A King’s Speech
by Mark Burgess (BBC Radio 4, 2009)
A short radio play — not bad but superseded a year later by the film — detailing the relationship between speech therapist Lionel Logue and the most famous stutterer of his day, King George VI. Some of the conversations seem rather contrived towards exposition.
Torchwood: The Dead Line
by Phil Ford (BBC, 2009)
This full-cast radio drama is more scenario- than action-based, yet the premise is quite neat and the recording evinces a subtlety not always heard in audio adventures. Moreover, Gareth David-Lloyd is afforded time and story space for a beautifully delivered, character-defining monologue.
Torchwood: Lost Souls
by Joseph Lidster (BBC, 2008)
Having been written and broadcast to coincide with the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider, this radio drama in retrospect seems over-focussed on that aspect of the script. Likewise the Torchwood team’s lingering trauma subsequent to the second series’ harrowing finale.
Torchwood: Asylum
by Anita Sullivan (BBC, 2009)
Broadcast between series two and three, this full-cast radio drama sees the Torchwood team at its peak. When a troubled teenage girl falls through the Cardiff Rift, her memories suppressed, her plight brings out both Gwen’s (superbly played) empathy and Jack’s suspicion.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC Radio, 2007)
Although overly chaotic at the outset (and no doubt baffling to those not already familiar with Adams’ novel), Maggs’ adaptation finds its feet and diverges, becoming a clever piece of comedy. Harry Enfield makes a fine Dirk; likewise Billy Boyd as Richard.
Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
radio dramatisation by Dirk Maggs (BBC Worldwide, 2014)
Dirk Maggs has adapted Pratchett and Gaiman’s comedic novel of the apocalypse with apposite exuberance, yet for all the well-pitched sound design and the cast’s astute voice work, this zany and enjoyable dramatisation does perforce forego the original book’s drollery of prose.
Doctor Who: The Ghosts of N-Space
by Barry Letts (BBC Radio, 1996)
Unfortunately the gratified nostalgia of having a new Third Doctor adventure after twenty-one years, even with strong performances by Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen, could not make up for the manifest shortcomings (namely, dire minor characters and plot) of this audio adventure.