Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: The Rebel Alliance. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Una Stubbs, Tamzin Outhwaite.

Somewhere on a table at a wedding reception far away, sits those to whom were always the last to be invited, the ones to whom a small sense of gratitude is permanently and grudgingly displayed, nobody perhaps wants them there, the sense of embarrassment that they might bring to the proceedings outweighing the debt owed, and yet, there they sit, grateful for any small morsel of thanks that the organisers believe they deserve. For this, The Rebel Alliance, it is always surprising that any wedding they don’t make more of the opportunity to be the scene that many hope they would, with devilishly twinkling eyes, be.

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: The Rebel Alliance. Radio Review. full post

(410 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Mercy Dash. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julia McKenzie, Gus Brown.

The point of comedy is that it has to be seen as possible, that the situations we encounter in today’s world can traverse the boundaries and still be funny no matter the time or setting, for the modern viewers can claim programmes such as Only Fools and Horses explore the world that it inhabited to such a point that many of the scrapes encountered by the loveable Trotter rogues can still be seen to be relevant almost 40 years after their first airing. It has criss-crossed the times it was set and is able to make people laugh; the same is said for any programme in which today’s circumstances can still be seen for what they are, no matter what context they are set in, it is why programmes such as Fawlty Towers, Yes Prime Minister or even the hit American series Frasier, still works.

John Finnemore’s Double Acts: Mercy Dash. Radio Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: And You Will Obey Me. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Geoffrey Beevers, Sheena Bhattessa, Alex Foley, Peta Cornish, Russ Bain, Tessa Coates, Nick Ellsworth.

No matter the incarnation of the Doctor, he is arguably at his sublime best when facing the prospect of battling one of two men in the Universe. Whether it is the maniacal, fascist like Davros or the dangerously charming and incredibly psychotic Master, both men are the epitome of thorns in the side of the man who loves Humanity just a little too much.

Doctor Who: And You Will Obey Me. Audio Drama Review. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Paradox Planet/Legacy Of Death. Audio Drama Reviews.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Simon Rouse, Tom Chadbon, Paul Panting, Emma Campbell-Jones, Laura Rees, Bryan Pilkington, Jane Slavin, John Banks.

The good old days of the multi-parter, where a story line could be really explored and taken beyond the realms of the expected 45 minutes, where the imagination not only gets fed, it is sated and not feeling as if it has been left out of the desert and wine list that inevitably follows a good dinner; all things are more possible in the land of the large and truly delved into story.

Doctor Who: The Paradox Planet/Legacy Of Death. Audio Drama Reviews. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Late Night With Jez, Radio Review.

The radio, in many people’s eyes the perfect companion, unobtrusive, clear and concise and full of mystery. Like a night in the theatre it speaks to you from out of the darkness, it talks to you like an old friend who understands your need for whatever genre it has in store and unlike television and cinema with its blatant chattering and full on meddlesome ways, the radio has a technique, a manner, in which it makes you feel as though you are the only one hearing the conversation; a two way discussion peppered with great music.

Late Night With Jez, Radio Review. full post

(639 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Peterloo Massacre. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Jayne Standing, Robbie Stevens, Gerard Kearns, Philip Labey, Wayne Forester, Liz Morgan.

There are moments in history that are so sacred, so vital to have taken place that by not understanding them, not appreciating the full scale of the event and the fall-out from them, is to allow ignorance to breed and the wrong side of the argument to gain ground. There are such moments that bring change, eventual and ultimate change that to deny them should be considered a crime against humanity and the possibility of such events recurring.

Doctor Who: The Peterloo Massacre. Audio Drama Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Aquitaine. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Matthew Cottle, Harry Myers, Nina Sosanya, Gerald Kyd, Danusia Samal.

Time is complicated for The Doctor and his companions enough without adding the distraction of a Black Hole into their lives but when answering a distress call from a robot who finds the offering of tea a wholesome and pursuit worthy activity, Black holes become the least of The Doctor’s problems.

Doctor Who: Aquitaine. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Waters Of Amsterdam. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Tim Delap, Richard James, Elizabeth Morton, Robbie Stevens, Wayne Forester.

As the tenth incarnation of The Doctor once remarked with fear in his voice, “Water always wins”; when that water surrounds you, when that impeding sense of doom of being submerged, of being inundated by half truths and a partner that won’t let you go easily, then water doesn’t just win, it erodes to eventually destruction everything in its path.

Doctor Who: The Waters Of Amsterdam. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(522 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Kate Bracen, Mark Bonnar, Peter Barrett, John Dorney, Anjella Mackintosh.

The key is information, how we translate the data supplied is down to the individual and how it is acted upon could arguably seen as a form of control. Information and secrets, the ingredients to winning a war, without either in your arsenal the battle is surely lost and as the Doctor prepares to fight a foe who makes much of how information is gathered, then the web he finds himself in under the foundations of Buda’s grand castle is enough to bite deep into the resolve of unravelling the facts of The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle.

Doctor Who: The Labyrinth Of Buda Castle. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Planet Of The Rani. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Miranda Raison, Siobhan Redmond, James Joyce, Olivia Poulet, Dominic Thorburn, Tim Bentinck, Chris Porter.

There are characters so underused within the whole of the Doctor Who world that when they come along in a story that is just right for them, the heart feels the pressure of sadness that they have been ignored for so long. The Rani, one of the great members of The Doctor’s own celestial race, is one such character and whilst she has appeared on television, portrayed by the wonderful and much missed Kate O’ Mara, the link between the screen and Big Finish audio has perhaps been short, even if it has been sweet.

Doctor Who: Planet Of The Rani. Audio Drama Review. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)