Year: 2013

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Hammer Chillers – The Box

11 June 2013 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Hammer ChillersSo here’s something interesting and new. Bafflegab Productions, which recently launched the Vince Cosmos audio play series, has developed a new series of horror plays for Hammer, which feature the likes of Stephens Gallagher and Volk. Here’s a press release:

Hammer has announced a partnership with audio specialist Bafflegab Productions to launch ‘Hammer Chillers’, a series of original audio dramas, which will be available as six weekly downloadable episodes from June 2013.

Continuing Hammer’s expansion into the development of original content, the first series of the all-new material comes from a host of acclaimed writers including Stephen Volk (The Awakening), Stephen Gallagher (ITV’s Eleventh Hour), Doctor Who and young adult novelist Paul Magrs, stand-up comedian and writer Robin Ince and award-winning horror novelists Christopher Fowler and Mark Morris.

Episodes are available to pre-order now at www.hammerchillers.com ahead of the 7th June release and are priced at £2.99 per episode. From the end of July, fans can also download the entire series as a package and order the series on CD which will include bonus material.

Writer Stephen Volk said: “Hammer films have been a massive influence on my writing from the days when I sneaked into the White Palace cinema in my home town of Pontypridd to see the likes of The Devil Rides Out and The Vampire Lovers. Now to be writing an audio drama under the Hammer banner is a dream (or nightmare!) come true.”

Simon Oakes, CEO and President of Hammer Films and vice-chairman of Exclusive Media commented: “Hammer Chillers are a fantastic addition to the range of quality original content that we strive to produce and we’re excited to welcome such celebrated authors to the Hammer family.”

Bafflegab Productions Executive Producer Simon Barnard added: “Hammer Chillers will be every bit as terrifying as their celebrated cinematic counterparts. We are proud to partner with Hammer and hope that our tales take listeners on supernatural journeys that will make them afraid to turn off the lights afterwards.”

You may have noticed that because I’m operating at my normal speed, that means the first episode, The Box, is already available to download. Nevertheless, review after the jump

Continue reading “Review: Hammer Chillers – The Box”

Weekly Wonder Woman

No more Wonder Woman reviews… for now

11 June 2013 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Wonder Woman #20

So normally, around this time, I’d review the latest DC comics that feature Wonder Woman. These usually include Wonder Woman and Justice League, and what with the new super-romance, Superman, as well as various other miscellaneous titles.

Now, reviewing them takes up much more time than it used to and with DC’s schedule all over the place, trying to recap them all each month has become harder and harder, particularly since my own work schedule has been all over the place and incompatible with DC’s.

More than that, my heart’s not really in it. The comics are largely fine (although problematic at times, particularly Injustice: Gods Among Us), but I’m just not loving them anymore and some egregious things have been done since the start of the new 52. So I’ve decided today that I’m going to stop reviewing them. I’ll keep reading them, though, and I might return at some point to reviewing them, since the web stats say this is actually one of the most popular features of the blog.

So let me know if you’d like me to continue, let me know below and if enough people ask, I’ll get back to reviewing them. If no one’s interested, then TTFN WW.

Ta,

Rob

Knightmare – the live show (and latest Kickstarter project)

11 June 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Blimey. Would you look at that. Classic kids show Knightmare is being turned into a live show, which is going to premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. Original producer and creator Tim Childs has apparently even given it his blessing. In case you need a reminder, here you go:

Hey, but guess what. They need cash, apparently. They’re trying to raise £6,000 on Kickstarter to fund the project, although they’re already halfway there. Give them some cash and maybe they’ll let you wear the helmet. Isn’t that exciting?

Charley says: here’s how to survive a nuclear war with ‘Protect and Survive’

11 June 2013 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Although most of the public information films of the 1970s were largely concerned with everyday dangers, such as rabies, water, fridges and electricity sub-stations, there was one every-present concern that trumped all of these: the end of the world. The end of the world and general apocalypse was something that dominated the thinking of people in everyday life and in movies and TV – look at the popularity of Soylent Green, The Omega Man, Logan’s Run, Survivors, et al. Why? Because the world really did seem doomed, thanks to the Cold War and nuclear weapons.

Here in the UK, if the USSR had launched nuclear weapons at us, we’d have had precisely four minutes’ notice before the warheads exploded over our cities. Warnings would have sounded and we’d have had just those few short minutes to prepare ourselves for the end of civilisation as we knew it – assuming we survived, of course.

Fortunately, there was a public information booklet, radio series and accompanying films to explain how we could maximise our chances of survival in the event of Armageddon. The infamous Protect and Survive incorporated all manner of useful information for British citizens, such as how to dismantle doors to create a make-shift fallout shelter. Assuming, of course, you didn’t have a ‘fallout room’ in your house.

Watch these films to learn more on how to protect yourself in the event of the prospective annihilation of the human race, including how to build a fallout room, what to put in it and what to do with casualties and the dead after the attack. Remember – never keep a dead body in the house for more than five days.

Joss Whedon narrates a scene from Much Ado About Nothing

11 June 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Usually, you have to wait until the DVD release before you get a director’s commentary on his movie. Occasionally, just occasionally (as with Looper), you get a director’s commentary at the same time as the movie is released, so you can listen to it while you’re at the cinema. But often do you get the director’s commentary on his or her movie before it’s actually out in cinemas?

Anyway, here’s Joss Whedon narrating a scene from Much Ado About Nothing. I wonder what he’ll do next.