Award-winning, full-cast original audio dramas from the worlds of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Blake's 7, Class, Dark Shadows, The Avengers, Survivors, The Omega Factor, Star Cops, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Pathfinder Legends, The Prisoner, Adam Adamant Lives, Space 1999, Timeslip, Terrahawks, Space Precinct, Into Infinity, Gemini Force One, Thunderbirds, First Action Bureau, Stingray, Five Star Five, Robin Hood, Dark Season, UFO, Stargate
‘...Producer David Richardson says: “Was it really two years ago that we were all locked away in our homes, unable to mingle in the outside world? It feels like a lifetime, or like it was yesterday, or it never happened!
“It was the worst of times but also, for me in my little bubble, in some ways the best of times because it meant that with the TV and film industry shut down indefinitely, David Tennant had availability to work with us! Tenth Doctor, Classic Companions was recorded towards the end of a big recording block – we’d pitched the premise of the set to David and he couldn’t resist the idea of the Doctor reuniting with some old friends.
“It was also clear that David was delighted to be working with Doctor Who legends from his own childhood – Louise, Sarah, Sophie and John received the warmest of welcomes and they in turn were thrilled to be working with David.”
SPLINTERS BY John Dorney opens the set...
With the stories being commissioned in lockdown it meant John had a short turnaround on his script to fit in with David Tennant’s new-found availability. John explains: “With a longer deadline you can often end up trying to second guess yourself for ages but with a shorter one you’ve just got to decide, ‘Well, what do I want to do?’ Often, it can be just as good, if not better, with a shorter turnaround. And, to be honest, this is one of my favourite things that I wrote during lockdown.
“I didn’t have ages to run around trying to work out what I wanted it to be, exploring everything, and I feel it actually works better because of that.
“One of my highlights was a joke that I’ve been playing about with for ages that I knew was a Tenth Doctor gag but I’d never found a spot for it. I eventually managed to get it in here because it was the perfect place for it – it was now or never!
“Also, the opportunity to write for the Tenth Doctor is always great. It’s such a fun thing to do, and pairing him Leela was wonderful. When you’ve got a couple of really great actors, like David and Louise, you want to put something new in there for them, and see what interesting angles you can explore.”
THE SECOND story of the set is The Stuntman by Lizzie Hopley...
“With so many fabulous actors being available during lockdown Big Finish was understandably making the most of them. The brief was ‘old companions with K9’. We put up a bit of a fight for who got who! There was a bidding war and I ‘won’ David Tennant, Sarah Sutton and John Leeson. Now that was an exciting email to read!”...
ACE RETURNS in the third episode, Quantum of Axos by Roy Gill...Roy tells Vortex: “Writing this felt like being a kid on Christmas Day! Like you’re mixing up all your Doctor Who toys, teaming Ace with K9 and making up a new story!
“I’ll always jump at the chance to write for David Tennant: he’s so nimble, deft and mercurial as a performer. And I’ve always loved K9 – he’s a robot dog, how could you not? Plus Ace was pretty much ‘my’ companion when I was growing up watching Doctor Who. Those seasons with Sylvester really show her mature and change in a way that was relatively unusual for a companion then, so it was an extra thrill to write for her.”
What was in the brief from Matt? Roy replies: “It just said the Tenth Doctor, Ace and K9...”...
JUST AS delighted to be joining the Tenth Doctor is Sophie Aldred, Ace herself, who admits it was hugely exciting when she got the message during lockdown asking if she would like to do an audio with David Tennant. Sophie says: ”It was so bizarre because at the beginning of lockdown I thought, ‘Right... how am I going to sort things out so I can keep working?’ So I bought myself a microphone, although I didn’t know what I was doing at first – like most of us, I guess. People had often said that my airing cupboard was actually very good acoustically so I turned this tiny little place into a studio! I took some of the shelves out, put my microphone in there, and I used the towels and sheets because, of course, they’re really good for dampening the sound. And then I got some woollen material, sewed it all together and put it on the walls, before I started learning the technical side of recording which took a little time...
“It would have been absolutely lovely to see David in person, of course, but it’s almost as good to hear his voice in your ears! So there was me in the airing cupboard with my laptop and microphone and we had a bit of a laugh because I said, ‘Well, where are you?’, and I think he said he was in the attic because it was nice and quiet!
“It was just so funny having this visual image of us both sitting in these bizarre spaces that we would never have thought that we needed to use before – and recording Doctor Who. It’s amazing.”
Sophie first worked with David back in 2001 when a young Scottish actor guest starred in a Big Finish Doctor Who adventure called Colditz. She recalls: “Yes, it is amazing to think of that and I remember I kind of clocked him at the time. David has a presence. When he walks into a room you can’t help but notice him and I did think, ‘Oh, who is this young man?’
“As an actor you are aware of him because he’s very good, obviously, and I just love his voice. I think he’d really wanted to play the Doctor as a Doctor Who fan. And then the very next time I met him was when he had left Doctor Who and he played my sidekick – let’s make that clear, MY sidekick – in Tree Fu Tom, the children’s series!
“David played this wonderful character called Twig, a funny character and a great job he did too. It was just so lovely to see him again. “We had a great time recording Quantum of Axos, and the way we worked together was really, really good. We had such a good ensemble cast as well and it was a lovely way to spend the day.”’
