The random witterings of Jonathan Morris, writer.

Thursday 30 July 2009

Friends Will Be Friends

Another week, another plug for a thing what I have done the writing of. It’s another Doctor Who audio, and it’s called The Company Of Friends. The twist with this release is that it’s four one-episode stories, each by a different author, each pairing up the eighth Doctor Who (Paul McGann) with a companion who hasn’t ‘appeared’ with him in the audios before; Professor Bernice Summerfield, Fitz Kreiner (from the eighth Doctor Who books, such as Anachrophobia and The Tomorrow Windows and apparently some others), Izzy Sinclair (from the comic strips) and Frankenstein author Mary Shelley (mentioned as a companion in other audio adventures). The stories are by Lance Parkin, Steve Cole, Alan Barnes and yours truly respectively. An unusual brief, to tell the story of how the Doctor met and teamed up with an early nineteenth-century author of gothic/romantic fiction. I think I tell the story of how it was commissioned elsewhere so I won’t bore you with it again. But it was a fun job, one of my better efforts, and I learned a little bit of history along the way. It’s called Mary’s Story and tells the story of how the Doctor met Mary at the Villa Diodati in 1816, just as she was about to put pen to paper to write her famous novel... I’ve now heard the finished thing. It sounds magnificent. Brilliantly directed, marvellous Hammer-Horror-y atmosphere and music, and performances which stick a rocket under my dialogue and sends it whooshing into orbit. I have to thank Nick Briggs, director and sound man, Anthony Glennon (Percy Shelley), Robert Forknall (Lord Byron), Ian Hallard (John Polidori), Katrina Cooke (Claire Clairmont) and most of all Julie Cox (Mary Shelley). I’ve also heard the Izzy story with Jemima Rooper. Which is even better than my one.