John Banks is Daniel Connor in new Big Finish Survivors audio

John Banks will be joining the cast of the first series of new Survivors audio adventures, in the role of journalist Daniel Conner, Big Finish have confirmed.

John Banks is journalist Daniel Connor, who is onto the biggest story in the world… the end of the world!

Series one of the new Survivors audio adventures is available for pre-order from the Big Finish site.

Big Finish - Survivors - John Banks
Big Finish – Survivors – John Banks

Caroline Langrishe is Helen Wiseman in new Big Finish Survivors audio

Latest casting news from Big Finish reveals that Caroline Langrishe will appear in the first series of the new Survivors‘ audio adventures as Helen Wiseman.

Caroline Langrishe is Helen Wiseman, a journalist at the centre of a burgeoning catastrophe…

Series one of the new Survivors audio adventures is available for pre-order from the Big Finish site.

Big Finish - Survivors - Caroline Langrishe
Big Finish – Survivors – Caroline Langrishe

Terry Molloy is John Redgrave in new Big Finish Survivors audio

Big Finish have confirmed that Terry Molloy will be joining the cast of the first series of new Survivors audio adventures, taking on the role of John Redgrave.

Terry Molloy is John Redgrave, a civil servant whose world is falling apart around him…

Series one of the new Survivors audio adventures is available for pre-order from the Big Finish site.

Big Finish - Survivors - Terry Molloy
Big Finish – Survivors – Terry Molloy

Louise Jameson confirmed as first Big Finish Survivors cast member

Louise Jameson (Doctor Who, The Omega Factor, Tenko) is the first cast member to be confirmed by Big Finish as joining the first series of the new Survivors audio adventures. Jameson will take on the role of Jackie Burchall. Big Finish will be releasing promo sheets for each major cast member as they are confirmed.

Series one of the new Survivors audio adventures is available for pre-order from the Big Finish site.

Big Finish - Survivors - Louise Jameson
Big Finish – Survivors – Louise Jameson

Big Finish – latest promo sheet for Survivors series one

Big Finish have released a new teaser promo to advertise first series of the new Survivors audio adventures:

Big Finish - Survivors
Big Finish – Survivors audio drama – new series one promo

Big Finish – new audio adventure details released

Issue 55 of Big Finish’s Vortex fanzine – which is free to download from the Big Finish site – provides the first tantalising details of the new Survivors audio adventures which the company will be releasing early next summer.

The ‘Sneak previews and whispers’ section gives the first hints of what series one will offer: (Note: mild spoilers).

Terry Nation’s Survivors is one of the UK’s most loved fantasy series – a gritty look at a world ravaged by lethal plague, and the handful of people who survive into a new world where technology is largely obsolete and the rule of law is long gone…

The brand new audio series from Big Finish starts from the beginning again, introducing a new set of characters who face the near-end of the world. The episodes then run in tandem with the 1970s TV show, combining our characters with familiar faces from Nation’s original.

Get ready to meet Daniel Connor, Helen Wiseman, John Redgrave, Maddie Price, James Gillison and Jackie Burchall as a new strain of flu passes from person to person, and from country to country. And get ready to meet some friends from the past again too…

By the closing credits, not everyone will get out of this alive.

Out June 2014

The back cover of Vortex 55 sports a new full-page advert for the series one audio adventures.

Big Finish - Survivors - Vortex - Issue 55
Big Finish – Survivors – Vortex – Issue 55

Thanks to Adrian H for alerting the blog to this news

Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden – Lights of London location

A trip to London last weekend, took me close enough to Tower Bridge to visit, for the first time, the Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden in London. In 1976, this particular stretch of the Thames riverbank was still a wasteland, and had not been redeveloped since suffering repeated bombings during the Blitz.

With the iconic Tower Bridge in the background, and no city traffic to contend with, the area made an ideal place for director Pennant Roberts to shoot the sequences from Lights of London II in which (during a motorbike sortie for supplies) Manny attempts to shoot dead the dissident Wally. The on-location staging of this short sequence helps to reinforce the ‘sense of place’ in the episode. That said, it was not obvious (from how the area was framed on screen) that the wasteland was immediately adjacent to the River Thames.

Today the area is completely unrecognisable, and the site of a huge development of luxury flats. The building of the commemorative garden, in memory of those Londoners who died during the bombing of the capital in World War II, is dominated by its large dove sculpture. Its creation was a contractual requirement for the developers of the surrounding apartment complexes.

Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden
Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden, London

Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden commemorates the civilians who died in the London blitz which commenced on 7 September 1940 and ended on 10 May 1941. London was initially bombed for 57 consecutive nights. Many other cities and areas suffered but the East End of London was one of the worst hit areas due to its proximity to the docks with 436 Londoners killed and 1,666 injured on the first night alone, and with total casualties near to 30,000

Hermitage Riverside Memorial Garden, Wapping High Street, London E1 (see Google maps)

Lucy Fleming on The One Show to discuss Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Lucy Fleming (Jenny, Survivors) appeared on the 23 August edition of The One Show on BBC One.

Fleming featured in a film segment, being interviewed by Cerys Matthews about her uncle Ian Fleming’s authorship of his well-loved 1964 novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

For viewers in the UK, this episode of The One Show is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer until 19:29 on Friday 30 Aug 2013.

Lucy Fleming - The One Show - 23 August 2013
Lucy Fleming – The One Show – 23 August 2013
Lucy Fleming - The One Show - 23 August 2013
Lucy Fleming – The One Show – 23 August 2013
Lucy Fleming - The One Show - 23 August 2013
Lucy Fleming – The One Show – 23 August 2013

New Survivors audio adventures advert from Big Finish

Big Finish have added a full-page advert for the forthcoming release of the first series of their new Survivors audio dramas to the latest issue of the company’s Vortex fanzine – which is free to download on the Big Finish site.

Thanks to Adrian H for alerting the blog to this

Big Finish - Survivors - Vortex - Issue 54
Big Finish – Survivors – Vortex – Issue 54

Remake of Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 takes new turn

The tortuous story of the long-running plan to revive and remake Survivors‘ creator Terry Nation’s space drama Blake’s 7 has taken yet another turn this week.

In April 2013 it was announced that FremantleMedia International would produce a 13-episode series remake of Blake’s 7 to be broadcast of the cable channel SyFy. This was to be a ‘re-imagining’ of the original (1978-81) show.

On Thursday 15 August, the Financial Times, BBC News and Digital Spy all reported that these plans had been shelved. Instead it was announced that the revival of Blake’s 7 would now be funded by Microsoft, with the series airing on the Xbox Live service. The London-based Motion Picture Capital company was reported to have taken over responsibility for the show’s development.

Digital Spy suggests the development is “part of Microsoft’s ambition to reposition Xbox as an ‘entertainment hub’, and to directly compete with other online subscription services.”

However, a Freemantle spokesman told BBC News that it was “not aware of any deal” with Microsoft, while both Microsoft and Motion Picture Capital declined to comment. Rights owner Andrew Mark Sewell told BBC News: “When we have news to report, we’ll let everyone know.” It seems clear that position remains far from settled.

Blake’s 7 was the show that Terry Nation created shortly after his departure from the original Survivors at the end of series one in 1975. Later in his career, Nation sought to get an American network to revive Blake’s 7, as he also (unsuccessfully) attempted to do with Survivors.