Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Jago & Litefoot: The Man At The End Of The Garden. Series Three. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Louise Jameson, Conrad Asquith, Lisa Bowerman, Joanna Bacon, Eden Monteath, Joanna Monro, Duncan Wisbey.

There are some tales, supposedly written for the benefit of children that are really for the attention of adult world. Red Riding Hood, a tale of heroism perhaps in the hands of a small child or really the precautionary story and veiled warning to a woman not to let any old wolf take her virtue. Whatever the fairy-tale, whatever its meaning, the chance for children to be told instructive tales by adults somehow slows down the learning of the moral in the story and makes adults forget the unseen world in which children’s fears are played out.

Jago & Litefoot: The Man At The End Of The Garden. Series Three. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Jago & Litefoot, Dead Men’s Tales. Series Three. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Louise Jamieson, Conrad Asquith, Lisa Bowerman, Warren Brown, Andrew Westfield, Alex Mallinson.

Series Three of Jago and Litefoot, the popular spin-off from Doctor Who and made by Big Finish, greets with open arms an old friend to the Victorian world of amateur detective detection as Leela, the fourth Doctor’s incarnation’s noble savage, appears to warn her old friends that the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Jago & Litefoot, Dead Men’s Tales. Series Three. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

Doctor Who: 1963: Fanfare For The Commen Men. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 178.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Mitch Benn, Andrew Knott, David Dobson, Ryan Sampson, Alison Thea- Skot, Jonty Stephens, Barnaby Edwards.

1963 will be remembered for many things, many moments in time which defined how the following 50 years has been looked upon, sometimes with great fondness, sometimes with the pit in the stomach which leaves those living today feeling sick and morally outraged that it was allowed to happen.

Doctor Who: 1963: Fanfare For The Commen Men. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 178. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Daleks Among Us, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 177.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Terry Malloy, Jonathan Forbes, Nicholas Briggs, Tim Delap, Jessica Brooks, Paul Chandi.

There is only one way to perhaps to finish off what has been an absorbing trilogy involving one of the best female additions to the Doctor Who audio range, a machine so powerful that even in the Doctor’s hands can cause the listener anxiety issues and a fine quirky new companion straight from U.N.I.T.  and that’s by having the revulsion of the Doctor’s most hated enemy make an appearance alongside their creator. If all that can happen in one great story then what hope is there for others following after.

Doctor Who: Daleks Among Us, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 177. full post

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

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Stuart Milligan, Dan Starkey, Jo Woodcock, Lizzie Roper.

There are just so many excellent elements to Starlight Robbery that it is surely impossible to dislike. Aside from the sublime writing of Matt Fitton, who makes a welcome return after a few months away, you have the erstwhile Elizabeth Klein, portrayed as usual with great assurance and ease by Tracey Childs, the sublime Stuart Milligan reprising his role as Garundel and the inclusion of the great Dan Starkey playing every Sontaran under the sun, what more could you ever want in an audio C.D.?

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176. full post

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

Darkside. Radio Review. B.B.C. Radio 2.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iwan Rheon, Amaka Okafor, Rufus Sewell, Bill Nighy, Adrian Scarborough, Peter Marinker, Robert Blythe, Ben Crowe, Philippa Stanton.

Tom Stoppard’s pedigree goes before him, he is arguably one of the most prolific and important playwrights of the latter half of the 20th Century and his work has continued to be a source of inspiration and keenly watched and listened to. The idea though that he would come up with an original play that delved deep into the mindset of British Progressive Rock Kings Pink Floyd and their seminal 1973 best-selling album Dark Side of the Moon could be seen by some, if not many, as a voyage of linguistic artistry too far. However if anyone can do justice to the opus that revolves around madness then Tom Stoppard perhaps is one of the finest to even attempt it the daunting process.

Darkside. Radio Review. B.B.C. Radio 2. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Piper’s Lament, Audio Drama. Read By Frazer Hines.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Frazer Hines

Perhaps the only thing worse then never being able to remember your name, is the life you have had. Something that can cause great concern and consternation as you battle each day to remember what your life was like during a set period of time. For an old Scottish man who talks to a stranger in a pub, only his life before the battle of Culloden and the hardship he faced after his return are the only memories that he has, everything else is a like a dream and in David Howe’s audio drama The Piper’s Lament, the mournful and the laying of memories down go hand in hand.

The Piper’s Lament, Audio Drama. Read By Frazer Hines. full post

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

Doctor Who: Persuasion. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 175.

Liverpool sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, David Silbey, Jonathan Forbes, Paul Chahidi, Miranda Raison, Gemma Whelen.

Persuasion is perhaps the most potent weapon on the planet, if you can influence your way of thinking on to others what could that make you? A skilled negotiator perhaps, a person of reason, a tyrannical despot or perhaps the biggest persuader and manipulator of them all, The Doctor!

Doctor Who: Persuasion. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 175. full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Dominic Mafham, Jane Slavin, Nicholas Briggs, John Dorney.

If for nothing else, and to be fair there is a lot of emotion running through this last episode of Tom Baker’s second series for Big Finish. For fans of the classic series of Doctor Who, the final moments and words of May Tamm as the compelling Lady Romana as she admits to want to carry on travelling with The Doctor in the Tardis and keep an eye on him are filled with a deep and lasting regret as this would be the last the devotees and story addicts will ever get to hear new and well-polished expressions by one of the finest actors to step on board the Tardis.

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Jago And Litefoot: The Ruthven Inheritance, Series Two. Big Finish Audio Play.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, David Collings, Simon Williams, Duncan Wisbey, Lisa Bowerman, Conrad Asquith, Alex Mallinson.

A long laid down plot in which to ensnare our intrepid investigators, the dark arts and foul machinations of vampire Gabriel Sanders and the bigotry of Victorian standards all play a part in the final episode of Jago and Litefoot series two with Andy Lane’s tale The Ruthven Inheritance.

Jago And Litefoot: The Ruthven Inheritance, Series Two. Big Finish Audio Play. full post

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