Graceless in the Can! 3 Sep 2010, 3:44 am

The weekend of 24th/25th July saw the cast of Graceless reassemble to record the final two episodes of Big Finish’s original sci-fi drama featuring Abby and Zara, the artificially-created sisters with special powers last seen in the Key2Time trilogy.

Ciara Janson (Abby) and Laura Doddington (Zara) were joined by Fraser James as Marek for parts one and three, The Sphere and The End. Marek is the man in the sisters’ lives – a rogue they can never quite trust who could turn on them at any time. Fraser James previously featured in the Big Finish Doctor Who story Valhalla, alongside Sylvester McCoy. His extensive television credits include regular roles in the BBC dramas Babyfather and Judge John Deed, and as Blamire in the final series of Robin Hood.

The remaining guest cast of Graceless will be very familiar to fans of Doctor Who and Blake’s 7. In The Sphere, Colin Spaull plays Uncle Lindsay, a ruthless casino owner on the Sphere, a seductive lure for gamblers and pleasure seekers where the sisters are reunited. Spaull is well known for his Doctor Who roles, first as Lilt in 1985’s Revelation of the Daleks with Colin Baker, and as Mr Crane in the new series episodes Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel alongside David Tennant. Colin’s many other credits include Great Expectations, The Bill and The Inbetweeners.

Michael Keating is best remembered as Vila Restal, the wise-cracking thief in the iconic BBC drama Blake’s 7, and he joins the cast of Graceless as Earl Kreekpolt as Abby and Zara approach The End. Kreekpolt is a dangerous space pirate who will go to any lengths to acquire the sisters and their special powers for his own needs. Michael Keating previously appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who stories The Twilight Kingdom and Year of the Pig, and other work includes the 1970s Doctor Who story The Sunmakers with Tom Baker, Casualty and many episodes of EastEnders as Reverend Stevens.

Rounding off the guest-cast for The End is Roger Watkins as Garstang, and Alex Mallinson.

The guest for part two, The Fog, recorded earlier in the year, includes Patricia Brake and David Warner.

Written by Simon Guerrier and directed by Lisa Bowerman, Graceless will be released in a three-disc CD boxset on 31st October, and is currently available for pre-order on CD and download.

Caustic Comedies 2 Sep 2010, 10:46 am

Before Robert Shearman wrote for Doctor Who – or wrote books of award-winning short stories – he was best known for his comedies for the stage. His plays trod a fine line between domestic farce and bizarre absurdism, showcasing the lives of ordinary flawed people thrown into impossible and fantastical situations.

Big Finish is proud to present Caustic Comedies, a selection from his best known work: from the macabre Easy Laughter, winner of the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, to his sci fi comedy Binary Dreamers, winner of a Royal National Theatre prize and Fool to Yourself, directed by Alan Ayckbourn. By turns all seven plays are odd, disturbing, heartbreaking, and very, very funny.

Available in paperback, hardback – or as a special collector's edition. (This beautifully bound A4-sized edition is part of a limited run of 300 signed copies). Each play has a preface written by Rob and boasts a specially commissioned full-page illustration. Plus original cast photos and reproductions of posters from the stage productions throughout.

Caustic Comedies is available for pre-order now.

Bernice Summerfield: Dead and Buried -- Released! 31 Aug 2010, 8:07 pm

Finally it's here! Our very first fully animated adventure has been released and... It’s completely free! Bernice Summerfield: Dead and Buried is a 10-minute animated adventure starring Lisa Bowerman as the 27th Century Archaeologist Bernice Summerfield, and Miles Richardson as Irving Braxiatel.

While waiting to see what Braxiatel is is planning, Benny goes back to her roots and investigates a previously undiscovered civilisation. It’s not long, however, before she's being pursued through the ruins by an implacable foe.

"The Bernice Summerfield range has always been a testing ground for new writers, actors and ideas,” says Director and Animator, Alex Mallinson. “Indeed, the range was Big Finish's first venture back in 1998. So, to celebrate Bernice's eleventh season, we've pushed the boundaries again and produced Big Finish's first animated feature. It's a ten-minute adventure which acts as an introduction not only to the first play of season 11, Resurrecting the Past, but also to the character herself and the range in general.

"For me personally, this started as an exercise to see if it was possible to create a short film. Big Finish is always about doing a lot with limited resources. Everyone worked very hard to make this a success and I'm hugely grateful for their help and encouragement. The real test now though, is whether it's as much fun to watch as it has been to create.”

Director of Bernice Summerfield Season 11, John Ainsworth said, "I'm so excited to have been a part of producing the very first (and hopefully not last) Bernice Summerfield movie. This has been a true labour of love in that nobody got paid for their work on this project! The real star is, of course, Alex Mallinson who has spent literally months of his life single-handedly doing the job of an entire studio of animators. Also worthy of much praise is Matthew Cochrane who collaborated with Alex to provide the sound design and music. This has been a wonderful and rare opportunity for us to use images rather than just sound to tell a story and I think it makes for a great introduction to the explosive events of the new season of Bernice Summerfield audio dramas - as well as being a fantastic showcase for Benny in its own right."

To go with the animation, we are giving away five high resolution desktop images and a high-quality version of the story that can be downloaded and burnt to DVD, all this at http://bernicesummerfield.co.uk.

Dead and Buried leads directly into 11.01 Bernice Summerfield: Resurrecting the Past. Season 11 is available for pre-order now.

Latest Weekly Podcast 30 Aug 2010, 11:57 am

It's the latest weekly podcast. Presented by Nick Briggs, David Richardson and Paul (Good Lorrrrd!!!) Spragg, this is a special preview edition with clips and teases for a brace of our September releases: Cradle of the Snake, Project Destiny, The Book of Kells, Find and Replace.

Download or stream, the choice is yours. The means to do either are down and to the left of this item. Either way, it's freeeeeeee.

Jago and Litefoot Series Two - Episode Details 29 Aug 2010, 6:52 am

Episode information is now available for Series Two of Jago and Litefoot, which is released in January 2011. The five disc box set sees the return of Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago and Trevor Baxter as Professor Litefoot, and the ensemble cast also includes Lisa Bowerman as Ellie, Conrad Asquith as Sergeant Quick and David Collings as Gabriel Sanders

The stories are as follows:

2.1 Litefoot and Sanders
Written by Justin Richards
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
Featuring Chloe Howman
Women are being killed on the streets of London, and the evidence points to it being the work of a vicious vampire. This should be a case for Jago and Litefoot but – to the astonishment of Jago – the esteemed investigators of infernal incidents have gone their separate ways. It’s now a case for Litefoot and Sanders – but Jago isn’t going to go away quietly…

2.2 The Necropolis Express
Written by Mark Morris
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
Featuring Vernon Dobtcheff
Strange things are happening in the pauper’s graveyard at Charnel’s End. There are hideous creatures in the undergrowth, a mysterious light emanating from the church, and something deadly beneath the ground itself. Someone from Litefoot’s past has come back to haunt him, and things may never be the same again…

2.3 The Theatre of Dreams
Written by Jonathan Morris
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
Featuring Duncan Wisbey, Jennie Stoller, Alex Mallinson
“Roll up gentlemen and ladies, roll up! Welcome to Deuteronomy’s Theatre De Fantasie, the show where your dreams come true!”
Henry Gordon Jago believes he has made a killer booking for the New Regency Theatre. Unfortunately, he is absolutely correct…

1.4 The Ruthven Inheritance
Written by Andy Lane
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
Featuring Duncan Wisbey and Simon Williams
The pathology skills of Professor Litefoot and Dr Sacker are called upon by Lord Ruthven, who asks them to catalogue a cache of bones beneath his country estate. And so begins the endgame… as a plan long laid come to its glorious fruition.

The series is available for pre-order now, at a special discount price.

Katy Manning Podcast 27 Aug 2010, 7:02 am

And just before the next of the Weekly BF Podcast next week (Monday to be precise)... A special, extra bit of podcasting from the Big Finish team. Nick Briggs and David Richardson chat to Katy Manning about her upcoming Short Trips and about her Companion Chronicles (as Third Doctor companion Jo Grant) and, of course, her exciting adventures as the irrepressible Iris Wildthyme!

Katy is on fine form and there are far too many laughs along the way.

Download or stream this free podcast by using the box slightly to the left of this item. Press the play button to stream, or the 'Podcast' button to go to our Podcast Page, where you can download the mp3.

Briggs in Doctor Who Live 26 Aug 2010, 6:12 am

The BBC has issued a press release revealing that our very own executive producer, Nick Briggs, is to appear in Doctor Who Live, the gigantic arena show that will be touring the UK for five weeks during October and November this year.

'When the show was first advertised much earlier this year, I wondered if I might be asked to be involved, since there were Daleks and Cybermen all over the big ads in the newspapers,' explains Nick. 'Then, months later, I did some presenting at a media conference in Sheffield and met the director and producer of the Doctor Who Live show. They told me they would indeed want me to record some voices for them, but the very next day they got in touch to offer me the part of Churchill.'

The tour will take Nick away from his full-time Big Finish duties for eight weeks. 'It's playing merry hell with my Fourth Doctor script-writing schedule, and poor David Richardson is having to do all sorts of re-organizing to accommodate my absence, but we both agreed this was an opportunity I couldn't miss. And naturally, I will be in constant touch with the BF production office by email and phone... and I'll be tap-tapping away on scripts the whole time I'm on tour.'

The star of the show has been announced. Actor Nigel Planer (who many will remember as Neil from The Young Ones), who guest starred in the Big Finish Krynoid adventure Hothouse, will feature as the mysterious owner of the sinister 'minimizer'.

You can find full details of the show at www.doctorwholive.com.

Classic Releases for a Fiver! 24 Aug 2010, 4:18 pm

We've made some temporary additions to the Big Finish for a Fiver section in order to help newer listeners get up to speed in time for upcoming releases.

With Hex about to learn about his past in Project: Destiny, you can now pick up the Doctor's previous encounters with The Forge for only £5 each! Project: Twilight and Project: Lazarus will be reduced as a prelude to the conclusion of the trilogy, and the latter features two Doctors (the Sixth and Seventh) for the price of one!

Those enjoying the reunion of Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa with the Fifth Doctor in recent audios Cobwebs and The Whispering Forest, continuing in next month's The Cradle of the Snake, can acquire Tegan's last encounter with the Fifth Doctor in The Gathering, also now £5.

Finally, if you've recently picked up unofficial Big Finish guide The Finished Product and it's whetted your appetite for the UNIT stories it discusses, these are also now available for only £5 each, and feature Nicholas Courtney, Siri O'Neal and one David Tennant amongst the cast.

These are limited time offers, so get them while they're cheap!

August Podcast 2 23 Aug 2010, 9:38 am

It's the second of our weekly podcasts. The Jury is out on whether or not listeners prefer the weekly format. Some of you have commented that the shorter podcasts don't leave enough time for the silliness. So, we'll try to put some more in!

Anyway, it's Nicholas Briggs, David Richardson and Paul Spragg with special guest Lisa Bowerman (speaking about the latest series of the The Adventures of Bernice Summerfield). There's news of the new Benny animation too, and its big screen premiere.

It's free and you can easily download it or stream it by using the controls slightly to the left of this item.

And there'll be a new competition coming up in two weeks' time. 

Short Trips - Volume 1 Stories revealed 20 Aug 2010, 1:03 pm

The line up for the first volume of audio Short Trips , which is released in November, has now been revealed. There are eight stories - one for each of the first eight Doctors, which are read by prominent actors from Doctor Who history.

Rise and Fall by George Mann
Read by William Russell

A Stain of Red in the Sand by David A McEwan
Read by David Troughton

A True Gentleman by Jamie Hailstone
Read by Katy Manning

Death-Dealer by Damian Sawyer
Read by Louise Jameson

The Deep by Ally Kennen
Read by Peter Davison

The Wings of a Butterfly by Colin Baker
Read by Colin Baker

Police and Shreeves by Adam Smith
Read by Sophie Aldred

Running Out of Time by Dorothy Koomson
Read by India Fisher

Audio Short Trips can be pre-ordered here. Three additional volumes of eight stories each are scheduled for release in 2011.