While Doctor Who may currently be one of the BBC’s most popular dramas, that wasn’t always the case. In the mid to late 1980s it was always skirting with cancellation. When BBC1 controller Michael Grade needed to find the money in his drama budget to launch EastEnders, Doctor Who was one of the places where he made his cuts.
Though the series would return in 1986, the previous year’s season was cancelled, with several scripts either fully written or at the commissioning and/or planning stages.
Now, indie drama company Big Finish, which has been producing licensed Doctor Who audio dramas for over a decade, has adapted the episodes from the lost season into a series of audio dramas. The first, The NIghtmare Fair, is released later this month. Originally written by Graham Williams, it would have seen the Doctor (Colin Baker) and his companion Peri (Nicola Bryant) holidaying in Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
Scott Matthewman visited the West London recording studios to talk to Baker, Bryant and director John Ainsworth, who also adapted Williams’s teleplay for audio.
- Doctor Who: The Lost Stories on bigfinish.com
- Buy The Nightmare Fair
- Pre-order Doctor Who: The Complete Specials Box Set
, which includes last week’s episode The Waters of Mars, due for release in January 2010
To listen to the podcast:
The preferred way to listen to the podcast is through iTunes. If you subscribe to the podcast series in iTunes, then not only will you get this edition of the podcast, but you will automatically receive further editions, for free, as they are released. The iTunes edition of the podcast also has additional photography and chapter marks for easier navigation.
- Listen and subscribe now in iTunes (recommended)
A lower quality MP3 version can be played below:
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