This'll will be worth a listen.
On the Outside it Looked Like an Old Fashioned Police Box
Tuesday 23rd June - BBC Radio 4 - 11.30am-12.00pm
Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer and fanatic, presents a feature exploring the hugely popular Doctor Who novelisations of the 1970s and 80s published by Target books. In an age before DVD and video, the Target book series of Doctor Who fiction was conceived as the chance for children to 'keep' and revisit classic Doctor Who. They were marketed as such, written in a highly visual house style. Descriptive passages did the work of the TV camera; the scripts were more or less faithfully reproduced as dialogue. They were as close to the experience of watching as possible and were adored by a generation of children who grew up transfixed by the classic BBC series. Target Doctor Who books became a children's publishing phenomenon selling more than 13 million copies worldwide. From 1973 until 1994, the Target Doctor Who paperbacks were a mainstay of the publishing world. From humble beginnings they grew into a list running to 156 titles, shaping the reading habits of a generation.
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Whether these are worth a listen I leave up to you to decide. (But let's not have another round of "Torchwood is crap!", eh?)
New Torchwood Radio Plays
Wednesday 1st July-Friday 3rd July - BBC Radio 4 - 2.15pm-3.00pm
Asylum - When PC Andy arrests a teenager for shoplifting, he thinks it’s going to be a routine case. Then he sees the weapon she’s carrying and decides to call in Torchwood. Under questioning from Gwen, the girl remembers her name but little else, and when she speaks, it is in a strange mix of English and Scandinavian, but with a Cardiff accent. Then the girl’s blood tests come through and the team is faced with a dilemma.
Golden Age - On the trail of a dangerous energy field, Torchwood are led to Delhi. As the energy field grows once more, they witness the simultaneous disappearance of hundreds of people. Jack discovers that the field centres on an old colonial mansion – Torchwood India. Shocked to find that Torchwood India is still going strong – he shut it down himself over 80-years ago – he’s even more surprised to find that its members, including his old flame the Duchess, haven’t aged a day.
The Dead Line - When a Cardiff Hospital is inundated with patients who have fallen into coma like trances, Torchwood move in to investigate. The trances appear to have been triggered by phone calls, all received on retro phones and made from a number that hasn't been active for over 30-years. Determined to find out who's been calling the unfortunate victims, Jack rings the mysterious number – two, oh, five, nine – nothing. It's a dead line. Until, it calls Jack back...
On the Outside it Looked Like an Old Fashioned Police Box
Tuesday 23rd June - BBC Radio 4 - 11.30am-12.00pm
Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer and fanatic, presents a feature exploring the hugely popular Doctor Who novelisations of the 1970s and 80s published by Target books. In an age before DVD and video, the Target book series of Doctor Who fiction was conceived as the chance for children to 'keep' and revisit classic Doctor Who. They were marketed as such, written in a highly visual house style. Descriptive passages did the work of the TV camera; the scripts were more or less faithfully reproduced as dialogue. They were as close to the experience of watching as possible and were adored by a generation of children who grew up transfixed by the classic BBC series. Target Doctor Who books became a children's publishing phenomenon selling more than 13 million copies worldwide. From 1973 until 1994, the Target Doctor Who paperbacks were a mainstay of the publishing world. From humble beginnings they grew into a list running to 156 titles, shaping the reading habits of a generation.
***
Whether these are worth a listen I leave up to you to decide. (But let's not have another round of "Torchwood is crap!", eh?)
New Torchwood Radio Plays
Wednesday 1st July-Friday 3rd July - BBC Radio 4 - 2.15pm-3.00pm
Asylum - When PC Andy arrests a teenager for shoplifting, he thinks it’s going to be a routine case. Then he sees the weapon she’s carrying and decides to call in Torchwood. Under questioning from Gwen, the girl remembers her name but little else, and when she speaks, it is in a strange mix of English and Scandinavian, but with a Cardiff accent. Then the girl’s blood tests come through and the team is faced with a dilemma.
Golden Age - On the trail of a dangerous energy field, Torchwood are led to Delhi. As the energy field grows once more, they witness the simultaneous disappearance of hundreds of people. Jack discovers that the field centres on an old colonial mansion – Torchwood India. Shocked to find that Torchwood India is still going strong – he shut it down himself over 80-years ago – he’s even more surprised to find that its members, including his old flame the Duchess, haven’t aged a day.
The Dead Line - When a Cardiff Hospital is inundated with patients who have fallen into coma like trances, Torchwood move in to investigate. The trances appear to have been triggered by phone calls, all received on retro phones and made from a number that hasn't been active for over 30-years. Determined to find out who's been calling the unfortunate victims, Jack rings the mysterious number – two, oh, five, nine – nothing. It's a dead line. Until, it calls Jack back...
