Survivors Series Two: coming June 2015

The distant rumblings of this latest instalment of the Survivors audio-drama series from Big Finish are starting to be heard, ahead of its much anticipated release in June.

There is something very special about Survivors, I knew it before we even started recording series one. The writing is of a very high order indeed and the scripts for this second series maintain that standard - and some!

More details will follow as the release date approaches; in the meantime, here is the official trailer:

 In its review of Survivors Series One, Starburst magazine said this:

"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."

Audio samples... simples?

It's been a while since I edited together a collection of audio samples and I thought it about time to update the audio section of my Spotlight page, just in case anyone in the industry might take an interest and immediately offer some work. Well, that's how it's supposed to happen!

Anyway, after much delving and rummaging through my audio archives, I've put together this latest series of untreated character voices from audio drama and from audio book narration. It's quite tricky to find sections of audio drama that don't have someone else's voice chipping in. That is the nature of audio drama of course, the interaction of characters, but it does reduce the options for this particular purpose. I now have hundreds of hours of recorded material to choose from, but finding a passage that has just my voice and makes some kind of internal sense is more difficult than one might imagine. Not much from the latest Sherlock Holmes stories, not much from Survivors, or indeed from The Avengers or Counter Measures; even a long narrative from Ragnus Lang in Andrew Smith's brilliant Blake's 7 story, Retribution, is constantly interrupted -  outrageous I know!

The actual Spotlight upload is limited to 5 minutes and in all probability, no casting professional is going to spend anything like that amount of time checking out a voice reel; maybe 30 seconds tops. However, because that time constraint doesn't apply to this web site, I've left in a couple of odd clips which don't now feature in the original and, for clarification, they have been asterisked *. The reason I ditched them was to have room to include a bit of Daniel Connor from Survivors. It's not the best clip I know, but as I've just mentioned, extracting anything like a reasonable length speech is very difficult and as I am very proud of the work everyone did on Survivors, it just had to be included somehow. By the way, Survivors Series 2 is out in June and I'm really looking froward to hearing it - Daniel and his companions' journey into their 'Heart of Darkness' gets very much darker in series 2...

So, below is a slightly longer collection of clips than that which was published on Spotlight and if you decide to give them a listen, as always, I hope you will find something to enjoy and perhaps also whet your appetite for wanting to hear more.

The tracks in order are:

1) Mervyn Stone from The Mervyn Stone Mysteries: The Axeman cometh audio-drama

2) Hermit from Doctor Who: Trial of The Valeyard audio-drama*

3) Black Venus audio-book

4) Allat from Doctor Who: The Sleeping City audio-drama

5) Lucius Correl from Blake's 7: The Liberator Chronicles: Jenna's Story audio-drama*

6) Gabriel's Angel audio-book

7) Jimmy, Mervyn & Mervyn as Phyllis from The Mervyn Stone Mysteries: The Axeman Cometh audio-drama

8) How to be Both audio-book

9) Baron Pteratrark from Doctor Who: The Widow's Assassin audio-drama

10) Half Life from Thirteen audio-book anthology

11) Mona, Sarah & Douglas from Traveller's Duty audio-book

12) Mr Mac And Me audio-book

13) Roger from Roger Munroe Remembers comedy sketch*

14) Daniel Connor from Survivors Series 1 Episode 1: Revelation audio-drama

 

There are details and synopses for all these samples in postings throughout the site, including full cast lists and writing credits, both for audio-drama and audio-books.

I'm back in the recording studio very soon, so... more news just as soon as it happens!

Dark Eyes 4

After much anticipation, the fourth and final series of Doctor Who: Dark Eyes is released today from Big Finish Productions. Dark Eyes is an epic sixteen episode story arc that I've been privileged to have taken part in and have a close association with in a number of ways; the first episode of the first series won a BBC Audio Drama Award in 2014 and perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, I feel quite proud of the whole thing.

Here are details from this final series along with a fantastic video trailer: 

4.1 A Life in the Day by John Dorney

The Doctor and Liv return to post-World War One London, where the Doctor meets Kitty Donaldson (Beth Chalmers), and Liv strikes a friendship with her brother Martin (Barnaby Kay). But what mysterious force is hunting them?

4.2 The Monster of Montmartre by Matt Fitton

The Doctor and Liv’s investigations bring them to Paris, where a monster stalks the streets.

4.3 Master of the Daleks by John Dorney

The Master and the Dalek Time Controller have forged an alliance. History hangs in the balance, and this time the Doctor can’t help…

4.4 Eye of Darkness by Matt Fitton

It’s the endgame. Truths will be revealed, and a hero will make the ultimate sacrifice.

Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Alex Macqueen,  Barnaby Kay, Rachael Stirling, Sorcha Cusack, Dan Starkey, Susannah Harker, David Sibley, Beth Chalmers, Charlie Norfolk,  

Derek Hutchinson, Alex Wyndham, Blake Ritson, Camilla Power, John Dorney, Nicholas Briggs.

Written by John Dorney and Matt Fitton
Directed by Ken Bentley