Doctor Who - Audio Details

JON PERTWEE, ELISABETH SLADEN AND NICHOLAS COURTNEY JOIN FORCES ONCE MORE FOR A SPECIALLY-WRITTEN DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURE

'When the barrier gives way, this planet will be flooded by all the evil in N-Space; and at the moment I have no idea how to stop it.'

The Brigadier's ancient great-uncle Mario seems unsurprised by the spectres which haunt his even more ancient Sicilian castle.  But when the Doctor comes to investigate he finds himself faced with a danger as great as any he has yet encountered.

Is the answer to be found in the past, in the corrupt alchemy of the black-hearted sorceror said to have been walled up alive for his evil deeds?  Or must the Doctor - and the faithful Sarah Jane Smith - brave the realm of ghosts and face the very fiends of hell?

The classic team of the Doctor, Sarah Jane and the Brigadier are on the case in this eerily thrilling adventure, written especially for radio by Barry Letts.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 2.

THE PROGRAMME

The Ghosts of N-Space was the second radio production for Barry Letts as writer and Phill Clarke as producer, with the classic team of Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and Nicholas Courtney as the Bridadier.  In 1993, they had made The Paradise of Death which was broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in August of that year.  The original idea for a new radio adventure with the Third Doctor had come from Jon Pertwee himself and the result proved extemely successful.  The team were keen to make another adventure strait away but bureaucratic delays at the BBC meant that it was nine months before the project was agreed to (it had taken two years to get The Paradise of Death commissioned, made and broadcast).

It was in The Paradise of Death that new companion Jeremy Fitzoliver first made an appearance.  As Sarah Jane's hopeless photographer, he was constantly tripping over and making a mess of things and his clumsiness showed no signs of improvement in The Ghosts of N-Space.  Other cast members who appeared in Ghosts having been in Paradise included Jonathan Tafler and Jillie Meers (playing different roles).  A new cast member for Ghosts was American actress Sandra Dickinson ('Trillian' in the TV version of Douglas Adams' Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy), as Maggie.

The Ghosts of N-Space has the sad distinction of being Jon Pertwee's last performance as the Doctor.  He died in May 1996, four months after the show was broadcast.  His usual brilliant performance in the role he first took on in 1970 stands as a fitting tribute to a fine actor.