Authenticity and Innovation in Audio Drama with Lisa McMullin and Alfie Shaw
Behind the scenes writing and producing audio dramas for Big Finish Productions
This week on the podcast, I’m talking with Lisa McMullin and Alfie Shaw, who write audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.
Lisa also writes for TV, and Alfie is also a producer for Big Finish, which is best known for its Doctor Who dramas, but also produces dramas for other shows, like Sherlock Holmes, The Avengers (the original British series from the 60s), The Prisoner, Dark Shadows, and Thunderbirds, and original series featuring characters like Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Air Transport Auxiliary from World War II, and more.
Lisa and Alfie give us a great look not only at how they got started working in audio drama, but also the differences in writing for TV vs. audio, what happens when you need to recast audio characters when an actor is no longer available, how to breathe new life into heroes and villains that need a bit of a refresh, how breaking into writing in the UK differs from the US, and more. (Yet again, even if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, you’ll get a lot out of this episode.)
We do apologize for being deliberately vague about plot points of certain audios, which we’ve done so as not to spoil those who may not have heard them.
Listen on your favorite podcast app or at YouTube. (YouTube takes a little while to process, so if you don’t see it yet, it’ll be there soon!)
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