Monday, November 19, 2007

Space Casey?

Space Casey is a new audio drama starting (I believe!) Nov 26th. (It's a bit advance notice, but I'm away on holiday for a couple of weeks with probably little internet(!), so there'll be little posting. Hopefully it'll be a good oopportunity to catch up on some listening though!) I don't know much about this project other than it's sci-fi and the website says

"Some heroines will steal your heart... This one will steal your wallet."

and that I immensely enjoyed the teasers (go and listen!). I'm hoping that the drama will be as good as the teasers!

Update: It seems I got the date wrong - it actually starts on Nov 28th.

Review: Fine Line Doctor Who

Fine Line is part of Westlake Films - a group of production companys producing fan made video and audio, including many based on Doctor Who. Fine Line have (according to the website) been producing Doctor Who audios since 1991, and have nine stories on the website. It's unclear whether these are still being made, but I hope so!

The thing which really appeals to me about these dramas is the writing - the plots are well thought out and original, and the 1-2 hour format allows time for some character development and plot twists. The writers don't try to place the series in a particular place in the 'Doctor Who time line', or try to write for a specific Doctor (which in my mind is pretty sensible), though there is continuity through the stories and a story arc over episodes 3-7. The acting is decent, though some actors are better than others. The one big problem with the earlier stories is that the sound quality is rather bad making them difficult to listen to, and there is some bad editing (missing or repeated bits). This does improve substantially through the series though, with the most recent episode (Madhouse) having very good sound quality and spooky sound effects to add to the haunted house atmosphere.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

A Thanksgiving audio feast!

In honour of Thanksgiving BBC7 is running a special Stars and Stripes season of American dramas for the next three weeks. This includes dramatisations and reading of many famous American works including Last of the Mohicans, Little Women, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Handmaids Tale, Children of the Corn (Stephen King) and various works by Edith Wharton, Raymond Chandler and Kurt Vonnegut.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys

This Saturday 17th Nov at 8pm (presumably GMT) the BBC World Service is broadcasting a brand new audio dramatisation of Neil Gaiman's book Anansi Boys. It should be available to listen to on the website for a week after broadcast (click on radio player). It has some famous British comedy actors (Lenny Henry, Matt Lucas) and is promising to be very good.

More info can be found at the Wikipedia entry and Neil Gaiman's great blog.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

NATF 2008 script contest

The National Audio Theatre Festival's 2008 script contest deadline is fast approaching. If you're writing a script it needs to be posted by the 15th November. More info can be found here.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

BBC7: Undone

I've just discovered this series being broadcast on BBC7. Undone is set in London and its parallel city 'Undone' where what we consider odd is normal, and where turns of phrase are real. It's very amusing with some unusual ideas and clever writing.

The first episode was broadcast last Sunday at 6pm and will be up for a week - it sounds like each episode is a separate story though, so it shouldn't matter if you tune in later. This first series is a repeat (though I haven't heard it before), with a brand new series following it.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Late Halloween Horror!

Yes, I know it's late, but in my defence I've been very busy with job interviews (aagh - that's a horror all of its own!) Hopefully my life will setlle down soon and I'll be able to get back to writing more posts and listening to more audio drama (yay!).

Anyway there's lots of special Halloween offerings - the audio addict blog has a pretty comprehensive list. There's also a Buffy BTL Halloween special.

The BBC also has some classic horror in the form of Dracula and The Fall of the House of Usher (by Edgar Allan Poe)