Arthur Darvill joins Big Finish for Benny audio

[23skidoo]

Big Finish has announced that Arthur Darvill is among the cast of an upcoming Benny Summerfield audio drama, Paradise Frost, which is part of a box set called Road Trip coming out early next year. Big Finish surprisingly has underplayed this in its announcement, even though this marks the first time one of the main companion actors from the revival era has appeared on Big Finish (albeit he won't be playing Rory).

Anjli Mohindra of The Sarah Jane Adventures is also appearing in another episode of the set.

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/Bennys-Road-Trip-Revealed

Alex

(PS. For anyone not aware, Benny Summerfield is a long-running audio spin-off series featuring a character introduced in the Virgin Doctor Who New Adventures novels in the 1990s. She's been played by the same actress, Lisa Bowerman, since around 1998, a year or so before Big Finish began doing original Doctor Who stories. With either 11 or 12 seasons under its belt, this makes the Summerfield series the longest running science fiction spinoff series in history, I believe.)

 

[Stevil2001]

Not quite a "main companion actor," but Noel Clarke (Mickey) was in Dalek Empire 4: the Fearless since he and Nick Briggs got on so well. Daniel Anthony (Clyde) was in a story, too (the eighth Doctor adventure Wirrn Dawn).

 

[Guy Gardener]

Tenant was running around the Audio adventures before he got cast as the Doctor, with his real accent even sometimes.

 

[23skidoo]

Not quite a "main companion actor," but Noel Clarke (Mickey) was in Dalek Empire 4: the Fearless since he and Nick Briggs got on so well. Daniel Anthony (Clyde) was in a story, too (the eighth Doctor adventure Wirrn Dawn).

But neither were top-billed, and Mickey was only a full-fledged companion for 2 stories. (Arthur, by contrast, is I believe now only second to Frazer Hines as the longest-running male companion if calculated by calendar year.) Daniel was Sarah Jane's companion, not the Doctor's.

Tenant was running around the Audio adventures before he got cast as the Doctor, with his real accent even sometimes.

Very true. You'll also find a number of other current-era Doctor Who actors who cut their teeth in Big Finish, though in the case of Tennant that was before he was cast as the Tenth Doctor.

Alex

 

[Guy Gardener]

What about Ian and Adrick?

Besides Frazer is a cheat. They would make 60 episodes a year.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Ian left in the second season. Adric was introduced halfway through one season and killed halfway through the one after it. Rory's been around the whole time, though not as full-fledged crew. Arguably, he's done more character-wise than any male companion with the possible exception of Turlough.

Mark

 

[OmahaStar]

Ian left in the second season. Adric was introduced halfway through one season and killed halfway through the one after it. Rory's been around the whole time, though not as full-fledged crew. Arguably, he's done more character-wise than any male companion with the possible exception of Turlough.

Mark

Jamie is the longest-running companion. I'm figuring that by length of time, not actual episodes. He was only one story short of three seasons (he was not in the 4th season opener The Power of the Daleks, but was brought into the series in the very next story, The Highlanders).

For males, the next longest-running companion was a tin dog ... K9 Mark II. He was introduced at the beginning of season 16, and left towards the end of season 18, in "Warrior's Gate" only two stories shy of three years.

After that, Ian holds the record. He was there from the beginning of the first episode, and left only one story short of the second season, in the story "The Chase."

After that, Turlough is in fourth place. He had just a little over one year.