She’s back – and it’s about gin! Created by novelist Paul Magrs, Iris Wildthyme, transtemporal adventuress returns in four new audio adventures across time and space. Bracing the temporal winds in her trusty bus and accompanied by the ever-loyal Panda (a ten inch tall stuffed bear), Iris travels from the depths of space to the gates of Wonderland and beyond. Iris and Panda will bamboozle and befuddle a host of new friends and enemies while always having time to mix a sharp Gin and Tonic. For Iris Wildthyme, closing time waits for no woman…
Big Finish were delighted to work with former Doctor Who companion Katy Manning once again on a second season of solo Iris adventures when the actress jetted back into the UK earlier this year. Also returning is David Benson as the pithy and witty Panda. Each of the four releases affectionately pastiches a different decade in Doctor Who, from the 1960s to the 1990s.
The first adventure, released in February, will be The Sound of Fear by BBC Books novelist Mark Michalowski, and sees Iris and Panda encounter the deadly Naxians aboard space station Radio Yesterday, along with Iris’s ex-husband, Sam, played by Bernice Summerfield regular, Miles Richardson.
Land of Wonder, by Iris’s creator Paul Magrs, sees Iris exiled to Earth and working with top-secret organization MIAOW to investigate dark happenings in the Underground.
In The Two Irises by Simon Guerrier (BBC Books’ The Pirate Loop and The Slitheen Excursion) Panda has not only the return of the Naxians to deal with, but there’s a new Iris aboard the bus – an Iris who is decidedly male…
The season comes to a dramatic end in the action-packed season finale, The Panda Invasion by Mark Magrs. As San Francisco celebrates the millennium, Iris must save the world from destruction, while Panda faces his evil twin, and all because somebody spilt their gin and tonic…
Iris’s creator, critically acclaimed novelist Paul Magrs, says of Iris’s return to audio:
‘It is blissful to have Katy and David back, reprising these roles so delectably, with such effervescence and mellifluous ease. Everyone seems to love these characters and I couldn’t be more cockahoop! It’s time to get back aboard that magical double decker bus!’
Iris Wildthyme is produced by long-time Big Finish contributors Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, and sees the return of Gary Russell to the Big Finish fold as director.
The series will be available as four single-CDs, released monthly from February 2009 which are available to pre-order now. A special collectors boxset of season two will also be released in February, thus allowing you to get hold of all four plays ahead of their individual monthly release. In addition, the two season one Iris audio dramas can be purchased together with the season two boxset at a further discount.
(Clockwise from top; Cavan Scott, Katy Manning, Mark Wright, David Benson)
There’s not been many updates recently because we’ve been a bit busy. And the reason we’ve been busy?
Oh, one last thing. Have you ordered your copy of Doctor Who – Short Trips: Indefinable Magic yet? It features Priceless Junk by Mark and myself, where the Sixth Doctor saves Elvis. Yes, that Elvis.
Did you know that the entire second series of 
You can now listen to the trailers for all four adventures in the second series of 
