Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Hancock’s Half Hour: The Matador. The Lost Episodes. 2014 Re-Recording.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian, Susy Kane.

As arguably one of the finest British comedies to grace both radio and television celebrates the 60th Anniversary of the first episode, The First Night Party, being aired to the nation; Hancock’s Half Hour has suffered from the short sightedness of the time that many programmes and serials had placed upon them, the constraints of not being recorded and documented for future posterity.

Hancock’s Half Hour: The Matador. The Lost Episodes. 2014 Re-Recording. full post

(624 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse, Robert Whitelock, Phil Mulryne, Camilla Power, Bethan Walker.

We are made up so many different facets in our genetic and mental make-up that it somewhat surprising that more is not made of the split personality within the world of Science Fiction. For The Doctor, the many personalities that have lived and also have the potential to do so hides perhaps a frightening question, does the Doctor ever really know himself, even he meets parts of him in someone else?

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

(603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

Terry Nation’s Survivors: Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Caroline Langrishe, John Banks, Chase Masterson, Terry Malloy, Adrian Lukis, Camilla Power, Louise Jameson, Sinead Keenan, San Shella, Lucy Fleming, Ian McCulloch, Carolyn Seymour, Phil Mulryne, John Dorney, Lisa Bowerman.

For those that remember with fondness or indeed with a tightening grip of fear Terry Nation’s 1970s apocalyptic serial Survivors, the frightening aspect of a civilisation falling apart very quickly is one that is perhaps the most powerful and enduring images of its time and is probably matched only by the television film Threads a decade later. To see it happen on screen as part of a drama is one thing but to have it re-recorded by audio drama specialists Big Finish, already the guardians of the legacy of Doctor Who in audio form as well as establishing a great following with their episodes of the likes of The Avengers, Sapphire and Steel and Blake’s 7, is quite a different proposition.

Terry Nation’s Survivors: Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

Doctor Who: Signs And Wonders. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Amy Pemberton, Jessica Martin, Warren Brown, Jemma Churchill, Rory Keenan.

There are times, admittedly as rare as a Gallifryian rocking horse needing to excuse itself to go to the toilet, when the most manipulative of all the incarnations of The Doctor is just that little too calculating for his own good, that’s when the listener knows that they are in for a really decent ride of a story line with the Seventh Doctor and perhaps it is fitting that long standing writer Matt Fitton is the deliverer of all the problems heaped upon Hector, The Doctor and Ace in the very cool audio drama, Signs and Wonders.

Doctor Who: Signs And Wonders. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(656 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Mask Of Tragedy. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Samuel West, Alisdair Simpson, Russell Bentley, Tim Treloar, Emily Tucker.

Heroes, true heroes, those that seek no recompense for their actions in saving someone’s life and see no honour in reminding others what they have done for them in the past are so rare, so infrequent; that it is hardly surprising that tales of epic valour seems to be steeped in antiquity and legend. For those in ancient Greece, tales of heroes were what gave the collection of disparate nations and its people hope in times of war, pestilence and the invention of Greek comedy and one of its Godfathers, Aristophanes.

Doctor Who: The Mask Of Tragedy. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes, Dance With Death. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Jaqueline King, Dan Starkey, Cameron Stewart, Anjella Mackintosh, Gemma Whelan, Derek Carlyle, Martin Hutson, Francesca Hunt, Penelope Rawlins, Terry Malloy, Michael Hrycek-Robinson.

There is nothing quite like the dance floor to bring out the murderer in the dark heart of the criminal mastermind, the quick step or the rumba to get the killer in the mood for a spot of the gamble and the gambol whilst they search for riches, no matter who gets in their way.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes, Dance With Death. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. The Radioactive Man. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Phil Mulryne, John Banks, Tim Bentinck, Beth Chalmers, Anjella Mackintosh, Richard Franklin, Kieran Bew, Colin Baker.

Some stories are just so timeless that they can be placed almost anywhere within a certain epoch and they would still resonate and be explosive as if set with a timer, a red and yellow wire attached and the words caution, contains volatile and unstable elements stamped in black broad letters on its outer box.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. The Radioactive Man. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Please Don’t Feed The Animals. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Martin Hutson, Richard Hope, Alisdair Simpson, Rosanna Miles, Penelope, Rawlins, Jonathan Forbes, Derek Carlyle, Nigel Carrington, Terry Malloy.

There is nothing quite like the intrigue that a good spy story to bring to the collective conscious of a nation. Whether based in the murky world of politics or in industrial espionage, a mole in the machine is one to in which the public salivates over with the kind of relish normally reserved for the most salacious of tabloid journalism. For The Avengers, all of that intrigue is one in which was a daily occurrence, something to be taken seriously and for the listener become an infiltrator of the very best kind.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Please Don’t Feed The Animals. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Terry Malloy, Rachel Atkins, Emily Woodward, Nicholas Briggs, Derek Carlyle, Anna Lukis, Penelope Rawlins, Richard Hope, Dan Starkey, Cameron Stewart, Francesca Hunt, Martin Hudson.

 

Who could ever foresee that hairdressing was such a risky business?  The shampoo set that could go wrong, the gossip that turns to grudges being held, the heated dryer rigged to give a nasty surprise, arson! All these are par for the course as John Steed and Dr. David Keel return for the second set of classic The Avengers stories to be adapted by John Dorney and Big Finish starting with the tale, Ashes Of Roses.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish. full post

(620 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Swarm. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, John Leeson, Mandi Symonds, Maggie Service, John Heffernan, Phyllida Nash, Siobhan Redmond, John Dorney, Paul Panting.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, preferably being poured from a bucket with ice cubes the size of Norwegian glacier formation and over the head of someone you don’t like whilst they are sunbathing. Failing that, to be mastered in the form that Science Fiction adores, with plenty of back story and with an enemy that doesn’t quite fit the top echelons of master criminals or war mongering civilisations.

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Swarm. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(651 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)