Audio Drama/Comedy...

[Quatermass]

Okay, dunno whether I've done a similar thread before, but who here enjoys audio/radio drama/comedy? I'm not talking about audiobooks here, although so-called 'enhanced audiobooks' may have a place here (narrated stories that are like two-actor plays), but I am talking about full-cast dramas or comedies.

I did a thread on the Doctor Who Big Finish audios, but radio drama and comedy has been an institution, in the UK at least. Anyone got any preferences? Or would like to post a collection?

 

[The Mad Collector]

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman started here last night as the radio 4 book at bedtime. Very good it was too. It is on every night Monday to Friday at 10:45 BST for 15 minutes. You may not be able to listen to it after it has been on on iplayer radio outside the UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b036k741

however radio 4 is broadcast live on the internet so you could catch the remaining 4 episodes when they are broadcast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

 

[Tonyblack]

Arrrggghh! The BBC has stopped Radio Downloader from allowing access to their programmes.

 

[Quatermass]

Anyone want to post their audio drama/comedy collection?

 

[Tonyblack]

Well I enjoyed the recent dramatization of Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and the various Pratchett ones. The 13 hour long Lord of the Rings was very good as well.

 

[The Mad Collector]

I agree the LOTR adaptation was very good. I also loved all of Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy and have all episodes of both of these.

 

[Quatermass]

I'll post my collection later (I'm picking up some CDs I've ordered soon), but I've recently listened to a quartet of Big Finish Doctor Who stories from the library: Creatures of Beauty, Nekromanteia, The Marian Conspiracy and The Spectre of Lanyon Moor.

One tip: unless you're a completist, avoid Nekromanteia. It could have been a good story, but it unfortunately didn't turn out that way.

 

[The Mad Collector]

I also have the set of BBC Radio Drama Doctor Who episodes, those were pretty good

 

[Quatermass]

I also have the set of BBC Radio Drama Doctor Who episodes, those were pretty good

Which ones? Do you mean The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space? I've listened to the first one, and have Barry Letts' novelisations of both.

 

[Quatermass]

Oh, and I've just listened to the Big Finish audio drama Doctor Who: Jubilee. And it's one of the best, if not THE best.

 

[The Mad Collector]

The set includes the four radio dramas
The Paradise of Death - Jon Pertwee as the Doctor with Sarah Jane and the Brig (5 episodes)
The Ghosts of N-Space - Jon Pertwee as the Doctor with Sarah Jane and the Brig (6 episodes)
Exploration Earth - Tom Baker as the Doctor with Sarah Jane (1 episode made for school radio)
Slipback - Colin Baker as the Doctor with Peri (6 short episodes)

The only made for vinyl LP drama
Doctor Who and The Pescatons - Tom Baker as the Doctor with Sarah Jane (2 episodes)

and the spoof Whatever Happened to Susan (1 episode) which imagines what she did after she left the Doctor. This was part of a series which picked 6 different fictional characters and continued their story after the book or series finished for them.

 

[Quatermass]

Well, I've just added a few more Big Finish stories to my collection, so I'll post my collection of audio dramas and comedies overall.

Doctor Who (in rough series order rather than release order):

The Renaissance Man

Energy of the Daleks

The Sands of Life/War Against the Laan

The Justice of Jalxar

Spare Parts

Omega

The Elite*

The Butcher of Brisbane

The Lady of Mercia

Prisoners of Fate

The Veiled Leopard**

Cuddlesome**

The Kingmaker

Mission of the Viyrans**

Davros***

...Ish

The Nightmare Fair*

Bloodtide

Doctor Who and the Pirates, or The Lass that Lost a Sailor

Urgent Calls**

The Wrong Doctors

The One Doctor

The Juggernauts***

Unregenerate!

Bang-Bang-a-Boom!

Earth Aid*

Dust Breeding

Night Thoughts

The Magic Mousetrap

Love and War****

Shada***

Storm Warning

Sword of Orion

The Chimes of Midnight

Zagreus

Terror Firma***

Max Warp

The Book of Kells

Dark Eyes****

Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil

*A Lost Story (stories that were intended to be produced for the TV show, but never were)

**Free downloadable story via the Big Finish Soundcloud site

***Available as part of a DVD. Most are on the Davros boxset, but Shada is available on its DVD as a flash animation.

****Special release boxset

I also have the following Big Finish spinoffs:

Bernice Summerfield: Silver Lining**

UNIT: The Coup**

I, Davros***

The Davros Mission***

And finally, I also have...

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase special edition

On the Town with the League of Gentlemen.

Sorry about the long list. :shifty:

 

[raptornx01]

Used to listen to old time radio dramas. Northside 777, the sub-basment, some of The Shadow. a few comedies like Burns and Allen.

Occasionally still i'll listen to something like War of The Worlds, or abbott and Costello.

One of my favorites though was actually made about ten years ago. Called "I Love Bees". The name sounds odd, but that because of how it was released. it was hidden inside a fake bee keeping website. each part needed to be unlocked by people either hacking part of the website, or decoding text and image files containing GPS coordinates and a time and date stamp. each coordinate was a pay phone and someone had to be there by a certain date and time and answer the phone to speak to a character from the play. (didn't always go as planned. one of the locations was actually in northern Florida during when Hurricane Ivan was hitting. and someone was actually there during the worst of the storm. when the actor found out they broke character and told the person to get the hell out of there)

In the end what we ended up with was a cool little somewhat sci-fi story. basically following a bunch of characters as humanity is at war with an alien race and everyone is afraid earth will be attacked next. I say somewhat because the bulk of it is character stuff. played straight and with alot of emotion at times. think of a story set during the cuban missile crisis.

here's a link. the descriptions are kind of spoilery though.

http://halo.bungie.org/misc/ilb_reordered/

 

[The Mad Collector]

Just copied my set of the first 3 series of Cabin Pressure onto the memory stick I use in the car. Really funny programmes

 

[Quatermass]

Aren't those Roger Allam and Benedict Cumberbatch as the two pilots?

 

[The Mad Collector]

Aren't those Roger Allam and Benedict Cumberbatch as the two pilots?

They are indeed. They work really well off each other

The show is written by John Fennimore, who plays Arthur the useless flight attendant and Stephanie Cole plays the owner of the airline with just one plane.

 

[Quatermass]

Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, I just got a Doctor Who Big Finish story called Forty-Five. Or rather, it's an anthology of four one-part stories, two of which actually star Benedict Cumberbatch. He played none other than Howard Carter in the first story, False Gods. I'm looking forward to the final story in the anthology, The Word Lord...

 

[Jack Remillard]

Arrrggghh! The BBC has stopped Radio Downloader from allowing access to their programmes.

Noooooooo!!!!

 

[Jack Remillard]

Cabin Pressure is absolutely fantastic. I really hope there's a Z.

 

[Jack Remillard]

Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, I just got a Doctor Who Big Finish story called Forty-Five. Or rather, it's an anthology of four one-part stories, two of which actually star Benedict Cumberbatch. He played none other than Howard Carter in the first story, False Gods. I'm looking forward to the final story in the anthology, The Word Lord...

I remember enjoying that one quite a lot. The Word Lord is fun.