all their turmoil and suffering and joy. And by God, we have done! It’s more Dickensian than Dickens. Even the camera crew was weeping. They’re saying it’s the best they’ve ever filmed.”

Who Do You Think You Are? Series 11: 2. Brian Blessed is available (in the UK) on the BBC iPlayer until 23 October 2014.

Brian Blessed - Brod, original Survivors
Brian Blessed – Brod, original Survivors

Survivors scriptwriter Shaw pens new drama on his meeting with Dora Russell

Don Shaw - A Meeting with Dora

A Meeting with Dora, a new radio play by Survivors scriptwriter Don Shaw (Greater Love, Mad Dog), explores (in fictionalised form) Shaw’s meeting with Dora Russell a redoubtable campaigner for “women’s rights, progressive education, sexual reform and birth control”.

Shaw visited Dora Russell’s Cornish home in 1979 while researching a film, commissioned from him by the BBC, intended to focus on the complex and ultimately failed relationship between Dora and her husband, the celebrated philosopher Bertrand Russell. The film never entered production, but this new radio drama revisits that memorable encounter.

Eleanor Bron stars as Dora Russell, with David Schofield taking on the role of Don Shaw. Shaw has a supporting role in A Meeting with Dora, appearing as John Russell, the troubled son of Dora and Bertrand.

Shaw explained to the Derby Telegraph  (9 August), “I took the idea to BBC Radio 4 where Jeremy Howe, head of drama, was captured with my account of my meeting with Dora.”

“While interviewing her, she became suddenly interested in my childhood. I had been the son of a coalminer-turned-postman. This contrasted sharply with Bertrand Russell’s childhood, he being brought up as an aristocrat living in a mansion in Richmond Park, Surrey. The play is set against the stormy background of a gale force eight and ends dramatically with an attempted suicide.”

“I’m really pleased with it and, thankfully, so are the BBC who commissioned it.”

The Radio Times’  preview of the play suggests that the play is: “a psychological drama about love, loss and the value of key emotional memories. […] A quiet, but powerfully nuanced piece of writing and acting.”

Don Shaw and Eleanor Bron were both interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour  (22 August) about their work on the drama.

A Meeting with Dora will premier on BBC Radio 4 at 14:15 (in the Afternoon Drama slot) on 28 August 2014, and will then be available on the iPlayer.

Says Shaw: “It is very strange starring in a radio play that you have written and starred in yet the role of yourself is being played by someone else. […] Knowing it will be played to up to a million listeners is hugely exciting.”

A Meeting with Dora is produced and directed by Pauline Harris.

Peter Duncan appears on BBC One’s Tumble

Peter Duncan (who appeared in the closing episodes of series two of Survivors as Dave) has joined the cast of BBC One’s gymnastics competition show Tumble.

Media retrospectives on Duncan’s varied career (including one in the Daily Mirror) rarely mention his time on Survivors, but there’s an interview on the Survivors: A World Away site that fills in that gap!

Peter Duncan - Survivors

Lucy Fleming – special screenings of Brief Encounter

Lifelong surprise at a Brief Encounter

The star of Brief Encounter was always surprised that the tiny wartime movie had become a classic, her daughter says.

Actress Lucy Fleming, whose mother Celia Johnson starred as the housewife Laura in the film regularly voted one of the most romantic of all time, said: “I remember her saying about 10 years before she died [aged 73 in 1982] that it was odd that this little film she made during the war had become a classic. But she was terribly proud of it.”

Ms Fleming, 67, will introduce the film, which co-starred Trevor Howard, at three special screenings tomorrow and on August 22 and 29 with accompaniment by the London Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of Love.

The film, which follows the stiff-upper-lip near-romance between two married people who resist having an affair, was directed by David Lean in wartime Britain.

Ms Fleming said: “Obviously it’s very old-fashioned but it appeals to people still. I think it’s just a little gem — but I’m a bit biased.”

Brief Encounter

Louise Jury. 2014. ‘Lifelong surprise at a Brief Encounter’. Evening Standard. 14 August