The Chimes of Midnight

The Chimes of Midnight is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio play was broadcast on digital radio station BBC 7 in four weekly parts, starting on 17 December 2005, and has been rebroadcast on the same channel beginning on 17 December 2006, and again on 26 and 27 September 2007.

Plot

An Edwardian home, Christmas 1906. Or is it? The Doctor and Charley are caught in a mysterious house outside of time and when the grandfather clock strikes, someone will get murdered. Can the Doctor unmask the murderer? Or is something far more sinister at work?

Cast

• The Doctor — Paul McGann
• Charley Pollard — India Fisher
• Edith — Louise Rolfe
• Shaughnessy — Lennox Greaves
• Mrs Baddeley — Sue Wallace
• Frederick — Robert Curbishley
• Mary — Juliet Warner

Notes

• The consequences of the Doctor's rescue of Charley from the R101 in Storm Warning are a plot point in this story.
• While trying to jog Charley's memory, the Doctor mentions the curse on "Count Orsino", meaning Duke Orsino from The Stones of Venice, as well as the Psionovores from Minuet in Hell. He also mentions finding a first edition of Oliver Twist in Charing Cross Road, an event not depicted in earlier audio plays.
• This is Charley's last chronological Doctor Who story to be broadcast on BBC Radio 7, although India Fisher continues to play her on a vast number of Big Finish commercial releases. The next chronological Doctor Who radio play to be broadcast by the BBC was Blood of the Daleks featuring the Eighth Doctor and new companion Lucie Miller played by Sheridan Smith.
• The names of the characters Shaughnessy and Mrs Baddeley are derived from Alfred Shaughnessy and Angela Baddeley, the script editor and the actress who played the cook Mrs Bridges in the famed British 70s drama series "Upstairs, Downstairs" which took place in an Edwardian townhouse.
• Other Upstairs, Downstairs influences includes Edith's similarity with the dimwitted scullery maid Ruby Finch.

External links

• Big Finish Productions - The Chimes of Midnight
• The Chimes of Midnight at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

Reviews

• The Chimes of Midnight reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Chimes of Midnight reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide