WIRELESS THEATRE COMPANY WIN SILVER OGLE AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY AUDIO PRODUCTION

WIRELESS THEATRE COMPANY WINS THE SILVER OGLE AWARD FOR ‘BEST FANTASY AUDIO PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR’

The Wireless Theatre Company’s first-ever audio serial, ‘The Strange Case of Springheel’d
Jack’, is to receive the Silver Ogle Award for Best Fantasy Audio Production Of The Year, 2011.

Set in 1837, the first series in the on-going Springheel Saga follows the exploits of Jonah Smith, a
brilliant young police constable who finds himself investigating a series of mysterious attacks by a
devilish monster that stalks the streets of London. Having already been nominated for two Radio
Production Awards*, this fantasy serial has been a smash-hit with listeners all over the world
since it’s launch as a free download on the Wireless Theatre website last year.

“We’re thrilled and delighted. This news was the most awesome way to have started production on
our second Springheel’d Jack serial. This is for everyone involved, who all pushed themselves so
hard and made it something extra special. They’ve all been acknowledged in such wonderful style.
My thanks to the Mark Time judging panel,” said Jack Bowman (actor, co-writer, producer).
“It’s brilliant that Springheel’d Jack has been recognised. We’re so happy that all our hard work has
culminated in this award,” said Mariele Runacre Temple (producer).

“This project has been a labour of love for all of us, so it was a happy day and a great honour to
learn that The Strange Case of Springheel’d Jack is to receive this wonderful award. I’m extremely
proud to have worked on such a great project with so many extraordinary people, and it’s going to
be a hell of a lot of fun converging on CONvergence and waving the flag for the Wireless Theatre
Company,” said Robert Valentine (co-writer, producer, director).

The Strange Case of Springheel’d Jack was written by Robert Valentine and Gareth Parker**.

It stars Christopher Finney (Dead Ringers), Matthew Jure (the award-winning The Diary Of A
Madman), Jessica Dennis, David Benson (One Man, Two Guv’nors, The Scarifyers) and Julian
Glover (Games Of Thrones, Doctor Who, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Empire Strikes
Back), all leading a cast of over thirty actors.

Artwork is by Jamie Egerton. Casting was by Leoni Kibbey and Andrew Swann. Music was
composed and performed by Francesco Quadraroupolo.

It was edited and sound designed by Andrew Swann and produced by Jack Bowman, Mariele
Runacre Temple and Robert Valentine, and directed by Robert Valentine.

The Wireless Theatre Company has commissioned two further serials in The Springheel Saga;
The Legend of Springheel’d Jack, which has just concluded recording with it’s distinguished
guest star (see below), and The Secret of Springheel’d Jack, due to enter production in June.
All three episodes of The Strange Case Of Springheel’d Jack are available to download free via the
Wireless Theatre Company website, or on iTunes.

Listen to The Strange Case of Springheel’d Jack as a free download here:
Episode One: STREAM / DOWNLOAD
Or on the Wireless Theatre Company’s iTunes page
.
Robert Valentine and Jack Bowman will be flying to Minneapolis, MN, USA, to collect the
award at CONvergence on July 5th, 2012 on behalf of the entire production team.

*Mariele Runacre Temple, Robert Valentine and Jack Bowman; Radio Academy Radio Production Awards, 2011,
nominated for Best Drama Producers (The Strange Case Of Springheel’d Jack). Jack Bowman; Radio Academy
Radio Production Awards, 2011, nominated Best Radio Creative.
**Gareth Parker is the pen-name of Jack Bowman.

NICHOLAS PARSONS JOINS ‘THE LEGEND OF SPRINGHEEL’D JACK’

Photo (left to right): Silas Hawkins, Josephine Timmins, Robert Valentine, Adam Hall, Jack Bowman, Mariele Runacre, Julian Temple, Nicholas Parsons, Sue Casanove.

Hot on the heels of Stephen Fry joining the Wireless Theatre Company last week, comes the
exciting news that radio legend Nicholas Parsons, currently celebrating the 45th anniversary of
‘Just A Minute’, has been in the studio to take a major guest-role in the next installment of their ongoing Springheel Saga, as well as taking a cameo role in We Are The BBC.

“A legend for The Legend! I couldn’t have been more thrilled to welcome Nicholas Parson into the
Springheel family,” said Jack Bowman (co-writer, producer). “While he’s the colossal figure that
has driven Just A Minute to the top of it’s game for 45 years – and think about that, to be top of
your game for 45 years – it’s been a delight to see him return to his roots as a dramatic actor.
Years ago he broke my heart as the doomed Reverend Wainwright opposite Sylvester McCoy in
Doctor Who. And here he is, joining the cause – and just in time – as the world of the Springheel
Saga is about to get darker, and far more dangerous…”

“For The Legend of Springheel’d Jack we’re incredibly lucky to have the great Nicholas Parsons
guest-star as Cuthbert Leach, a Victorian stage magician with more to his magic act than meets
the eye. It’s not every day that you get to work with a national treasure, and his performance is
quite simply spellbinding,” said Robert Valentine (co-writer, producer, director).
The Legend of Springheel’d Jack takes place in London, 1845, and sees the return of
Christopher Finney as Jonah Smith, now promoted through the police ranks to Detective
Inspector. When 13-year-old Maria Davis is brutally murdered in Folly Ditch – supposedly killed by
Springheel Jack himself – Smith leaps headlong into action. However, while still as obsessed as
ever, he has his doubts as to the true identity of the attacker, observing grimly, “Jack’s never killed
before…”

What connects the murder of this young pick-pocket to a travelling theatre troupe? Why has
Charlotte Fitzrandolph, played by the returning Jessica Dennis, finally come back? And can it be
true – has the infamous, unstoppable terror of London returned, with murder on his mind?
The Legend of Springheel Jack also features another epic cast that includes Nicholas Parsons
(Just A Minute), John Holden-White, Andrew Shepherd (ASC Random, currently directing A
Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Chelsea Theatre), Neil McCormack (Taggart), Josephine
Timmins, respected stage actor Jeremy Stockwell, Ashley MacGuire (Harry Potter, Coronation
Street, Dead Boss), Philip Lawrence (Action Figure Theatre), and Silas Hawkins and many
others.

It was produced by Jack Bowman, Mariele Runacre Temple and Robert Valentine, and directed by
Robert Valentine. The Legend of Springheel’d Jack is written by Robert Valentine and Gareth
Parker.

The Legend Of Springheel’d Jack will begin release via the Wireless Theatre Company website and iTunes from early 2013.

Meanwhile, casting has now begun on the final instalment of The Springheel Saga – The Secret
Of Springheel’d Jack.

Jack Bowman On Directing Stephen Fry and the Wireless Theatre Company.

from left to right: Jack Bowman, Stephen Fry, Sue Casanove, Nick Lucas, Adam Hall, Mariele Runacre Temple.

Jack Bowman, actor (he plays Jamie in my film Prose & Cons), director, writer and all-round brilliant guy recently directed Stephen Fry. He was then lovely enough to give Frost Magazine the low-down;

What was it like directing Stephen Fry?

An enormous honour and incredibly exciting! No, really, even my dad was impressed, which doesn’t happen that often…! One of the most amazing things about Wireless Theatre is how willing Mariele Runacre Temple – the artistic director – is to give good, new talent a chance. It was a combination of her trust in me and pure luck which meant this project AND Stephen’s involvement in it happened to be the one that ended up on my slate as a director. When Mariele forwarded me the email, I couldn’t believe it, honestly, I just couldn’t. And what’s lovely is, this isn’t a one-off – it’s happened to other directors as well; it’s a massive testament to the quality of the work in attracting the best talent and ethos of what Mariele instills in Wireless Theatre from the top down.

Were you nervous?

I don’t think I ever was – though once the initial excitement passed, however, there was more a nervous concern that something might occur which meant it wouldn’t happen. He’s got QI, he’s been filming the Hobbit, hosting the BAFTAs, writing a new book, Tweeting constantly, he’s about to appear at the Globe… and so on. He makes the hardest-working people look lazy. He has such amazing energy and work ethic. But would something happen? Would something else come up? And yet, it all came to pass with the exact timing, as scheduled, some four months previously by his brilliant reps. Who knows what they are doing, to the hour four, months from now? That’s a man who has a brilliant agent and keeps a perfect diary. Wonderful.

Was it intimidating?

It could have been, as the man is a national treasure. However, I know a few people who have worked with him before and assured me I had nothing to worry about, that he was a lovely man and a true gent – And no-one gets to be a national treasure unless they are anything but wonderful as a person. And he was! Ultimately, thanks to the experience I’ve gained from Mariele and working with her and at Wireless, I know how to direct my actors and what she expects from them. Also, the quality of the new writing means we’re always able to offer great scripts to great actors, known or unknown. Once you have the experience of having met and worked with 160+ actors, passionate about what they do, passionate about Wireless, and often wanting to return time and time again, you quickly realise that there’s no difference between a ‘name’ and anyone else. We work so hard to look after our various casts, and it pays off. Everyone, barring Stephen, in the session was returning cast, so that made things easier, each was playing a returning character, and I’ve all worked with them elsewhere. I know what Adam Hall, Nick Lucas and Sue Casanove can do and trusted them all. It’s another fun day with good, talented friends.

And then, suddenly, you realise that five years of Wireless have gone by, now Stephen Fry is in the studio coming along to play too. Yet you never feel worried or intimidated in any way. He’s another addition to what’s been a very happy, transitory and ever-growing, professional family.

What I have to do – as part of that family at that particular time as a director – is to serve the script by getting the best out of the cast. If you approach and support any actor with that attitude, that sense of play, then you have nothing to fear from anyone. With that in mind, just before we began recording, I simply asked Stephen if he had any ideas on how he wanted to approach his opening scene, and he simply said, “no, I’ll do it and you tell me what you’d like.” And that’s how it worked – he’d do a blissfully wonderful take, and once he hit his stride, I’d give him the freedom to play around some more. There’s one scene that I wish I could tell you more about, but in it Stephen started ad-libbing and we were all in hysterics. The words, “oh God,” have never made me laugh so much…

How did you get him to do your project?

Right at the very, very start, when Mariele Runacre Temple first launched the Wireless Theatre Company five years ago, she started to write a list of people to approach – and Stephen was the very first person she asked to be involved, given his love of the spoken word. However, he’s an incredibly busy man, and despite a lot of support from his agent, we began to wonder if it would ever happen.

Then Sue Casanove revealed she had an idea for a sequel for her audio comedy, We Are Not The BBC, which I directed last year. The central gag of We Are Not The BBC features Christopher Timothy, of All Creatures Great And Small and Doctors, sending himself up. So, I asked Sue who she was thinking of in that sort of role for the next installment and she said, “Stephen Fry.” Knowing it had been tough until now, I thought, “it’s going to be tough, but if Sue’s script lives up to the quality of the first one, we might just stand a chance here you know…” We had a meeting in London, she knocked some ideas back and forth and off she went, back to Wales.

A few months later, the script arrived and I was blown away. Sue had knocked it out of the park – I couldn’t put it down. I text her straight away, saying, “if the first one was A New Hope, this is your The Empire Strikes Back.” By that, I mean, this wasn’t as good as the first one, which was great, it was better, absolutely better than what had come before. It was so, so clever; darker, smarter, more ambitious. She’d told me where it might head, yet I didn’t see this coming. Having evolved from what she’d told me, beyond what I imagined, it gripped me from start to finish.

And I let Mariele know that maybe, just maybe, this might be the one Stephen might say yes too. Mariele dispatched it to his agent, we waited nervously and then, some months later came the message, out of the blue – Stephen loves the script. He’s free for one hour, June 6th, it’s in his diary.

Were you a fan prior to the recording?

Oh gosh yes! Who isn’t? Yes, I grew up with him from the days of Blackadder as a child. However it’s been wonderful to watch him have such an amazing career since – A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Me And My Girl, Wilde, Bright Young Things, QI… The funny thing though, my favourite Stephen Fry memory is not one most people may even remember, but it’s the time he affected me the most deeply. He was presenting the BAFTA Film Awards that followed 9/11, and in his final speech of the evening, he spoke from the heart and talked about the need for film to spread hope and love across the world, as it would enrage the heart of anyone who struck out in anger in the way we’d seen on that terrible day. There’s so much to love that man for, and his work, yet that for me is the pinnacle.

Tell us about the project.

It’s called We Are The BBC, and is a sequel to We Are Not The BBC, which saw a Welsh Am-Dram group try to record a BBC-style audio play while the politics and egos threaten to topple the production, not to mention confuse poor Christopher Timothy. A lot. We Are The BBC picks some time later, when Stephen, playing himself, wins a BAFTA for his performance in a script by a promising new celebrity writer who used to belong to the same Ad-Dram group. However, it’s quickly clear that all is not as it seems and Stephen finds himself at the centre of the intrigue as things start to unravel…

And, touch wood, we’ll have another name joining the project next week too… But I can’t say anything yet.

How long did it take?

Wireless works exceptionally fast and Mariele always runs a slick studio – something that often surprises anyone new to Wireless! We had a professional cast and crew and Stephen’s exceptionally good at what he does; just as well, because we were allowed one hour of his time! Even with several retakes, we were able to get Stephen’s material all down in 40 minutes. Not only did he respond wonderfully to direction, he did that rare thing and with each note; he’d elevate it into something even better. Combine that with the well-oiled Wireless machine, and it was job done – which was just as well as he was straight off to record QI that afternoon after finishing with us. What’s even more extraordinary was on arriving, he apologised, revealing that he was suffering from flu symptoms. Yet he still turns in a barn-storming performance. When you see that happen first-hand, you realise why he’s as loved and respected as he is.

Do you think Stephen will stay in contact?

I hope so! At the very least, I’d love him to follow Wireless, Sue and myself on Twitter -@wirelesstheatre, @suecasanove and @realjackbowman, in case he reads this! At best, we’d love him to come back sometime in the future and work with Wireless again, even if it means we have to find an hour of our time five years from now. It was an amazing pleasure!

Who else do you want to work with?

ooh, well… On my list as a director… Michael Sheen, David Suchet, David Tennant, Sir Derek Jacobi, John Simm, Adrian Lester, Dame Judi Dench, Tom Hollander, Simon Russell-Beale, Samantha Bond, Imelda Staunton, Paterson Joseph, Joanna Lumley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Firth, Bill Nighy, Keeley Hawes, Patrick Stewart, Idris Elba… Also, one day, I’d love to direct or act alongside or write for Sophie Aldred. I can 100% tell you I would not be here today if it wasn’t for her inspiring me into acting, and would love to repay her until the end of time.

I know Mariele would love to work with Rik Mayall, who’s amazing. Again, who remembers his 90’s anthology series, Rik Mayall Presents? Three specials, and two of them broke your heart…

The thing to strive for, though, is that even if I’d love to work with X, the questions always have to be, “are they right for the role,” “does casting them serve the story?” There’s no point in shoe-horning in X for the sake of it, because then you don’t do the script any favours, the cast any favours and your reputation any favours. The right actor gets offered the role because they’re right for the part. Simple as. It’s tough, as recently two real heroes of mine have recently turned down the chance to work with Wireless on our acclaimed Springheel series. They were perfect fits for the material and you see that rare thing of a dream part for one of your dream actors, hope for the best, cross your fingers, ride your luck… and it doesn’t quite happen, often because of scheduling. However, you just have to say, ‘it’s always for a reason, and you have to remember that’, and when you look back on what happened, rather than what could have been, it always worked out for the best. I cannot wait for what Wireless Theatre and Mariele ends up sending my way next time.

We Are The BBC, starring Adam Hall, Andrew MacBean, Sue Casanove, Nick Lucas and Stephen Fry will be available to download from www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk later in 2012.

It is written by Sue Casanove, directed by Jack Bowman and produced by Mariele Runacre Temple for the Wireless Theatre Company.

The Wireless Theatre Company Presents THE STRANGE CASE OF SPRINGHEEL'D JACK

The multi-award winning* Wireless Theatre Company proudly presents its first-ever audio serial:

THE STRANGE CASE OF SPRINGHEEL’D JACK

Starring Julian Glover.

Synopsis:

London, 1837. An inhuman fiend stalks the night. With no time to lose, brilliant young police constable, Jonah Smith, must unmask the monster before he strikes again. Follow our hero on a terrifying adventure as he races to solve… The Strange Case of Springheel’d Jack!  

Episode One: http://wirelesstc.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/the-strange-case-of-springheeld-jack-episode-1/

Episode Two: http://wirelesstc.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/the-strange-case-of-springheeld-jack-episode-ii-the-crypt-of-evil/

Episode Three: http://wirelesstc.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the-strange-case-of-springheeld-jack-episode-iii-the-face-of-the-fiend/

All three episodes of this thrilling, award-nominated** audio serial are available to download free.

 

The Strange Case of Springheel’d Jack Cast:

Christopher Finney, Matthew Jure, Jessica Dennis, Jack Bowman***, Ben Whitehead, Colt Holt, Trevor Cuthbertson, Jamie Cartwright, Ceri Gifford, Simon Walters, Ashley Munson, Lizzie Goodall, Andrew MacBean, Caitlin Birley, Debbie Leigh-Simmons, Mariele Runacre Temple, Charlie Adams, with Jonathan Hansler, Nick Lucas, David Benson and Julian Glover.

Crew:

Writers: Robert Valentine and Gareth Parker.   Editor: Andrew Swann. Music: Francesco Quadraruopolo. Artwork: Jamie Egerton. Producers: Mariele Runacre Temple, Robert Valentine and Jack Bowman. Director: Robert Valentine.

Awards and Nominations:  

*Mariele Runacre Temple; Best Radio Drama Producer, 2009, Fringe Report Awards; Best Entertainment Producer, Best Online Multi Platform Creator, Radio Academy Radio Production Awards

**Mariele Runacre Temple, Robert Valentine and Jack Bowman; Radio Academy Radio Production Awards, 2011, nominated for Best Drama Producers.

***Jack Bowman; Radio Academy Radio Production Awards, 2011, nominated Best Radio Creative.

 

The Wireless Theatre Company’s mission is to keep radio drama and comedy alive and well in the 21st Century by creating original, relevant and exciting audio productions – both for radio lovers and the ‘Facebook Generation’ – which can be downloaded free to computers, iPods or MP3 players directly from the Wireless Theatre Company website. Wireless Theatre creates a platform for fresh new writers, up and coming acting talent and interesting new ways of producing audio theatre.