Category Archives: Audio Drama/Radio Plays

Limelight: An Eye For A Killing. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jack Lowden, Gavin Mitchell, James Boal, Robert Jack, Helen McKay, Nicola Roy, Maureen Carr, Kyle Gardiner, Ron Donachie, Stuart McQuarrie, Simon Donaldson, Andy Clark, Jimmy Chisholm, James Rottger, Lucianne McEvoy, Paul Young.

Even after two centuries, the names Burke and Hare are enough to spark dialogue and conversation in the darkest corners of any Edinburgh public house; it is in the collective DNA of the city, the fear that persists as the cold rain hits the streets of the narrow old town that human life is considered so cheap that murder for profit is an acceptable thought within the criminal fraternity, and those to whom we entrust our end of life care to, almost always those of a professional class.

Limelight: An Eye For A Killing. Radio Drama Review. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Calls From Far Away. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Maimie McCoy, Tom Glenister, Bertie Cresswell, Jonathan Forbes Elliott, Joanna Monro, Tom Kiteley, Ruth Everett, Roger Ringrose.

There are moments which truly bring existence into sharp focus. The individual shares the exceptional with maybe just a few others in their lifetime, but what makes one person stop and think is not the same as that which is witnessed with astonishment by the collective human race when that moment sparks a revolution of thought.

Calls From Far Away. Radio Drama Review. full post

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

End Of Transmission. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Louise Brealey, David Haig, Don Gilet, Peter Bankole, David Carlyle, Madeline Potter, Richard Laing, Joel MacCormack, Martina Laird.

We never think of how a disease comes into being, how it is ‘born’, how it evolves…we leave that to the scientists and we react with surprise when it is put to us that the wild speculation we have gossiped over when a friend is diagnosed with a particular illness, is in fact wrong, that it is far more sinister than we imagine, but also more acutely disturbing for our species.

End Of Transmission. Radio Drama Review. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Nightmarish. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Emma Sidi, Barney Fishwick, Kymberley Cochrane, Leah Marks, Gerard McDermott.

When does imagination cross the line, when does a podcast in the modern age transform itself into being a ritual to which people flock to and see it as more than just an exercise in indulgence or a way for a lesser-known story to be revealed.

Podcasting has become a form of entertainment that has opened up the narrative revolution in such a way that it could be argued that it rivals the emergence of the novel in the transformation of how a story can be told by all and listened by everyone.

Nightmarish. Radio Drama Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: James Robert McCrimmon. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Michael Troughton, Frazer Hines, Daisy Ashford, Barnaby Edwards, Nigel Havers, Mickey Knighton, Pepter Lunkuse, Glen McCready, Alec Newman, Emma Noakes, Gary Turner, Ony Uhiara.

James Robert McCrimmon is a name that brings arguably the vast majority of Doctor Who fans happy memories and fondness for the entire Patrick Troughton era. What though is in that name, and despite only returning once on screen since the character returned to his right place in history, that marks him out as consistently being voted among the finest of companions that the Time traveller ever had by their side.

Doctor Who: James Robert McCrimmon. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

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

The Death Of Molly Miller. Radio Play Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Shireen Farkhoy, George Edwards.

The rise of the social influencer is perhaps one that was only to be expected in a world where the narrative has altered from one of substance to one where you only have to be seen as being presentable, to wear and say the right things and be an image of those who, for whatever reason believe that you are the embodiment of success, to be noticed.

The Death Of Molly Miller. Radio Play Review. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Undercover-Close To Home. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ntombizodwa Ndlovu, Matthew McNulty, Bebe Massey, Taraq Al-Jeddal, Christine Bottomley, Esh Alladi, Emma Cunniffe, Kymberley Cochrane, Lula Marsh, Jessica Bellamy.

The rise in popularity in the true crime podcast is extraordinary and revealing.

Such revelations suggest much about the society we live in, and once where the murder mystery drama on television was seen as the preserve of the armchair detective pitting their wits against a writer who understands the genre as if they themselves were culpable of the crime committed, now the listener is rapt with attention as they look for the clues that might save their own life if they were plunged into a situation where their life might be in danger.

Undercover-Close To Home. Radio Drama Review. full post

(480 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Of A Night. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Neil Caple, Sue Jenkins, Izzy Campbell, Jason Done, Emily Pithon, Paul Duckworth.

Our personal problems take precedence over that which we understand are important to other people, it is who we are as a species. During panic, in the most extreme moments of what our minds can cope with as desperation and hopelessness threaten to overwhelm us, our struggles will be seen as more important than that suffered by a neighbour, a friend, or even a nation.

Of A Night. Radio Drama Review. full post

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

Shard. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Damien Molony, Finbar Lynch, Rebecca O’Mara, Trevor Kaneswaren, Kitty O’ Sullivan, Will Kirk.

Our environment shapes us but are we willing to listen to demands that the Earth below our feet asks of us in return for the bounty it supplies. If we look upon the last couple of hundred years of abuse we have savagely wrecked upon the soil, the heavy metals we have allowed to poison our lands, the sheer scale of strain we have placed on that which feeds us, then its no wonder that it could be argued, that the earth has rejected us, and no amount of pleading or sacrifice made in arrears will satisfy or placate that which has been abused.

Shard. Radio Drama Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: Once And Future: The Artist At The End Of Time. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Georgia Tennant, Colin Baker, Abi Harris, Sylvester McCoy, Stephen Noonan, John Telfer, Tim Treloar, Michael Troughton.

We denigrate the artist during their lifetime, and only appreciate them when they have passed. The poorer the artist, the more their work is valued after they have departed this world, it is an exchange we barter for where we can, with hand on heart, say we have supported a starving artist, but it is delivered at the expense of a fat profit and unimportant conscience.

Doctor Who: Once And Future: The Artist At The End Of Time. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

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