The Latest Big Finish News

Bumper Year for Dark Shadows

(08/02/2010)
2010 sees the expansion of Big Finish’s Dark Shadows range, with an unprecedented nine releases planned across the year.

Kingdom of the Dead, the new four-CD full cast mini-series is now midway through recording, and will be available from July. Studio sessions have already taken place in New York, Los Angeles and London, with further recording scheduled during February and March.

The new story features returning stars David Selby (Quentin), Lara Parker (Angelique), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie) and John Karlen (Willie), joined by a host of new voices, including Lysette Anthony (1991 Angelique) and Alec Newman (2004 Barnabas). Original series actors Nancy Barrett (Carolyn) and Marie Wallace (Eve) have recorded guest appearances for the last episode and other actors will be announced shortly.

Kingdom of the Dead is written by Stuart Manning and Eric Wallace and is directed by Darren Gross. “From the beginning, we were keen to up the emotional stakes and story pacing,” says Eric. “The goal was to make this feel less like a play and more like a bona fide soap opera. Without giving anything away, fans are going to get some major surprises in Kingdom of the Dead!”

Work is also underway on the new series of Dark Shadows dramatic readings, which have just resumed with the release of Final Judgement. Four more CDs are due out in the coming months, featuring classic characters in all-new stories.

The next dramatic reading, Blood Dance, is now due out in April. This recording was delayed by unavoidable cast commitments, but is scheduled to go into studio later this month, starring David Selby alongside original series actor Lisa Richards (Sabrina Stuart), making her Big Finish debut.

Blood Dance is written by returning author Stephen Mark Rainey, and features Quentin in prohibition-era Chicago, plunged into a supernatural mystery at the shady Arcadia Club. “We learn about a chapter of Quentin’s life never revealed in the show itself,” says Rainey. “There’s new insight into the people, places, and events that shaped one of the show’s most endearing characters.”

Other upcoming dramatic readings include The Doll House by Torchwood and Being Human novelist James Goss, and London’s Burning by Joseph Lidster, writer for Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Doll House explores the life of Quentin’s doomed wife Jenny, as played by Marie Wallace who has been involved in the story’s development. “What you saw on screen was just a fraction of Jenny’s story,” says Goss. “Hunted by her own family, betrayed by her lover, driven mad by his relatives and her children stolen from her by her only friend. It's brilliant to be able to write about those mysteries.”

London’s Burning features Quentin arriving in London at the turn of the century, where he uncovers the truth behind a mysterious spate of spontaneous human combustions, with the relative of an old friend in tow. “I discovered the mad world of Dark Shadows just over a year ago and was immediately hooked by its combination of strong characters and epic storylines,” says Lidster. “What other show would send its main character – a vampire! – back in time and tell a whole new set of storylines featuring the same actors playing different characters? It’s been a real thrill to write the further adventures of Quentin Collins and, especially, being able to explore the family of Cockney showgirl Miss Pansy Faye!”

“It’s such a great run of stories,” says series producer Stuart Manning. “With new authors and actors joining us all the time, we’re hope to make 2010 a mad, truly thrilling ride for listeners.”

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The Times reviews Love Songs

(08/02/2010)
This weekend, The Times ran a glowing review of Rob Shearman's book, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical. It reads:

"It’s probably wrong to say that realism is dead, but the most interesting short stories produced today are to be found in genre fiction – or at least on the edges of fantasy, science fiction and horror. Robert Shearman’s World Fantasy Award-winning first collection was Tiny Deaths; in his second, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, he has taken on the other great subject of art.

Shearman has a uniquely engaging narrative voice and he steers clear of genre cliché, injecting elements of horror and the surreal into a recognisably real world. In Pang people actually hand over physical, beating hearts (sometimes in Tupperware boxes) when they fall in love; other stories feature the death of a ghost cat, a man who gets a job as a tree, and the mysterious disappearance of an entire country. As impressive as his quirky imagination is his emotional range: most of the stories are darkly humorous, but in Road Kill and This Creeping Thing, humour, horror and genuine pathos all make a powerful impact in a very short space."

Love Songs is available in hardback now, with a paperback available for pre-order, to be released in the spring.

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Big Finish at Time Quest

(06/02/2010)
We can confirm that representatives from Big Finish will be present at Tenth Planet's Time Quest Convention on March 13 and 14. Set to attend are:

Nicholas Briggs - executive producer of the Audio Adventures of Doctor Who, and Voice of the Daleks. Nick will be signing copies of the Sherlock Holmes CDs for us at the event.

Robert Shearman - writer of many highly regarded Big Finish Doctor Who stories (Jubilee, The Maltese Penguin, Doctor Who: Unbound - Deadline and more), Rob will be in attendance to sign copies of his acclaimed book Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical.

Lisa Bowerman - star of Bernice Summerfield, director for Doctor Who and The Companion Chronicles and regular cast member of the upcoming Jago and Litefoot series.

David Richardson - Line producer at Big Finish, plus producer of Jago and Litefoot, The Companion Chronicles and The Lost Stories.

Jamie Robertson - Sound designer and composer. Jamie's credits include The Lost Stories: The Nightmare Fair, The Companion Chronicles: Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code, and for the main range Blue Forgotten Planet, The Architects of History and the upcoming Legend of the Cybermen.

Official guests at Time Quest include no less than five Doctors - Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann - plus Janet Fielding, who is returning to Big Finish this year as Tegan.

We hope to see you there!

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February Podcast

(05/02/2010)
Hold onto your socks! It's time for another podcast.

Nick Briggs, David Richardson and Paul Spragg (if you can hear him) host an exceptionally long podcast, giving you all the latest from Big Finish land. There's news, gossip and clips, clips, clips.

Also, we read out your emails to podcast@bigfinish.com AND there's another competition. This time, you'll have a chance to win an incredibly rare piece of Big Finish... er... stuff! Unmissable! 

There's also the latest news about the Stargate audio series (as well as all the usual Doctor Who news).

Plus... a bizarrely late set report of the Doctor Who story Frontios.

Can you resist?

Just click that Podcast button and away you go!

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Fifth Doctor Snaketacular!

(05/02/2010)
The Mara, the snake-like demon from the 1980s stories Kinda and Snakedance, is returning in the forthcoming season of audio adventures featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa.

"The three stories were recorded just after Christmas," says executive producer Nicholas Briggs, "and everyone was on brilliant form. It was quite thrilling to hear Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton – who hadn't acted together since 1983 –  recreating their roles so authentically. These adventures sound just like they've fallen through a time warp!

“The mood during the recording was quite rambunctious and everyone had such a brilliant time that I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team reunited again some time in the near future…”

The season begins in July with Cobwebs by Jonathan Morris, in which the travellers land on a scientific base which they have clearly visited before. The only thing is, it hasn’t happened yet… The guest cast includes Helen Griffin (Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel), Raymond Coulthard (Hotel Babylon) and Adrian Lukis (Pride and Prejudice, Peak Practice).

The Whispering Forest by Stephen Cole follows in August, and is set on an alien world where a colony has become obsessed with cleanliness – while strange creatures are prowling among the trees. Guest stars include Hayley Atwell (who stars in the remake of The Prisoner and appeared in the audio Doctor Who story Blood of the Daleks), Paul Shelley (Four to Doomsday) and Harry Melling (the Harry Potter films) – who just happens to be the grandson of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton!

Finally, the Mara returns in The Cradle of the Snake by Marc Platt, which sees the TARDIS crew return to Manussa, a planet that they last visited in 1983’s Snakedance.

“When we knew we could get these characters back together, we realised we wanted to bring back the Mara because it was an iconic monster from the Davison era,” says Nicholas Briggs. “Original writer Christopher Bailey gave us his blessing, and Marc Platt seemed the obvious choice to write it – because Marc does ‘weird’ so wonderfully!”

The story’s guest stars include Dan Stevens (The Line of Beauty, Dracula), Vernon Dobtcheff (The War Games) and Hugh Fraser (Poirot and the audio Doctor Who story Circular Time).

Looking ahead further into 2010, the free story for subscribers in December is going to be a multi-Doctor extravaganza! Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann will all join forces in The Four Doctors in an epic fight against the Daleks…

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