The Lost Stories Update - The Nightmare Fair
(
10/03/2009)
Production on
The Lost Stories, the audio versions of unmade scripts from the 1980s era of
Doctor Who, continues with
The Nightmare Fair by Graham Williams which is recording on March 9 and 10. The story, which is set in Blackpool, finds the Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) threatened by the Celestial Toymaker, an immortal being who makes playthings of those he defeats in his games.
The role was originally played by Michael Gough in
The Celestial Toymaker by Brian Hayles (1966), but has been recast for this production. Big Finish is delighted to announce that David Bailie (who played Dask in the 1977 story
The Robots of Death, and more recently starred in the three
Pirates of the Caribbean films) has stepped into the vacated Mandarin costume.
“We spent a lot of time thinking of who we wanted for the Toymaker,” says producer David Richardson, “because this is an iconic role and we wanted to get it right. It’s a demanding part: whoever plays it needs to be charismatic and charming, authoritative and threatening. All sorts of names were suggested, but when the idea of David came up, director John Ainsworth and I were in absolute accord and immediately approached him. Thankfully, he said yes immediately.”
“I was thrilled to be offered this role,” says Bailie. “I read the script and it really appealed to me. The Toymaker is an interesting part because he’s dangerous and deadly, but he’s not really violent – and if he kills people he does it in a really fantastical way. I don't like real violence in films and television today – in my mind, there’s way too much of it.”
The
Nightmare Fair will be released in November 2009, and will be available for pre-order from April.
In other casting news, we can reveal that
Lost Story Mission to Magnus features Maggie Steed as Rana Zandusia, the leader of the titular female-dominated planet, while Malcolm Rennie portrays Time Lord bully Anzor.