This blog only recently tracked down a two-part podcast on the original Survivors published in 2011 by the British Invaders podcast site which aims to provide: “a lively two-person exchange about different television series, tele-films and mini-series. These discussions serve as both an introduction and an entertaining conversation, catering to both those who have seen and those who have yet to see these British science fiction and fantasy shows.”
The two Survivors shows are very much ‘complete beginner’ introductions to the series (but one does includes a brief, complimentary reference to the Survivors: Mad Dog site!)
Part one is 29m 30s in length; part two is 43m 03s, and both podcast can be streamed or downloaded from the British Invaders site, which contains a large and growing archive of podcasts on a wide range of genre shows.
Big Finish have announced that this September the company will release a full-cast audio version of author Simon Clark’s follow-up to John Wyndham classic post-apocalyptic tale of ‘killer plants gone wild in a world gone blind’ The Day of the Triffids.
While The Day of the Triffids has been adapted for radio several times since the novel was first published in 1951, this will be the first time that The Night of the Triffids has secured the audio treatment. Big Finish stress that this new audio version is “fully approved by the John Wyndham estate”.
Clark’s official sequel The Night of the Triffids, first published in 2001, has been adapted for audio by the author. An interview with writer/scriptwriter Simon Clark will be published on this site shortly.
Directed by John Ainsworth, the cast of The Night of the Triffids includes Sam Troughton (David Masen), Nicola Bryant (Kerris/Marni/Rowena), Paul Clayton (Bill Masen / General Fielding), Geff Francis (Gabriel), John Schwab (Sam Dynes), Becky Wright (Kristina), Toby Longworth (Captain Sharpstone), Nigel Carrington (Seymour), Helen Goldwyn (Jazmay).
On the Isle of Wight, a colony of survivors wakes to a world plunged into darkness. Before long, the triffids, thought safely out of the way on the mainland, attack… In John Wyndham’s classic bestseller The Day of the Triffids the world has been overwhelmed by killer plants. As the novel ends, Wyndham’s narrator scientist Bill Masen is escaping, with his wife and four-year-old son, to the Isle of Wight where a small colony of survivors is holding out. Simon Clark’s sequel picks up the story twenty-five years on.
The survivors are safe, for the time being at least, on their island, where they have continued efforts to combat the triffids, while also striving in various ways to build a new civilization. Elsewhere in the world, similar colonies cling to survival, while the triffids persist in their attempts to destroy humanity.
One morning Bill Masen’s son, David, now grown up, wakes to a world plunged into darkness. Now, the triffids have an advantage over humanity
The British Film Institute (BFI) has announced plans for the first-ever DVD release of the 1975 post-apocalyptic BBC TV children’s serial The Changes.
The Changes is set in then-present-day Britain where people suddenly turn against all technology, plunging the country back to a pre-industrial age of suspicion and superstition. The ten-part series follows schoolgirl Nicky Gore who flees the upheaval and danger of the city and sets out on a journey which develops into a quest to discover the cause of the calamity which has befallen the world.
Adapted from the Peter Dickinson trilogy, The Weathermonger (1968), Heartsease (1969) and The Devil’s Children (1970), producer Anna Home shot much of The Changes on location and on film in and around the Bristol area.
The Changes was first screened on BBC 1 between January and March 1975 – completing its run just a few weeks before the first episode of Survivors was transmitted.
Thanks to Adrian H for alerting the blog to this news
Delighted by the reception of their first series of Survivors audio adventures, Big Finish confirmed today that a third series of Survivors dramas has been commissioned for release in 2015.
Survivors: series two and three for 2015
Survivors, our full cast audio series based on the 1970s TV classic by Terry Nation, has been released to much acclaim and top marks reviews…
‘Compelling, arresting, devastating, invigorating, heartening and more than a little frightening, Survivors: Series One is probably about as good as the audio medium gets. More than recommended; required listening.’ 10/10 – JR Southall, Starburst
‘There’s been a lot of talk about this being the best thing that Big Finish has ever done, and I would agree… A triumph across the board.’ 10/10 – Paul Simpson, Sci-Fi Bulletin
We are delighted to reveal that, thanks to the success of the Series 1, production will be stepped up with two box sets planned for next year. Series 2 will be released in June 2015, while series 3 will be release in November 2015.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better reception for Survivors,” says producer David Richardson. “The series has been a labour of love for us, so it’s just wonderful that it is loved so much by our listeners too. We’re already at work on Series 2 and 3, and promise that it will remain just as intense, dramatic and compelling as Series 1.”
WE ARE IMMENSELY proud to announce the release of Terry Nation’s Survivors – Series 1.
The original TV series ran from 1975 to 1977, and portrayed the outbreak of a plague that wipes out most of the world’s population, and told the story of the few people who survived…
Our original audio series begins again with the plague outbreak, introducing new characters before running parallel with that TV show, as Lucy Fleming (Jenny) and Ian McCulloch (Greg) reprise their roles. Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) also has a cameo role, and will appear in a larger capacity in Series 2.
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…
Series one of the new Survivors audio adventures is available to buy (in CD format or by digital download) from the Big Finish web site. Series two will be released in June 2015.
It is exactly ten years ago to-the-day (3 June 2004) that Lorna Lewis, Denis Lill, Pennant Roberts and Heather Wright were reunited at a studio in central London to record the ‘special features’ for the Survivors series two DVD release.
All of the participants in this reunion of series two Survivors personnel provided individual on-camera interviews recalling their time working on the show, much of it based in and around Callow Hill (‘Whitecross’) near Monmouth in Herefordshire.
In addition, Lill and Roberts provided a genuinely fascinating audio commentary on the episode Lights of London Part II; the second-half of a unique two-part Survivors story. The assembled Survivors alumni also made themselves available for interviews with journalists from the cult and genre press to promote the forthcoming release.
The commercial success of the Survivors series two DVD release ensured that DD Entertainment would exercise its option to release the third and final series of the original Survivors the following year, and agree, in the process, to fund the most extensive set of ‘special features’ seen on any of the three series DVD box-sets.
To mark the decennial anniversary of this event, we’re publishing a set of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes photos from the day.
It is a sad and sobering thought to remember that both Pennant Roberts and Lorna Lewis have been lost to us in the decade that has passed since these special features were recorded (alongside the death of several other key members of the series cast and crew): a fact which makes their recollections of the recording of the second series of Survivors all the more poignant to revisit.
Heather Wright, Lorna Lewis, Pennant Roberts and Denis Lill are reunited in the studioDenis Lill and Pennant Roberts review Survivors series one DVD materialsDenis Lill during his on-camera interviewPennant Roberts poses for a press shotHeather Wright poses for a publicity shot
Big Finish have released a new podcast focusing on the company’s new Survivors audio adventures, which will be released (on CD and via digital download) in the next few days. The podcast includes audio extracts and interviews with David Richardson (producer), John Banks (Daniel Connor) and John Dorney (writer) and contributions from host Nicholas Briggs (executive producer / music).
Tony Jones of Starburst has today (1 June 2014) published a new article on the ever-more-imminent release of the first series of new Survivors audio dramas by Big Finish.
The latest Starburst Blue Box podcast (Episode 107) has as its theme Talking About Survivors. Host J R Southall catches up with three of the four scriptwriters on series one of Big Finish’s new Survivors audio dramas Matt Fitton, Andrew Smith and John Dorney.
This blog only recently tracked down a two-part podcast on the original Survivors published in 2011 by the British Invaders podcast site which aims to provide: “a lively two-person exchange about different television series, tele-films and mini-series. These discussions serve as both an introduction and an entertaining conversation, catering to both those who have seen and those who have yet to see these British science fiction and fantasy shows.”
