Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Titanic: Ship Of Dreams. Audio Documentary Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There have many beautiful ships to have graced the seas of our lonely planet; some have had voyages that are memorable, a few to have been engaged in active serve as well as been the courier of hopeful human dreams, and a selection that have had their name carried across time for the mystery, for the events that surround their fate, their destiny, and their tragic end.

There is though surely no other ship that has caught the imagination of the public, past and present, than the illustrious, and ill-fated Titanic.

Titanic: Ship Of Dreams. Audio Documentary Review. full post

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

Central Intelligence: Series Two. Audio Drama Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, Johnny Flynn, Rob Benedict, Elena Delia, Eric Meyers, Geoffrey Arend, Laurel Lefkow, Rufus Wright, Jon Jon Briones, Armand Schultz, Philip Desmeules, Lourdes Faberes, Eric Sirakian, Tim Ahern, Yung Quang, Kerry Shale, Greg Lockett, Ian Porter, Raad Rawi, Patrick Poletti, Carlyss Peer, Walles Hamonde, Jennifer Armour, Carin Chae, Nathan Osgood, Jonathan Nyati, Flynn Avo, Valentina Arena, Marina Koem, Ferandi Yennas, Branko Tomović, Phillipe Bosher, Kelly Marie Tran, Stephen Kunken, Thaiger Mguyen.

Central Intelligence: Series Two. Audio Drama Series Review. full post

(527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Pursuit. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Emma Campbell-Jones, Sonny McGann, Felicity Cant, Louise Falkner, Clive Hayward, Lizzie Hopley, Wanda Opalinska, Indra Ové, John Ramm, Vineeta Rishi, Sam Stafford, Dan Starkey, Niky Wardley.

The Time War continues to rage around the eighth incarnation of The Doctor, and with fortune, and the conundrum that continues to perplex him in the form of Cass Fermazzi is causing fractures in his personal relationship with his great-grandson Alex; and as the four stories that connect Pursuit play out so the drama of fall out is one of cracks in spirit, and splinters in time.

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

(503 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

The Talented Mr Shakespeare. Radio Comedy Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Mark Gatiss, Arthur Hughes, Harry Kershaw, Renee Lamb, Tom Mothersdale, Alana Ramsey, Martha Travis Ross.

Satire and parody are the right of the human soul to cause disrespectful veneration to the public ideal of a situation or a person. It is the active ingredient in comedy that highlights the absurdity of human detail and experience in such a way that whilst obvious, it can offer relief from the sterile rule book that insists on ego driven reverence to all who are considered our betters and unequal’s.

The Talented Mr Shakespeare. Radio Comedy Review. full post

(324 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Call Jonathan Pie. Series Two. Radio Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Walker, Lucy Pearman, Aqib Khan, Nick Revell, Adam Byron, Laura Shavin, Daniel Abelson, Srah Gabriel, Ed Kerr, Dermot O’Leary, Ed Kerr, Willow Bennison, Izzy Hollewand, Emily Houghton.

The audience and the listener alike could be forgiven for thinking that the second series of Call Jonathan Pie would be toned down, it might spare the rod of absolute indignation from the words and attitude of the former news correspondent…and yet why would Tom Walker as the eponymous Jonathan Pie do such a thing, why would he be instructed to give way on opinions that his comic creation holds, for in no short measure does the second series deviate from the brilliance to which he has given the now late night radio host on the B.B.C. his voice.

Call Jonathan Pie. Series Two. Radio Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Energy Of The Daleks. Big Finish Audio Play 1.04. Audio Drama Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 22nd 2012

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Alex Lowe, Mark Benton, Caroline Keiff, Dan Starkey, John Dorney, Nicholas Briggs.

Tom Baker’s incarnation and time as the fourth Doctor was never better than when he faced off against the scourge of Skaro, The Daleks. In Nicholas Briggs’ latest story for Big Finish, Energy Of The Daleks, Tom Baker is once more pitted against one of his greatest enemies and even though it was the first story that was recorded for the return of Tom Baker, there is much to admire in the delivery and the script.

Doctor Who, Energy Of The Daleks. Big Finish Audio Play 1.04. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

Doctor Who, Wirrn Isle. Big Finish 158. Audio Drama Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 28th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Tim Bentinck, Jenny Funnell, Tessa Nicholson, Rikki Lawton, Dan Starkey, Helen Goldwyn, Glynn Sweet.

There must be something about the Wirrn that can give dedicated listeners of Doctor Who delicious and nerve wracking nightmares. Add in the almost lonely, desolate feel that you get in William Gallagher’s script for Wirrn Isle and the creeping music that overlays the action and the play becomes a near pinnacle of Colin Baker’s time as the Doctor.

Doctor Who, Wirrn Isle. Big Finish 158. Audio Drama Review. full post

(583 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Wrath of the Iceni. Big Finish Audio Play. 1. 03. Audio Drama Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 27th 2012.

L. S. Media Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Ella Kenion, Nia Roberts, Michael Rouse, Daniel Hawksford.

The latest Tom Baker/Big Finish story, The Wrath of the Iceni, finally sees the savage Leela meet her match in the form of Boudica, the legendary warrior Queen of the Iceni.  If this story is anything to go by, both the Doctor and Leela may have met their physical equal in the form of a woman who has gone down in history as a mixture of a heroine and a woman driven mad by revenge.

Doctor Who, The Wrath of the Iceni. Big Finish Audio Play. 1. 03. Audio Drama Review. full post

(544 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Renaissance Man. Big Finish Audio Play. 1.02. Audio Drama Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. February 25th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Ian McNeice, Gareth Armstrong, Anthony Howell, Daisy Ashford, Laura Molyneux, John Dorney.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In the world of Doctor Who it can lead to downright murder! The second of Big Finish’s new Tom Baker stories, The Renaissance Man, shows with a certain delightful irony that just because you may think you know everything, doesn’t mean you have experienced it and of course there is always just that little bit more to know, even if it’s on the relative value of cow parsley.

Doctor Who, The Renaissance Man. Big Finish Audio Play. 1.02. Audio Drama Review. full post

(632 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Destination: Nerva. Big Finish Audio Play 1.01. Audio Drama Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. January 24th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Raquel Cassidy, Tim Bentinck, Sam Graham, Tilly Gaunt, Kim Wall, Tim Treloar.

Destination: Nerva is the brand new Doctor Who audio from Big Finish that requires a fanfare so loud and devastatingly proud as it finally brings the much loved and much missed Tom Baker back into the realm of original adventures. However, it also requires a discretion, the will to give this new series a chance to grow and for Mr. Baker to find his feet at Big Finish whilst immersing himself back as one of the premier Doctor incarnations.

Doctor Who, Destination: Nerva. Big Finish Audio Play 1.01. Audio Drama Review. full post

(677 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)