The Specialist

Coming soon:

A new Five Part series – for the BBC Limelight Podcast strand, and BBC Radio 4. (31st May 2024)

Broken Colours

Broken Colours

All 3 Series of BROKEN COLOURS are now available on BBC SOUNDS

Series 3 is now available on BBC SOUNDS.

****UPDATE****. BROKEN COLOURS Series 3 will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 30th November 2023.

***UPDATE***. BROKEN COLOURS Series 2 will be broadcast on BBC RADIO 4 on the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th of December 2022. It will be available on BBC SOUNDS after it goes out. (The series has 4 x 45 min episodes.)

My new series BROKEN COLOURS is on BBC Radio 4 and available as a Podcast from Tuesday 22nd February 2022.

(On R4 it goes out every Tuesday for 5 episodes of 45 mins. On Podcast it’s 10 eps of 22 mins approx.)

“Jess meets Daniel and falls in love. It changes both of their lives. Holli Dempsey and Josef Altin star in a new thriller of conflicting perception.”

Radio Times 19/2/22

CAST:

Jess…..Holli Dempsey
Dan…..Josef Altin
Johnny…..Tom Byrne
Melissa…..Alexandria Riley
Petal…..Rina Mahoney
Daisy…..Grace Cooper Milton

EPS 1, 2, 4 and 5 (Eps 1-4, 7-10 of the podcast) – written by Matthew Broughton.

EP 3 (Eps 5&6 of the podcast) written by Faebian Averies

Sound design by Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC Radio 4, directed by John Norton and Emma Harding.

All episodes of the Podcast version of Broken Colours are now available on the ‘Drama of the Week’ podcast – Here.


Sunday Times 20/2/22
The Observer 20/2/22
The Telegraph (22/2/22)

UPDATE: December 2022. Broken Colours is on the short-list, nominated for a BBC AUDIO DRAMA AWARD for Best Original Series.

TRACKS Series 4 : INDIGO

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The fourth Series of Tracks: Indigo is now available.

10 Episodes of 15 minutes each.

Details Here.

The entire series (and all 3 of the previous series) are available on BBC SOUNDS and as a PODCAST.

(Be aware that the episodes are often out of order on BBC SOUNDS (I have no idea why) – so double check or use the Tracks Homepage:)

TRACKS HOMEPAGE ON BBC WEBSITE

Starring:

Dr Helen Ash – Romola Garai

Freddy Fuller – Jonathan Forbes

Helen is involved in a serious car accident – but why did the car hit her? Where was she going? What is wrong with her baby daughter Frances? And what’s wrong with time?

Press:

The Observer

The Observer

daily mail

Daily Mail

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Sunday Times

TRACKS series 1, 2 and 3. (and 4)

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Ahead of Series 4, TRACKS Indigo-

The BBC have put the first 3 series of TRACKS onto BBC SOUNDS.

For design consistency the first series is now called TRACKS Origin.

ORIGIN

STRATA

and CHIMERA

(For reasons I don’t understand, the episodes are often out of order on BBC SOUNDS – so do double check!)

Are all now available:

HERE

COMING SOON:     Series 4: Tracks Indigo

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Tracks Chimera

Tracks Chimera (Tracks Series 3)

The return of Dr Helen Ash and Freddy.

Tracks Chimera is now going out every Thursday at 2.15pm on BBC Radio 4.  (The series finale will be broadcast on R4 on 27th December.)

All 9 episodes are also now available online as a boxset and podcast.

EPISODE 1

EPISODE 2

EPISODE 3 –  (Written by Matt Hartley)

EPISODE 4(Written by Lucy Catherine)

EPISODE 5

EPISODE 6 (Written by Caroline Horton)

EPISODE 7 (Written by Timothy Atack)

EPISODE 8

EPISODE 9

BBC Series Link

Podcast (All episodes of Series 3 are now available.)

WARNING: From 26 January 2019   TRACKS: CHIMERA will no longer be freely available to listen to online (The BBC are planning a commercial release later this year).

If you want to hear Series 1 and 2 – They are available on AUDIBLE and AMAZON.

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Helen and Freddy in studio

Tracks Chimera – Previews  / Reviews:

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Radio Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Observer

The Observer

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The Times (2/11/18)

Music:

(A list of some of the music used in this series)

Black Phase – by Tim Hecker

Toccata – by Jaga Jazzist

E-musik – by Neu!

Satellite Snyper – by Pantha Du Prince

Im Bann – by Pantha Du Prince

Laker Boo – by Portico Quartet

We Move Lightly – by Dustin O’halloran

Shattered Glass – by DJ Food

Turquoise Hexagon Sun – by Boards of Canada

Seoul – by Amiina

Boga – by Amiina

Elephant Gun – by Beirut

September Song – Agnes Obel

Scenic World – by Beirut

Muesli –  by Minotaur Shock

Beau Nash – by Minotaur Shock

La Foule – by Edith Piaf

Never Understand – by The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Refused are fucking dead – by The Refused

Barok Main – by Mica Levi and Oliver Coates

Singularity – by Jon Hopkins

Tracks

TRACKS is a 9-part conspiracy thriller with a cast led by Romola Garai.

It was Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4  (August-October 2016.)

Series 1 is available to download as a Podcast and on the BBC Iplayer 

Series 2 of Tracks – “TRACKS: Strata” – is now available – Info and blog post

Tracks_01

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(9 Episodes x 45 mins)        Trailer

Series 1 – EPISODES 1-9

Episode 1 – The Nervus Vagus – is  Here

Episode 2 – The Broca and Wernicke Areas – is Here

Episode 3 – The Pineal Gland – is Here

Episode 4 – The Bridge of Varolius – is Here

Episode 5 – Hippocampus – is Here

Episode 6 – Nociceptors – is Here

Episode 7 – The Accumbens Nucleus – is Here

Episode 8 – Amygdala- is Here

Episode 9 – Habenula – is Here

(Archive: Here’s a STATEMENT by R4 about the broadcast of the last episode of Tracks)

All Episodes from Series 1 and 2 are now available on AUDIBLE or AMAZON

PRESS/REVIEWS/MEDIA

Review of Episode 1 in  The Guardian

Review of Episode 1 in The Spectator

TRACKS Ep 6 was a R4 – “Pick of Week” – (18/9/16)  – Chosen by Hardeep Singh Kohli.

TRACKS Producer, James Robinson was interviewed on Radio 4  Friday  30/10/16 –  discussing audience FEEDBACK

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TRACKS –  DIRECTORS / PRODUCERS:

Episodes 1,2,5,8,9 – James Robinson @mcgrin

Episodes 3,4,6 – Helen Perry @bellaperry

Episode 7 – Abigail Le Fleming @haywarddollerton

Supervising Sound Designer – Nigel Lewis

SOME MUSIC USED IN THE SERIES:

Tracks theme – (written for the series) by Stu Barker.

Studio Suicide, 1980 – By Tim Hecker.

Prungen – By Jaga Jazzist.

Dido’s Lament (Dido & Aeneas) – Andreas Scholl, William Orbit, & Rico Conning.

Some Absolute End – Bill Ryder-Jones.

A1 – Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm.

I’ll See You In My Dreams – Johnny Mercer (featuring the Pied Pipers.)

Symphony Number 4 in G major: III. Ruhevoll, Poco Adagio – Mahler

Body Eraser – Halls.

Cancer – I Break horses

Other News:

(12/11/16): An interview with James Robinson (including audio) detailing some of the process of How We Made Tracks

Tracks short-listed for a British Podcast Award

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Tracks short-listed for some BBC Audio Drama Awards

Tracks short-listed for a Prix Europa Award

A Tracks Q&A can be found on the menu above – beware it contains spoilers.

Readers/Listeners comments for Tracks are  here under the Tracks post,  under the Contact page, and under the Tracks Q&A page.

“Vincent Price and The Horror of The English Blood Beast”

My play about the uneasy relationship between film director Michael Reeves and actor Vincent Price – on the set of seminal 60s English horror movie “The Witchfinder General” – was first broadcast on Radio 4 in the Saturday play slot in 2010.

It’s now been brought to my attention that the play can be listened to Here

There’s also a very good and insightful review / essay written about the play that is HERE – (Even if they do get the title of the play slightly wrong!)

I remember having a roaring time recording the play in Cardiff. The cast included: Kenneth Cranham as Tony Tenser, Nickolas Grace as Vincent Price, and Blake Ritson as Michael Reeves.

*UPDATE* – 1st March 2013-
“Vincent Price and the Horror of the English Blood Beast” will be repeated on Radio 4 next Friday (8th March) evening at 9pm.

*UPDATE* – 7th November 2015 – just seen that the play is up on Youtube.

The Rain Maker

Radio 4 are repeating The Rain Maker on Wednesday 4th July at 2.15pm. (It was first broadcast 2 years ago.)

James Robinson, Caleb Knightley, Ken Cranham, Joe Dempsie. (From L to R)

The play tells the story of a father and son who take a trip to a cabin in some remote woods to repair their relationship. It is a kind of psychological thriller… There are references to a supernatural world – and I wrote the play after a re-reading of ‘The Golden Bough’ by Sir James Fraser.

We recorded the play in a real forest – and it was not without incident.

The Producer wrote a blog about it, at the time, that can be found HERE

Kenneth Cranham plays the Father. Joe Dempsie plays the son.

(I have previously blogged on this play HERE.)

**Update** – THE RAIN MAKER is being repeated on Radio 4 Extra next week – Wed/Thurs – 9/10th October 2013