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Doctor Who - Audio Adventures

Started by daf, July 29, 2018, 12:43:56 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Malcy

Quote from: purlieu on April 06, 2020, 05:58:14 PM
I've used a couple of guides that others put together - both on Reddit, thought I'd bookmarked them but apparently not - so it wasn't actually that difficult. A couple of hours work for me, but I've always found making lists fun.

I've always listened to stories at random and have sometimes had to stop listening to a story because I have no idea what's going on. Do any of the lists state if there's any kind of previous knowledge needed going in?

daf

Quote from: Malcy on April 06, 2020, 06:01:04 PM
I find it hard not to tune out when listening though. Beat method I found was to play them through my iPad and play Solitaire on it at the same time. It's just enough to keep me focused on both.

Yes it's a tricky balance -

Having fallen asleep attempting a few stories on headphones in the dark, I now find I get best results gently pootling around on something like a snowboarding or car racing video game (or whatever the kids are calling that sort of thing these days!)

daf

#302
Quote from: Malcy on April 06, 2020, 06:04:13 PM
Do any of the lists state if there's any kind of previous knowledge needed going in?

There are a few story or companion arcs that make sense to listen to in a particular order - but these will generally be in the order of release. e.g. -

Charley Pollard travels with both the Sixth and Eighth doctors - to get the most out of these you should listen to her Eighth Doctor ones first, then the ones with the Sixth Doctor - i.e. we follow the companion's chronology rather than the Doctors here.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Evelyn Smythe - Generally in the order they were released, but I like to shuffle a few around - eg. 
- I place 'Medicinal Purposes' (60) before 'Doctor Who and The Pirates' (43) to fix inconsistent character development.
- I place 'Thicker than Water' (73) after 'Industrial Evolution' (145) - as the story (73) takes place a couple of years after Evelyn had left the Doctor - when 6th and Mel visit her.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Industrial Evolution was the final Evelyn story they released, but her 'arc' concludes a few stories earlier - with a Seventh Doctor story (the title is a bit of a spoiler, so I'll just call it '140').

To get the most out of this one, you'll want to have heard some stuff with both Hex and the Project stories for everything to pay off - a minimum would be :
'Project Twilight' (23) 6th Doctor
'Project Lazarus' (45) 7th & 6th Doctors
'The Harvest' (58) 7th Doctor & Ace + Hex introduction /
'Angel of the Scutari' (122) 7th Doctor Ace & Hex / this leads into  . . .
'Project Destiny' (139) - which concludes with . . .
(140).

purlieu

Quote from: Malcy on April 06, 2020, 06:04:13 PM
I've always listened to stories at random and have sometimes had to stop listening to a story because I have no idea what's going on. Do any of the lists state if there's any kind of previous knowledge needed going in?
There's a little info on one or two stories but not really. This is an unfortunately badly formatted list that provided a lot of info for my list.

I have 1,340 folders in my Big Finish folder, which admittedly does include some single Short Trips early on, and then all the yearly Short Trips in individual 'volume' folders later on, but otherwise they are all individual stories (including four folders when the Monthly Range does one of their "and other tales" volumes of four half-hour stories in one). At one a day, it'll take three and a half years, with probably another six months to catch up with the rest over that time. So it's a hefty undertaking, but as I've been going through the novels for a few years now, it seems somewhat tame in comparison.

purlieu

Quote from: Malcy on April 06, 2020, 04:59:42 PM
And do you think conflicting canon will be  an issue?
Oh, and to answer this: no. I don't think it's possible to be a Who fan and take issue with continuity stuff, because it's always comfortably flouted any real sense of canon.

Malcy

My brain hurts already but thanks Daf and Purlieu! I've heard, i think, one Charley story & one Evelyn (Spectre Of Lanyon Moor) but have a bit of knowledge of both characters.

Quote from: purlieu on April 06, 2020, 10:06:37 PM
Oh, and to answer this: no. I don't think it's possible to be a Who fan and take issue with continuity stuff, because it's always comfortably flouted any real sense of canon.

Yeah I was thinking that it could easily be waved away but wasn't sure given that you have immersed yourself in so many books in recent times. I suppose there would have been conflicting things in those as well come to think of it.


purlieu

Yeah, the books go out of their way to have continuity and yet totally fuck it up at the same time. There are so many contradictions that I just try and take it as part of the charm of the whole thing really. I know there are huge elements of the Eighth Doctor timeline which are totally different between the books and audios.

daf

#307
Main Range 1 - 50 sale on now. £1.49 each!



My top picks :
6   - "The Marian Conspiracy" (6th)
12 - "The Fires of Vulcan" (7th)
14 - "The Holy Terror" (6th)
23 - "Project: Twilight" (6th)
24 - "The Eye of the Scorpion(5th)
25 - "Colditz" (7th) 
27 - "The One Doctor" (6th)
29 - "The Chimes of Midnight(8th)
30 - "Seasons of Fear" (8th) 
34 - "Spare Parts" (5th)
38 - "The Church and the Crown(5th)
40 - "Jubilee(6th) (Hear what 'Dalek' originally sounded like)
43 - "Doctor Who and the Pirates" (6th) 
46 - "Flip-Flop" (7th) (works best as 2 CDs - as you can play them in either order!)
48 - "Davros" (6th) 
49 - "Master" (7th)

I also like the Star Trek / Eurovision spoof "Bang-Bang-a-Boom!" (7th)  - though it may be a bit silly for some.

VelourSpirit

Do you think you'll read the eighth Doctor books purlieu? I've been meaning to get round to them for ages.
I wish I had the fortitude to just go through EVERYTHING. I'm doing that with the Torchwood audios but with Doctor Who books/audios it's mainly just the highlights for me, and any prerequisites needed in order to fully appreciate the highlights. (I do try not to think of stories as "prerequisites" though haha, quite a dreary way of looking at it) I've been thinking about going through all of Gallifrey as well.

Chairman Yang

£1.49 for Zagreus? That's 38p per time you'll lose your entire human mind. Bargain.

samadriel

Quote from: TwinPeaks on April 09, 2020, 12:19:03 PM
Do you think you'll read the eighth Doctor books purlieu? I've been meaning to get round to them for ages.

I'm curious as to what viewers of Noohoo will think upon reading the Lawrence Miles books - he came up with the Time War several years before RTD, and with Faction Paradox and the mysterious nature of the Time Lords' enemy, I feel it had a lot more potential than the Time War of the TV show (stuff like The Ancestor Cell wasted that potential a bit; not Miles' fault, that one. Oh well.)

VelourSpirit

Quote from: samadriel on April 09, 2020, 03:01:35 PM
I'm curious as to what viewers of Noohoo will think upon reading the Lawrence Miles books - he came up with the Time War several years before RTD, and with Faction Paradox and the mysterious nature of the Time Lords' enemy, I feel it had a lot more potential than the Time War of the TV show (stuff like The Ancestor Cell wasted that potential a bit; not Miles' fault, that one. Oh well.)
I've had Alien Bodies sat unread on my shelf for ages! Read most of Miles' blog posts though (the ones he didn't delete, anyway) and I've heard so much good stuff about his work, and many of the things that clearly inspired elements of new Who. He's such an interesting character, I feel like I'm going to love his approach to Who.

samadriel

Yeah mate, tuck into Alien Bodies. I loved his two-book story, Interference, as well. That ending! I can't make any promises that you'll enjoy it, but I remember reading it while listening to my freshly-bought copy of NIN's The Fragile, and I enjoyed both about equally. Good timez...

mjwilson

Yep Alien Bodies is one of the best.

Camp Tramp

I'm a little worried about Lawrence Miles. His last tweet was in February and it really seemed like he was cracking up.

purlieu

Quote from: TwinPeaks on April 09, 2020, 12:19:03 PM
Do you think you'll read the eighth Doctor books purlieu? I've been meaning to get round to them for ages.
Yup, once I finish the New Adventures. Doing the New Doctor Adventures after that. At some point I'm going to try and fit the Benny New Adventures, Short Trips, and various spin offs (Time Lord Fairy Tales, Missy Chronicles, Harry Sullivan's War, Earthlink Dilemma, etc., etc.) into it too.

Somewhere in the region of 400 books remaining. I'm about 310 in. So a ways to go yet.

VelourSpirit

Quote from: purlieu on April 09, 2020, 07:50:00 PM
Yup, once I finish the New Adventures. Doing the New Doctor Adventures after that. At some point I'm going to try and fit the Benny New Adventures, Short Trips, and various spin offs (Time Lord Fairy Tales, Missy Chronicles, Harry Sullivan's War, Earthlink Dilemma, etc., etc.) into it too.

Somewhere in the region of 400 books remaining. I'm about 310 in. So a ways to go yet.
I don't know how you do it! Wish I could be a pacy, undistracted reader. I've mostly just read fuckin forum posts and Jon Ronson books recently. Think I'll go through some VNA highlights though soon.
Oh btw just googled for a thread from 2 years ago to see who it was that recommended the band Spraydog, it was you so thanks a lot for that I really love them!

purlieu

I'm never comfortable unless I've got a book on the go. I've actually got a pile of about 200 non-Who books here as well, to keep me from getting bored.
Ah, Spraydog, a completely under-appreciated group. Glad to hear that! :)

purlieu

Ok so

Doctor Who and the Pescatons.

Contrary to my prediction, this is actually superior to the book version, for two reasons: 1. It's shorter; 2. It doesn't include all the weird and horrible sections about The Doctor being able to see Zor's "thought worms" wriggling around in his brain.

I imagine this would probably have been a pretty exciting prospect back in the '70s when it was released, but out of that context it's very little more than an audiobook of Tom Baker reading a very underdeveloped invasion-of-Earth story. The extended montage of screaming and roaring was very unpleasant, and the music was very creepy, but otherwise it was all very ineffective and frankly a bit boring.

Not an especially auspicious start to the format.

purlieu

Slipback

Now, I quite enjoyed the novel of this, with Saward's Douglas Adams aping in full flow. It's not something that works well in audio form. Bizarrely, Nicola Bryant is the best part of the production, with a reasonably tense performance. Colin is decent, without the opportunity to play up to the cameras. The rest of the cast sounds like people who've never acted before, and the Adams-style humour is largely limited to the exceptionally tedious female computer character. The plot itself is almost impossible to follow, and the whole thing feels like it's been done on a budget of 76p. Which is probably true.

purlieu


QuoteDoctor Who: Shadow of the Sun to be released in May

The first full-cast, full-length Doctor Who audio drama to have been recorded entirely during lockdown will be released on 12 May.

Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and John Leeson star in Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sun, an exciting Fourth Doctor mystery adventure written by Rob Valentine. This is the first full-cast Doctor Who audio drama to have been produced using Big Finish's remote recording techniques, and it boasts among its guest cast the brilliant Fenella Woolgar (Inside Number 9, Call the Midwife) as terminally bored socialite, Lady Malina Rigel-Smythe. She is one of many passengers on board a luxury liner with a difference.

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sunis now available to pre-order exclusively at the Big Finish website, from just £8.99.

After an accident, the TARDIS lands on a luxury star-liner. Leaving their ship to repair itself, the Doctor, Leela and K9 find themselves facing a great terror: mingling at a cocktail party. Something seems awry behind the pleasantries however. Guests are going missing, and equipment is breaking down. When the Doctor investigates further he discovers that the star-liner is literally on course for disaster. But no-one seems surprised by this information, still less troubled. What's going on? And can the Doctor and his friends save everyone... when nobody wants to be saved?

Director Nicholas Briggs said: "In Shadow of the Sun, we have a great, well-made script by Rob Valentine. A lovely slice of science fantasy. It has a great central idea and a cast of superb characters. At its core, there's a fanatical belief in something that is patent nonsense, but the Doctor, Leela and K9 find themselves to be the only people who know the truth. That's a great set-up! "And it also has a flavour of the often talked about 'base under siege' setting, which adds an appealing claustrophobia to the storytelling. It makes the situation more extreme and therefore more of an exciting ride for the audience."

Writer Robert Valentine added: "This is a story inspired by the modern trend of giving the same value to opinion as fact –including everything from climate change denial to the anti-vaccination movement –but specifically the recent (and ultimately fatal) rocket launch experiments intended to prove that the Earth is flat.The Doctor is about to find himself in a situation where the true enemy is pseudo-scientific hubris, and for once it might be an enemy he hasn't the tools to overcome."

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sun is now available to pre-order exclusively at the Big Finish website, as a collector's edition CD (priced at £10.99) or digital download (price at £8.99). Please note that Big Finish is currently operating a digital-first release schedule.

The mailout of collector's edition CDs will be delayed, but all purchases of this release unlock a digital copy that can be immediately downloaded or played on the Big Finish app from the release date.

Feels a little exploitative, cashing in on the "made during lockdown" trend. It's not like they've not got a huge backlog of stories ready to release.

mjwilson

I don't really see who it's exploiting or why it's cashing in. Isn't this just what BF normally do?

purlieu

No, releases are generally done to a schedule and recorded months or even years in advance.
Maybe "exploitative" was a bit of a harsh term, but it does feel like the reason behind it was more "let's make a story under lockdown" rather than it being a story that they really wanted to tell.

mjwilson

Ah right, I'd forgotten that they have a stash of Tom Baker stories recorded up until 2043.

daf

Speaking of future Fourth Doctor seasons - I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get at least one with the re-cast Sara & Harry after the 'Return of the Cybermen' lost story.

Sample clip of Sadie Miller as Sarah on this page - here



QuoteSadie : "The fans of Doctor Who have always been so kind and generous to me and to my family. It was always a part of my life growing up, I was never not aware of it. People have always been very kind in letting us come along for the ride really, through conventions and now things like Big Finish and, after mum passed away, the outpouring of love for her has been lovely."

daf

#325
Big Finish Tweet along for Chimes of Midnight from 7pm tonight - Soundcloud 


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tonight's tweeters :
ROBERT SHEARMAN : @ShearmanRobert [Writer]
BARNABY EDWARDS : @BarnabyEdwards [Director]
INDIA FISHER : @IndFisher [Charley Pollard]
PAUL MCGANN : @bigfinish [The Doctor]
KENNY SMITH : @FinishedZine [Vortex Magazine Editor]
Combined link : #PlumPudding

daf

#326
Part 1
Quote from: Chimes Of MidnightROBERT SHEARMAN : Just a few minutes to go. Bit nervous. First time hearing this play of mine in 18 years! What if I don't like it? #PlumPudding
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Here's the advert for The Chimes of Midnight, which appeared in Doctor Who Magazine.



- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Okay. Here we go...
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : And we're off!
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : The Chimes of Midnight was Rob Shearman's second script for @bigfinish, after The Holy Terror, featuring the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : The Chimes of Midnight. However stressful your lockdown may be, it's probably going better than this one.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman pitched this story to producer Gary Russell as a mix between Upstairs, Downstairs and Sapphire & Steel. To underline the point, the names of the characters Shaughnessy and Mrs Baddeley are derived from Alfred Shaughnessy and Angela Baddeley, the script editor, and the actress who played cook Mrs Bridges in Upstairs, Downstairs.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I set the entire story inside my own house. I live in a big Victorian house - and all over the walls there are these old lumps that used to be bells for summoning servants. I was always intrigued by them. Besides which, the house used to be a veterinary surgery long ago, and I like to pretend that the bumps and groans in the night are the ghosts of old animals. I therefore know the geography of the house very well, and can tell you with absolute certainty that the Tardis materialises inside my downstairs toilet.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Rob learned on October 4 2001 that the deadline to write what would become Chimes was brought forward due to Paul McGann's schedule, so it clashed with a commission Rob had already accepted for a comedy for Alan Ayckbourn.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : This was my first piece of audio direction.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : You were astonishing. So calm! I was very nervous. You were brilliant.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS :When Gary Russell phoned in November 2000 to offer me The Chimes of Midnight, I barely drew breath before accepting. I'd been at university with @ShearmanRobert, so I knew how good his writing was.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Gary Russell: "This one scared me half to death when I first read it and I really wanted to direct it, too! But I gave this one to Barney and he did a great job. Poor Barney didn't get to do much casting because we had an ensemble cast for the week I'd mostly pulled together, and I think he just had to cast the one part in the end. Barnaby did a brilliant job of it and got some amazing performances from the cast. It's rightly still thought of as a classic Big Finish play."
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Oddly enough, long before I came on the scene, the house was shared by my wife and her best friend, Katy Manning. So the Doctor and Charley are now in the room where Jo Grant used to perform her ablutions.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's jam! Oh, that's a relief! I thought - I don't remember starting this gory!
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman: "Of the six scripts I've written for Big Finish, it's not only the one I least enjoyed writing, it's also the only one that I genuinely despaired of. The month I spent on Chimes was probably one of the unhappiest I've ever spent professionally. I would, as always, go into London with my notebook, and work my way through the dialogue - but I've never felt less confidence in a script, and never had such an urge every night returning home to tear up all the work. When I finally finished it, typed it all up, and sent it off to Gary, I believed that he would reject it. And none too sympathetically either."
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I'm going to confess right now. I haven't listened to this story since it was released. So I'm hoping to be very surprised by all the twists and turns. If I'm *not* surprised, I intend to get very angry with the writer.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : I really love the way Rob Shearman has the Doctor identify the time period using a tin of custard powder – it's so economical and witty. The only reason I asked Rob to change 'First World War' to 'Great War' was to maintain the script's aesthetic elegance.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Did I say First World War? That sounds daft! In my defence, I wrote this in a terrible hurry. And I was born in 1919, so just after it all ended.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Charley was whipped out of time in 1930, nine years before anyone realized that the 1914-18 conflict was not going to be the 'War To End All Wars'. I felt that the Doctor would instinctively choose the term most readily understood by his pre-WWII companion.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : For years as a kid, I thought the carol said 'singers', not 'sinners'. We weren't very big on sin in my childhood.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : 'That's me in the dust' is such a poignant line.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : One idea for the play that didn't quite happen was for it to take place in real-time. This came from a film Rob had seen called Nick of Time, which did the same.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I'm glad that right from the get-go, Charley is pretty horrible about the scullery maid.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : India and Paul are really selling this weird descriptive dialogue!
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Stop with the false modesty Rob, it's bloody brilliant!
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : As all true Christmas pud fans will know (Rob himself hates them), plum puddings are steamed rather than baked – a nicety which I entirely failed to notice when I first read the script. It was originally 'in the oven'. It was ‪@NicholasPegg‬ who first drew my attention to the pudding cooking method and, since he's the only person I know who actually makes a Christmas pudding each year, who was I to disagree?
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's true. I knew so little about the creation of plum puddings. I deferred to Barnaby's plum pudding expertness.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Christmas wouldn't be Christmas! I expect we'll hear that phrase once or twice more.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Definitely fruit.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I found it really fun to make the characters slightly caricatured by having them overuse certain words and phrases. It sets up the idea something isn't quite right.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : The cooking instructions come straight out of an Edwardian edition of Mrs Beeton belonging to my mother. Bless her.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : An artistic preview for the story, illustrated by Martin Geraghty, appeared in issue 314 of Doctor Who Magazine



- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : nicked that technique from 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'! There's more Perrin in this than Upstairs Downstairs, really.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Every Dr Who should have a bit of turkey hunting!
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : There's a fun atmosphere to this, isn't there? I was really busking at this point. I didn't want the story to start until episode two - atmosphere was all I had!
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Barnaby Edwards: "One of the advantages of having a script by such a writer is that it makes the director's job considerably easier. The challenge of Chimes, therefore, lay not with the script but with the other half of my producer chum's maxim: the actors."
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Years later, when I was acting at The Globe in London, Sue Wallace (Mrs Baddeley) was in the cast too. Such a joy of an actress.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Oh, I see. I'm doing the Agatha Christie thing. Giving everyone motives!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : D'you reckon your man stole this idea for Downton Abbey?
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Barnaby Edwards: "Rob had written a wonderfully subtle chamber play which demanded meticulously precise performances from its cast. Not only would the actors have to navigate the labyrinthine complexities of the story's setting and timeline, they would also have to be able to repeat the exact delivery of certain lines and replay certain scenes almost word-for-word with subtle but important changes. It was going to be a tall order."
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I wrote Chimes very speedily over a single week. Day one would be part one. Day two panicking because I had no idea what would happen next.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : So the fun hearing this is - I know I'm throwing down tons of clues all over the place, for *me* as a writer, to work out what to do next!
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : mean, I'm quite sure that whole bit with the cracker jokes was my offering a potential later subplot. Which I dare say I ignore.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Mrs Bradley's waving that knife
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I used to have a chauffeur like this. I had to sack him. He was desperately immoral.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Oh, here's a game. I love cliffhangers, and I know that every one of them is a direct homage to one I admire from the classic series. See if you can spot them.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Rob's script was staggeringly complete when it arrived on my doorstep. It was 99% studio ready - culinary adjustments aside - and one of the most perfect scripts that have ever landed in my directorial lap.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : That's so kind. I honestly thought it was a mess - that the fact most of it is vamping on the spot was really obvious.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Rob had written a wonderfully subtle chamber play which demanded meticulously precise performances from its cast. Casting was my biggest challenge. Not only would the actors have to navigate the labyrinthine complexities of the story's setting & timeline, they would also have to be able to repeat the exact delivery of certain lines & replay certain scenes almost word-for-word with subtle but important changes.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : The relationship between Edith and Charley, I know, is the key to all this.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : I'd already acted with Paul & India on the previous Eighth Doctor season, so I had no qualms on their account. Paul & India are extremely easy to work with and have a great chemistry, and I knew that they'd be more than capable of meeting the demands of the script.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Kiss her you fool
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : My main concern was that the necessities of 'through-casting' – that's to say, where an actor appears in two or more plays – dictated that three of the remaining five characters would not be cast by me: Shaughnessy, Mrs Baddeley and Frederick. However, @twilightstreets came up trumps with Lennox Greaves and Sue Wallace (both of whom I already knew and admired), and with Bob Curbishley. With these actors already in place, I set about casting the remaining two roles of Edith and Mary.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I find it so sad that Edith is so grateful to Charley's apparent kindness - when Charley carelessly doesn't even really notice.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Burn the furniture
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Cliffhanger! ‪#PlumPudding

daf

Part 2
Quote from: Chimes Of MidnightBARNABY EDWARDS : Here's a map of the house which I used to help both the actors and the sound designer.. #PlumPudding



- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Anyone spot what I ripped off?
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : So - this is Space Museum episode one. Which I think is an astonishing, mind-expanding cliffhanger.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I love the thump of the body!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Even a stopped clock..
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : There now follows the original outline for The Chimes of Midnight... Get ready for lots of tweets!
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : The TARDIS arrives in the servants' quarters of a Victorian house. In typical Upstairs Downstairs fashion, the 'downstairs' of the mansion is the domain of the staff: there is the austere and sour butler, the old cook whose bark is worse than her bite, the nervous and stammering scullery maid, the rather proud ladies' maid with ideas above her station, and the debonair but somewhat caddish chauffeur.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : This is fun. The absolute OTT callousness of the staff - everyone reacting like comic caricatures. Enormous joy to write!
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Enormous joy to listen to too
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : I love Rob's writing. Edith was too stupid to know that it was impossible to drown herself.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : One of the great bits of fun you can have writing is reversing the typical reactions people ought to have. And there is a good reason here. It shows things are absurd.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Normally we'd have two days to record a four-part Big Finish story, but we only had a day and a half on this one. I therefore scheduled it down to the last minute.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITHIt is Christmas Eve, 1915. The Doctor and Charley are welcomed quite easily by the household - a little too easily by the Doctor, who is used to more suspicion than this. It is late in the evening and the house is cut off by the snow - and the hours towards midnight are ticking away... As the clock strikes ten there is a scream. And the old cook is found murdered. There are the usual recriminations amongst the staff, as they accuse each other - but no one accuses the Doctor or Charley, who take on the role of sleuths with their full consent.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I fancied doing a murder mystery. But the problem is, we only have a small cast - and once you kill people off, it's a waste of resources. I thought it'd be more economical to do a murder mystery where the corpses keep popping back to life to get bumped off all over again.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : It's beginning to cost a lot like Christmas
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Lennox does that so well! Noisy, lazy, ugly! Made me laugh.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Doctor Poirot
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's the absolutely casual way they all respond to death - and the speed at which they always assert it's suicide - that is fun. Because it's funny, but is a real *clue*.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : The cook may have caught the chauffeur having an affair with the scullery maid and threatened to tell the master of the house - the ladies' maid always hated the cook who mocked the fact that she had ideas above her station. There are plenty of clues and motives for the Doctor to pore over, and he begins to relax and enjoy himself, putting aside his suspiciions about the place. But as the clock chimes eleven there is another murder... this time, the chauffeur.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I remember doing this. I thought, if I write in 'time experiments' as a solution here, I can't resort to it.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : forgot little girl Charley - is it just me or is that a bit freaky?!
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Enticing. And freaky.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : At this stage of the script, I *genuinely* didn't know who the culprit was, or what was going on. I was really enjoying the jokes. But desperately hoping I'd find an explanation.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : But at midnight everything returns to the way it was a few hours before. All the household are still alive, it is still Christmas Eve, and all welcome the Doctor and Charley as though they have never seen them before. The Doctor and Charley find themselves in a unique position - they can now try to solve the murder of the cook before it has even happened. To this end, they make sure they are by her side at 10 o'clock when the grandfather clock upstairs chimes... but there is another scream from elsewhere. And they find that this time the murder victim is the butler.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : During this episode I thought, oh, this works! ...But what on earth can I do in part three??
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : When I arrived at Christchurch Studios around lunchtime on Wednesday (17th January 2001), it rapidly became clear that not only were we going to start recording later than anticipated, but we would be lucky if we managed to get into the studio at all that day.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : The previous story, Invaders From Mars, had been experiencing technical difficulties and was over-running madly – I remember having a fleeting encounter in the green room with a haggard-looking and deeply apologetic ‪@Markgatiss‬. As it turned out, Invaders ate into a good two-thirds of our recording time that first day, and thus we lost around a fifth of our total studio time for Chimes.  Fortunately, the schedule helped us recoup a significant part of this loss, but it was still touch and go right up until the moment we wrapped, bang on schedule, at 6pm the following evening.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : But rather than buckle under the pressure, I think the cast took strength from the situation and redoubled their efforts to do justice to Rob's story. Everyone loved the script and was passionate about getting it right. And even though we were up against the clock, I actively encouraged the actors to experiment, for if they played it safe then Rob's delicate soufflé of wit and mystery would rapidly deflate into a leaden and lifeless lump. So despite the time factor, I remember the atmosphere in the studio being one of surprising calm, with everyone in relaxed and jocular mood.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Funny I don't remember the time constraints, I just remember it being such a brilliant play to record and huge fun
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Here's the schedule for the first afternoon.  And for day two...

 

BARNABY EDWARDS : And here are the inserts and wildtracks.



- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Paul and India are extraordinary in this. Just saying. They're really funny - but let it be dangerous.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : It's all in the writing!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : I miss threepenny bits
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : The Doctor has disquieting ideas that something is very wrong. He tries to go upstairs - but it's the only time that the household turn aggressively on him. At eleven o'clock he tries to ensure that the household are all together - but the lights go out at the crucial moment, and when power is restored, there is another corpse. This time it's the butler who was having an affair with the scullery maid. Most frightening of all for the Doctor is the way that Charley has stopped being an outsider to the household, but seems to have become one of them... - she calmly claims a history with them, and they with her.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I love the way that Juliet playing Mary doesn't even shift a gear when she corrects herself. It's so odd!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : He said Tesla
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It was such a relief for me when I worked out who Edward Grove could be.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Shifty eyes work so well on radio
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I had this amusing idea that everyone should be horribly killed in a festive manner. I think the plum pudding bit was all I could come up with!
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Post-production was a similar frenzy of concentrated creativity. Although there was over a year between the recording of Chimes & its release, we didn't start post-production until, appropriately, Christmas (less than 6 weeks before it was due at the pressing plant).
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : As I recall, both Andy Hardwick and Russell Stone at ERS had read and liked the script before recording and had asked Gary specially if they could work on Chimes. Together Andy and Russell made Herculean efforts to bring out every nuance of Rob's script, from perfecting exactly the right noise for regurgitated Christmas pudding, to re-orchestrating Hark, the Herald-Angels Sing to fit the actors' unaccompanied vocals.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : He takes her in the TARDIS, and they try to escape - but he always lands back in the same position, still waiting midnight. As the hour draws near, he takes Charley and rushes upstairs despite the household's protests... and finds himself still within the servants' quarters he just left behind. Only this time it's no longer 1915, but Christmas Eve 1940. None of the characters have aged, and are going through the same rote of casual murders and Christmas preparations as before - except this time the talk is of Nazi bombings not Trench battles.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : This bit with the rules - it's genuinely a warning to myself, not to cheat. I have to use my own clues. It's weird to find your own script talking to you.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I've been very harsh on Chimes over the years, because I was *frantic* writing this. I got so scared that I couldn't solve it.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : This is pretty dark isn't it?
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : (I remember Steven Moffat telling me years later how he got similarly stuck writing Blink. How to find the clever thing in plain sight that'll get you out of the corner you've painted yourself into.)
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Edward Grove might be a tube station
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : The Doctor is trapped in a house which seems to be going round and round in a loose cycle. There are more murders on the hour, but he now has a bigger mystery to solve. Because wherever he is, it certainly isn't a Victorian house in the fashionable part of London. Forcing himself up the stairs again, he finds himself in the servants' quarters, but this time in 1965. The characters are slightly different to reflect the age they live in - the scullery maid is a lot more confident as the years go by, the butler less respected - but the same basic cycle remains.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : The original idea I pitched was that every episode the Doctor would go upstairs, and find the staff looped in another time zone. Second World War, the 1960s, etc. Gary Russell loved everything about the idea, except that idea. So I determined to loop it around the Edwardian setting entirely.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's the almost pained awkwardness that Shaughnessy feels that I love - he doesn't *want* to be a threat, he wants to be a good butler.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : This was all recorded at Christchurch Studios in Bristol, an ex-BBC studio with a magnificent central recording room.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : And on the top floor of the building was... Massive Attack.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Another cliffhanger on its way. What did I steal from here?
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : men multitasking?! "I can concentrate on millions of things at once"
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Oh yes, I liked this bit a lot.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : This is actually how Britain is run
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : And Charley has by this time been absorbed entirely into the scenario - in a shock moment, when the Doctor dares the household to produce their employers, Charley is brought forward as the lady of the house. And the expectation clearly is that the Doctor is the lord - a role he finds himself irresistibly drawn towards. As the clock reaches its third midnight, the Doctor realises that he cannot escape from the house either upwards or downwards - only sideways. And that he must engineer events so that it is he that is the next murder victim...
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : The sound design and music are *so* good here.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Heading towards a climax...
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Oh, that gave me a real chill. I'm so pleased! That's so well directed and produced!
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : It's an amazing ep end!!
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Halfway through! I'm rather enjoying this! It's funny, I can remember actually writing specific bits.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : It's the lockdown #PlumPudding
- - - - - - - - - -

daf

#328
Part 3
Quote from: Chimes Of MidnightBARNABY EDWARDS : And we're off again... #PlumPudding
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman : "It was only in writing the beginning of part three that I realised who Edward Grove actually was - so it's important I seed that revelation into the first half of the story somewhere. There are lots of bits which sounded spooky in my head, but which just don't work on paper - the Doctor goes upstairs, only to find through the door steps leading back down to where he came from, which is weird, but can't be expressed dramatically. I try to cut out bits of pointless exposition, and only get defeated badly once - which is when Charley is on her own and finds new writing in the dust. I deliver my script four days late - on 4 December. And immediately wish it were better."
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Ooh, Doctor Who's on again!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : No-cluedo
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Many of you got it. This is all inspired by the end of Kinda part three. One of my favourite stories. Shown on my 12th birthday! So there.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I always have fun writing sink plungers.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : best plunger being pulled off face sound effect
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It was such a joy getting to parody episode two. I did wonder whether I could get away with just doing it all again, but sillier. 
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Mrs Beeton's plum pludding recipe...



- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I had worked out who Edward Grove was by now. I was so relieved.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : The music for this story by Russell Stone won best musical score for an audio adventure at Panopticon convention in 2003.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Russell Stone: "It was thanks to Andy that Chimes came our way. I don't think BF have a 'grand plan' for which studio does the post-production for which story, it's more a matter of who's available at the time the story has been recorded. It was there 'on the shelf', and Andy asked for it (I think). And to this day I am so glad that we got to do it because I regard my score for Chimes as very much my own personal benchmark."
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Russell Stone: "I remember walking through my front door with the script in my hand, casting a casual eye over the first couple of pages, only to find myself sitting on my haunches 20 minutes later still mesmerised. I didn't think Rob Shearman could write anything darker than The Holy Terror but with Chimes I think he took personal distress and humiliation to a new level!"
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Russell Stone: "As chance would have it, I wrote the bulk of the score in the days immediately after the planes went into the Twin Towers. There must be some of my own feelings of fear and sadness in the score. Every time I took a break from composing and switched on the TV, there were those horrific scenes, again and again, drilling a hole into my mind. And then I'd be back with Charley saying: 'I can feel... fire. Burning. Hot on my face. Then rushing at me... People screaming. Wood snapping, breaking. The ground rushing ever closer. I knew I was dead'."
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Russell Stone: "There's a really odd aspect to the music that I hadn't realised was there until I heard it through the studio monitors. It has a kind of 'tremor' caused by the effects setting I had on the sounds I was using. I was anxious to try and correct it until Andy said he thought I'd done it intentionally. It was a spooky co-incidence – 'serendipity' if you like."
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman : "The music and post-production is everything I could want it to be, treading that very fine line between being self-mocking and genuinely disturbing. I knew Russell Stone and the guys at ERS were terrific after their work on The Holy Terror - but here they create a complete soundscape which makes nonsense of my initial fears that the claustrophobic setting would be boring!"
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Andy Hardwick : "The sound design was easier in one sense, in that it was so well written (I'd fallen in love with all the characters, even the clock!) that hopefully it would be difficult for me to ruin. But in the same sense it felt like a bit of a masterpiece that I didn't want to 'blemish' with my sound design. Though once I'd heard some of the score that Russell was writing for it (I think it was 'Edith's theme' that really got me going) it all started making sense somehow and kind of 'came alive' in a truly wonderful (and slightly terrifying) way."
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I relaxed a bit with this episode - I knew now what I was working towards, and could prop it up with some truly ludicrously comedy deaths.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : They confessed! I can't keep up
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : One of the cleverest things about @BarnabyEdwards  direction is the way that he gets the cast to repeat the rhythms from their previous lines. So even as they're offering threats, they are beautifully, eerily absurd.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Juliet Warner and Rob Curbishley are so brilliant
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's as if it's the only Christmas carol the writer knows as well.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : What is it you can't face?
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Because time was so short - one day and two hours - I elected to record all the rehearsal takes. Because the cast knew this, they really went for it and some of these takes are literally the first time they'd spoken those words aloud. So good!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Poppet..like in The Crucible
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I'll be honest - when I wrote this, it was before Storm Warning came out, so I was writing Charley a bit blind. And unfairly, I resented her a little for being this member of the upper classes, travelling about with a Time *Lord*.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Wow never knew that! It's Charley through and through
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : So I really wanted to bring out that although the staff say she's kind, and Edith was devoted, actually Charley is culpable. She didn't care *enough*.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : I always thought she just had the self obsession of youth
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I think that's very fair. But I love the way you imperiously judge the staff in the early eps - and soften and empathise on the way.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : I think this house has a priest hole
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : @IndFisher is so brilliant at bringing that out honestly - and yet you forgive her and love her. (I wrote Scherzo for her as thank you.)
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : For which I'm eternally grateful x
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Sadism. Oh goody
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I must just add - Paul is thrillingly good in this. We did it at such speed! And yet he gives the story such a sense of pace, and *direction*, as he puzzles it through. Perfect.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Resist the monsters, Doctor
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : I really liked recording this with no 'names'. It meant you didn't know who would live, who would die, who was important, who was a red herring.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Edward wood wood
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Playing Frederick the chauffeur was Robert Curbishley : "It was only the second or third thing I'd done for Big Finish, but I do remember looking forward to meeting Paul - I mean Withnail & I... Come on, who wouldn't? And I'd never been to Bristol. I say looking forward, but actually I'm one of those people who's really crap at meeting well-known people, so secretly I always dreaded it. If I remember correctly in one of the lunch breaks at a local cafe Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg turned up - I think they were recording something for Big Finish - and everyone was a bit OMG (before OMG)."
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Oh yes I remember being ludicrously star struck by Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Mark Gatiss!
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Robert Curbishley : "For once I was quite cool about it, simply because Spaced hadn't crossed my consciousness and I didn't really know who they were. Well I do now! How the hell did I not see Spaced the first time around??? They were both very lovely, by the way. There is just no way that anyone can know that a piece of work will come to define a company or a body of work but everyone enjoyed that it wasn't a run of the mill 'chase them down the corridors' script, it's quality was very evident. There is just no way that anyone can know that a piece of work will come to define a company or a body of work but everyone enjoyed that it wasn't a run of the mill 'chase them down the corridors' script, it's quality was very evident."
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Robert Curbishley : "Working with Paul and India was just fine. Paul, as I remember, was very reserved and lurked behind a daily paper in the green room and occasionally stuck his head out and chipped in to the conversation... Not in a rude or arrogant fashion, simply a quiet man doing his thing and allowing other people to do theirs...in a slightly louder way! India is lovely to work with and we got on really well she is very funny and a great laugh to be with. I recall we had plenty of fun."
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I love the idea that the villain doesn't quite get there in time! It feels like a piece of theatre, with an actor racing around the wings after a costume change.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : There we are! I found the villain!
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : I felt the original line didn't quite make it clear enough that we were talking about an address, so I asked Rob if we could say 'Number 22' instead.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I *live* in Edward Grove! It's only just hit me. Not sure how I feel about that.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Shaughnessy and Mrs Baddeley owe a great deal to Hudson and Mrs Bridges from Upstairs, Downstairs (the 1971 TV series). Lennox decided to make Shaughnessy Irish rather than Scottish to distinguish him from Gordon Jackson's Hudson.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Oh, this is really fun. We've come to kill the Doctor. Again, lovely - it's all being played so light and jolly.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Climax coming up...
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : And Charley has been absorbed.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : love the twist of Charley cheerily telling them to carry on killing the Dr!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Killing's too good for him
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : We play the same trick - the rush to midnight - but it really works, doesn't it? So tense! Very happy. Glad this works.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Haha! Gotcha! False climax. I really wanted people to think that was the end of the episode.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Bung a Bob for a Big Ben bong
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : The comedy absolutely breaks down now. Everyone fast forwarding through their reactions.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Fork handles
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : I've lived in a house like this
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : The first Doctor Who story I ever saw was Castrovalva. Arguably, I spent most of my time at Big Finish writing it over and over again. (Ironically, given the subject.)
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : House music
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : This is how evolution works. Really. It does. Really. (See also Scherzo. And my understanding of DNA in Dalek.)
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : I wonder if India Fisher - voice of MasterChef - has ever had to narrate a contestant's attempt to cook a plum pudding.
- - - - - - - - - -
INDIA FISHER : Ha ha, surprisingly after 15 yrs I haven't! I did once have to say "everything now rests on her citrus pudding"
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Ah, here comes a paradox
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : Another cliffhanger coming! Again, what is my rip off? I mean, homage. Homage!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Who's Amber?
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN :  If I were the Doctor, I'd usually run away in part three. I wuld be a useless hero.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Scullery! Blimey!
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's a bit disguised - but this is absolutely Horror of Fang Rock. Where the Doctor has locked the Rutan in... with them!
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : The house always wins
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : And this is Logopolis. I'm just an old hack, really. Taking old Doctor Who stories, and sticking Christmas carols and comedy sink plungers in. #PlumPudding
- - - - - - - - - -

daf

#329
Part 4
Quote from: Chimes Of MidnightKENNY SMITH : This story was released in February 2002. It was recorded at the Christchurch Studios in Bristol. When it came to recording at the Christchurch Studios, there was a slight problem. When the writer and director arrived at lunchtime on Wednesday January 17 2001, the previous story, Invaders from Mars, was still recording. There had been technical difficulties and was now running late as a result, with director Mark Gatiss very apologetic to the team working on the next play.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Gary Russell : "It was meant to be the first story in the second McGann season because I wanted something light to kick off the season. When Rob delivered the script, it became clear that Mark Gatiss's script was far better as a season opener."
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Barnaby Edwards : "Invaders ate into a good two-thirds of our recording time that first day, and thus we lost around a fifth of our total studio time for Chimes. Fortunately, the schedule helped us recoup a significant part of this loss, but it was still touch and go right up until the moment we wrapped, bang on schedule, at 6pm the following evening."

   

- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Better to arrive expectantly than to travel #PlumPudding
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : The Chimes of Midnight is not, as many people think, a direct quote from Shakespeare's Henry IV Part II. The correct Falstaff line is 'we have heard the chimes at midnight'.
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : All my Big Finish stories have deliberate tonal shifts sooner or later. Part four becomes something much more about emotion and affirmation of life.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : I bet it's David Bradley
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : This would make a wonderful stage show, wouldn't it?
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : You can probably only get away with a talking hunk of brickwork on Doctor Who. I love Doctor Who.  Every time I've tried to write stories about talking houses for other formats, it never works.
- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Edward Grove is voiced by Lennox Greaves (Shaughnessy). Such a great performance.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Lennox Greaves (Mr Shaughnessy) and Sue Wallace (Mrs Baddeley) are married in real life.
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Gary Russell : "I always want to single out Lennox Graves and Sue Wallace, his wife, who I had worked with years before on Making Out for the BBC. We had done one with Lennox before, The Shadow of the Scourge, and he said his wife would love to do one too. Sue got in touch and I immediately said to Barnaby Edwards, 'Let's get Sue in'."
- - - - - - - - - -
KENNY SMITH : Sue Wallace and Lennox Greaves also feature in the story that follows The Chimes of Midnight, Seasons of Fear.



- - - - - - - - - -
BARNABY EDWARDS : Louise Rolfe's performance as Edith is astonishing. Even after all these years it remains one of the greatest performances I've ever had the great fortune to direct.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Time actually moves quicker upstairs
- - - - - - - - - -
ROBERT SHEARMAN : I know realistically there's no *practical * paradox in Edith dying or not dying. But there is an *emotional* one, so I defend it.
- - - - - - - - - -
PAUL MCGANN : Anyone remember the Magic Boomerang
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KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman : "Looking back now at that time, I find my fears rather peculiar. Everyone at Big Finish was so enthusiastic about Chimes that I couldn't believe it - I thought they were trying to humour me. I went to the recording in Bristol, and met the cast. They were enthusiastic about it too. And then, when I heard it being performed, and saw the first hour or so upstairs in the control room with my head in my hands, squirming at every line. And then, after a while, I began to relax. I began to laugh with the actors as they found the comedy. I began to share their excitement as they discovered the play's very particular tone."
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KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman : "It's common for a writer to say that he's grateful to a cast and crew - but, in this case, I do believe they saved my bacon. I'd never met Paul McGann or India Fisher before, but the chemistry between them, and the real warmth they brought to my lines, made me desperate to write for them again some day." ‪
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PAUL MCGANN : Parasite..good film
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : Whenever you write a Who, and you don't pivot the story on an *emotional* crisis, you're missing such a trick. It's such a joyous, energetic, sentimental and moving old thing, Doctor Who. You ignore all that at your peril. Everybody reduced to their function. Devoid of personality. Awful
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PAUL MCGANN : Does the Doc take sugar?
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BARNABY EDWARDS : Lots of @bigfinish stories are recorded in connected but separate booths, so we can tweak people's performances in postproduction (Actor A: take one; Actress B: take four; etc.). This was all recorded in a single room. These are single takes of whole scenes.
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INDIA FISHER : It was a thrilling way to work
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PAUL MCGANN : You're everyone that ever cared
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : Louise Rolfe as Edith is so good, isn't she? Terribly moving, in the way she holds back the bitterness.
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PAUL MCGANN : Oh Lordy
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BARNABY EDWARDS : I love Andy Hardwick's ghostly vocal effects. The characters shift from reality to memories to ghosts. You're never quite sure what is real. So careful and so clever.
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : I'd forgotten that all the staff are reflections of Edith's life. I think that's a nice twist. The way we feed off the servant's life.
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PAUL MCGANN : This is getting ancient Egyptian
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PAUL MCGANN : Daddy!
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PAUL MCGANN : Every death you take
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PAUL MCGANN : She drank bleach
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BARNABY EDWARDS : Because Edward Grove is using Shaughnessy's vocal cords, Lennox brilliantly suggested that there should still be a trace of Irish in his voice.
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : Inevitably, like in visual Who, the monster isn't as scary once you show it. But I could only keep Edward in the shadows so long - and hopefully the concept is enough.
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BARNABY EDWARDS : I asked Rob to add this bit. I think I wanted something to refresh the listeners' memories as to the nature of Charley's being on the R101, and of her having suddenly disappeared from the servants' lives at Edward Grove.
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BARNABY EDWARDS : I also asked Rob to resurrect Charley's Diary of an Edwardian Adventuress. How else could anyone know that Charley had been on the R101 in the first place? She was, after all, disguised as a boy when she boarded.
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : I'm glad you did. We need it.
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PAUL MCGANN : You spin me right round, baby
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : It helped enormously, when so much of this references Storm Warning, that I had a director @BarnabyEdwards who was actually an actor in it!
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PAUL MCGANN : Who indeed
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PAUL MCGANN : The entire two hours
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KENNY SMITH : Barnaby Edwards : "Everyone loved the script and was passionate about getting it right. And even though we were up against the clock, I actively encouraged the actors to experiment."
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KENNY SMITH : Rob Shearman : "As a writer you count yourself lucky if you get a director who has a sympathy for your lines and understands their rhythm. But Barney was wholly on the play's wavelength, to ever little shift between comedy and horror and back again."
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BARNABY EDWARDS : We did have a chat about putting a vocal effect on Edward Grove, but I thought it would be creepier if we went with no effect - just the actor's performance. It is, after all, an entity using someone's vocal cords.
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PAUL MCGANN : It's you he wants...offer him yourself
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BARNABY EDWARDS : There's a little bit of rewriting here. I asked Rob to make the Doctor's 'stuck-between-two-worlds' predicament a little clear
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PAUL MCGANN : He's a toff and no mistake
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BARNABY EDWARDS : We reordered this list of the Doctor and Charley's heroic achievements, because I liked the idea of puncturing its cumulative pomposity with a piece of bathos about finding a nice edition of Oliver Twist in a second-hand bookshop.
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PAUL MCGANN : Choose life
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INDIA FISHER : love this speech of the Dr's
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PAUL MCGANN : Look into my eyes, my eyes
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BARNABY EDWARDS : Paul and India are tremendous in this bit.
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : This bit is a love letter to Doctor Who, really. Dead on screen since 1989, and I missed it, and I never thought it was coming back.
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : It's the triumph of one downtrodden person over all the evils through her life that have tried to crush her.
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BARNABY EDWARDS : Lennox had to extend those final Edward Grove vocals himself - no effects, no music, just Lennox stretching his vowels and shouting in a room in Bristol.
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : I love the fact that happiness isn't ever *guaranteed* because you choose life. But at least you have the possibility of it.
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PAUL MCGANN : After midnight
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : It would have been insincere to have changed Edith's life. But she *is*, at least, Edith Thompson. Good for her.
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KENNY SMITH : Gary Russell : "The Chimes of Midnight - it's just perfect, it really is entirely perfect. There's really nothing more to say about a clever, brilliant story, with such a fantastic reveal at the end of episode three with Edward Grove. There's brilliant characters, it's beautifully written, and some bloody good actors in there. Everything about Chimes just worked. Yes, love it."
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BARNABY EDWARDS : Well, that was magical. A truly glorious script from@ShearmanRobert - such an honour to direct something this special. Thanks, @twilightstreets, for gifting it to me. #PlumPudding
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INDIA FISHER : Bloody Fantastic all round! x 
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : I'm very touched by the ending. Merry Christmas, everybody!
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INDIA FISHER :  Thank you, Barnaby. I knew what you did was brilliant - but I don't think I've properly had the perspective to see *how* brilliant until now.
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PAUL MCGANN : Hurrah! Again! Again!
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INDIA FISHER : Let's do more! xx
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KENNY SMITH : This story was broadcast on BBC 7 in four parts from 17 December 2005 and repeated from 17 December 2006 – the last of the Main Monthly Range releases, before The Eighth Doctor Adventures took over.
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KENNY SMITH : The Chimes of Midnight was the first classic Big Finish story to be given a vinyl release in September 2016, with a new cover by Tom Webster. The vinyl release contains four discs. The story is spread over three records. One of the records features an all-new documentary from Martin Montague, featuring interviews with Gary Russell, Rob Shearman and Russell Stone, amongst others. Only 500 limited edition vinyl versions of The Chimes of Midnight were released.

 

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ROBERT SHEARMAN : Thanks for listening on, everyone. I shamelessly enjoyed that! And thanks, Paul, India and Barnaby - for then, and for now.
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INDIA FISHER : Right back atcha Mr Shearman
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ROBERT SHEARMAN : Thanks, India! Lovely to sort of see you! Let's catch up properly the other side of global apocalypse! xxx
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