Soundings is a radio drama series produced from 1985 to 1989 in Ottawa by multimedia artist Jeff Green. Episodes were generally in the science fiction genre.
All the plays in the series were written, produced, directed and engineered by Green, with the exception of “Epiphanies” which was engineered by Charles Fairfield. All of the music in the series was composed and engineered by Fairfield, with the exception of songs in "Flash" and "She Dreams of Atlantis".
Seven of the eleven plays in the series are 45 minutes in length, which Green chose to allow listeners to record episodes with the prevalent cassette home recording technology of the time. [1] The original pilot for the series, "Epiphanies", is the only one that is an hour in length. The remaining three plays "Psychotherapy", "Vigilante" and "Plague" are each 30 minutes in length, and were first broadcast as a mini-series of horror tales on CHEZ-FM called Weird Words.
Some distributed versions of “Soundings” also include a ten-minute play called “Bomb” that is not technically part of the series, but was recorded using binaural technology for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation experimental radio program.
Green's first radio drama work was done while a volunteer at Carleton University's campus radio station CKCU-FM while it was still an AM carrier current and closed circuit station. In 1980 he applied for and received a Canada Council Explorations grant to produce a pilot for a series of radio drama works called “Epiphanies”. In 1982 he presented the pilot to Ottawa album-oriented rock station CHEZ-FM and they agreed to air a series of plays.
In 1989 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired several of the plays as part of their “Vanishing Point” drama series. In 1990 America's National Public Radio aired the series. Also in 1990, the play “Somebody Talking To You” was aired on London, England's LBC station, and referenced in Tim Crook's book “Radio Drama – Theory and Practice”. [2] In 1991, several plays were aired on Australia Broadcasting Corporation's national network. Green's work is occasionally broadcast and streamed in the U.S. as part of the prominent audio theatre program, "Sound Affects: A Radio Playground," which is featured on KFAI as part of their "spoken word groove." The radio plays were featured on XM Satellite Radio's former Sonic Theater channel.
Spaxter is a cyberpunk comedy that stars Green as the title character, a sci-fi Raymond Chandler gumshoe fitted with a hi-tech head implant (“the meld”) conveying telepathic capabilities, who goes up against a super-villain who has styled himself as an Egyptian god, has purchased and refitted the Great Pyramid at Giza, and is using adapted meld technology to steal the creative essence from the world's great minds in order to fuel his ascendance to true deity status.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Spaxterback, the sequel to Spaxter, has a globe-spanning mega-computer named MARS create Spaxter as a cloned agent based on his fictional personality in order to have him help determine why the world is undergoing an explosion of UFO activity. It turns out that a rogue group of aliens has been selling breeding rights for humankind to other species, and when Spaxter tricks them into calling in their “Overlord” this mysterious entity solves the problem by invoking a program called “Everything’s True”. The "protocol" includes a massive concert starring “The Callers” where a crowd of neo-hippies attempt to contact the aliens.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Flash is a drama set in Algonquin Park in Ontario where three individuals flee in canoes in an attempt to avoid a global nuclear war. While they are on the lakes they experience mysterious flashes that seem to trigger individual supernatural events that may link them to past or future lives. In the end they determine that the force of their wills can cause them to save special individuals who have been vaporized by nuclear blasts and so begin rebuilding society.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
She Dreams of Atlantis tells the story of Victoria Doubleday, a successful ad executive who just landed the lucrative Metacorps contract promoting their latest achievement—an array of power satellites in geosynchronous orbit that will solve all mankind's energy needs. But Victoria has dreams where she is a queen in ancient Atlantis who is being asked to decide on a power project by the mages. She becomes convinced that Atlantis was destroyed by her past-life decision to allow the mage project, that the Metacorps project will similarly destroy civilization, and that through her dreams she can go into the past and solve both problems at once.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Somebody Talking To You pits a multi-talented media consultant against an inexplicable invasion of his world by some kind of addictive cassettes, marked with only the simple phrase “Somebody Talking To You”. Everyone except him apparently hears something perfectly personally compelling, and eventually they disappear completely. When their cassette is then played their voice can be heard, “talking to you”. In the end he is the only one left, uncertain as to what has occurred.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Xmas Is Coming To The District of Drudge is an unusual Christmas story set in the dystopian world of Drudge where anything remotely exciting or interesting is forbidden. One man comes across a strange substance called “Christmas” that appears to be just a piece of fruitcake but when eaten causes him to briefly experience a parallel world filled with Yuletide cheer. He has it analyzed and discovers it has an element that somehow “activates” its component water. He hatches a plan to first administer it to his brutal boss (who experiences it as a Dickensian visit with his past, present and future), and then transform the entire world.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
The Tuning is a science fantasy based in a bizarre future where the primary entertainment is a full-immersion interactive experiential media called “tuning”. Artemus Tamerlane is a talented tuner who discovers that there are powerful forces behind the scenes and that if he can defeat them he is destined to lead his society into a transcendental age.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Epiphanies tells the story of Joshua Bellows, a small-time politician who happens into a small town to discover it in the grip of an AM deejay who apparently has the power to manipulate sound. The more he investigates the more convinced he is that a supernatural force has manifested itself, and he decides his destiny is to confront it. In an encounter at a local bar he engages in a psychic battle with the force and defeats it, or is himself defeated.
Cast
Running Length: 60 minutes
Vigilante is about an autistic savant who is obsessed with one particular newscaster on a local TV station, and discovers that he has the power to go to the site of ongoing crimes and telekinetically affect events, causing the criminals to end their lives in ways appropriate to their evils. In time this vigilante spree spreads to any malfeasance mentioned on the newscast, and the newscaster comes to realize that he is the nexus of the supernatural activity. By naming the vigilante as the number one criminal on his newscast he ends both their careers.
Cast
Running Length: 30 minutes
Psychotherapy is an homage to Edgar Allan Poe. Mark Allen is a troubled man who on the advice of his psychiatrist decides to undertake a radical new therapy offered at a remote sanatorium, but when he gets there discovers that the inmates have taken over the facility, obsessed with recreating the horrors in the work of Poe. To escape he must convince them he is sympathetic to their cause, and in the end finds the experience has affected his own cure.
Cast
Running Length: 30 minutes
Plague is a grim depiction of a future time when the world has succumbed to a global plague that has forced the remnants of humanity into vast sealed domes, but even this precaution is proving only a delay to their ultimate doom. Mannie is a dome officer who suffers repeated personal calamities but is obsessed with rumours of certain individuals who have through an experimental process become immune to the plague, and in particular a Woman In White who has been seen walking contaminated streets unprotected. In the end he finds the woman has been looking for him, and he is himself one of the immune.
Cast
Running Length: 30 minutes
In a dark future where an aggressive America has annexed parts of Canada. Northern terrorists are using something called the SEMP, a nanotechnology pill that causes an individual's atoms to align to turn their body into a short range electromagnetic pulse bomb (killing them in the process), attacking the American occupiers by wiping out key computer and control systems. Zyla Jova is a Canadian government functionary who witnesses a retaliatory American urban attack then is called upon to oversee the matter transportation of the Prime Minister to a U.S. location where she is expected to capitulate to further imposed restrictions. But there is a rumour of a "MegaSEMP", a pill that can trigger an exponential chain reaction in any other individuals nearby, potentially killing millions. Just before she is sent, did the PM swallow something?
Cast
Running Length: 10 minutes
Guiding Light is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in Guinness World Records as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. Guiding Light aired on CBS for 57 years between June 30, 1952, and September 18, 2009, overlapping a 19-year broadcast on radio between January 25, 1937, and June 29, 1956. With 72 years of radio and television runs, Guiding Light is the longest running soap opera, ahead of General Hospital, and is the fifth-longest running program in all of broadcast history; only the American country music radio program Grand Ole Opry, the BBC religious program The Daily Service (1928), the CBS religious program Music and the Spoken Word (1929), and the Norwegian children's radio program Lørdagsbarnetimen (1924–2010) have been on the air longer.
Matthew Nathan Drudge is an American journalist and the creator/editor of the Drudge Report, an American news aggregator. Drudge is also an author and a former radio and television show host.
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor, writer and director. He is best known for his role as Daniel Jackson in the long-running military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and as Charles Harris on the Canadian medical drama Saving Hope. He is also known for his work on low budget, genre work filmed in Canada.
Jewel Belair Staite is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Kaylee Frye in the Fox television series Firefly (2002–2003) and its spin-off theatrical film Serenity (2005), and as Jennifer Keller on Sci-Fi Channel's science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis (2007–2009). Staite also starred as Catalina in Space Cases (1996), as "Becca" Fisher in Flash Forward (1996–1997), as Raquel Westbrook in the Canadian drama The L.A. Complex (2012), and as Caroline Swift in AMC's crime drama The Killing (2013–2014). Since 2021, she has starred as Abigail Bianchi in the Canadian legal drama series, Family Law
James Christopher Bolam is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Terry Collier in The Likely Lads and its sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Jack Ford in When the Boat Comes In, Roy Figgis in Only When I Laugh, Trevor Chaplin in The Beiderbecke Trilogy, Arthur Gilder in Born and Bred, Jack Halford in New Tricks and the title character of Grandpa in the CBeebies programme Grandpa in My Pocket.
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The first and second series episodes ran 30 minutes each; third series instalments ran 45 minutes. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons. Confidential received its own version of the Doctor Who theme tune, at least three different versions of the theme appeared in the series.
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series Baywatch: Hawaii (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the Syfy science fiction series Stargate Atlantis (2005–2009), Khal Drogo in the first two seasons of the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2012), Declan Harp on the Discovery Channel historical drama series Frontier (2016–2018), and Baba Voss on the Apple TV+ science fiction series See (2019–2022). Momoa was featured as the lead of the two lattermost series.
Neil Simon Fitzmaurice is an English actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as Jeff, the love rival of protagonist Mark Corrigan, in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show. He has written for a number of other shows, including Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights and Benidorm.
Jeffrey Alan Rawle is an English actor. He is known for portraying George Dent in the news-gathering sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey. He also portrayed Silas Blissett in Hollyoaks from December 2010 until 2012. Rawle returned to Hollyoaks in 2016, 2020 and 2022.
Monster Force is a 13-episode animated television series created in 1994 by Universal Cartoon Studios and Canadian studio Lacewood Productions. The story is set in approximately 2020 and centers on a group of teenagers who, with help of high tech weaponry, fight off against classic Universal Monsters and spiritual beings threatening humanity. Some of the crew have personal vendettas, while others fight for mankind out of a sense of altruism. The series aired in syndication alongside another Universal animated series, Exosquad. Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first seven episodes to DVD on September 15, 2009.
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin is a children's animated television series based on Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic teddy bear created by Ken Forsse and distributed by toy manufacturer Worlds of Wonder. Produced in 1986–7 for television syndication by DIC Enterprises with Atkinson Film-Arts, the series employed many of the same voice actors used in the book-and-tape series that was made for the eponymous animatronic toy. While some of the stories used in the TV series were adapted from the books, many were original and greatly expanded upon the world established there. The series differed from traditional children's animation in that most of its 65 episodes were serialized rather than in traditional episodic form.
Sally Jane Lindsay is an English actress and television presenter known for her roles as Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street, Lisa Johnson in the Sky One comedy series Mount Pleasant and Kath Agnew in the BBC sitcom Still Open All Hours.
Jeffrey Stuart Green is a Canadian author, playwright, producer, and director, who has worked in a variety of media including radio, television, computer, DVD-based multimedia, and in live nightclub settings. His work has earned him critical acclaim and a number of awards. In addition to the work he has created, he was instrumental in the evolution of broadcast radio in the Ottawa market during the late 1970s and the 1980s — specifically, the Carleton University non-profit radio station CKCU-FM and the commercial album-oriented rock radio station CHEZ-FM.
Nico Cristian Mirallegro is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Barry "Newt" Newton in the soap opera Hollyoaks (2007–2010), Finn Nelson in My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015), Joe Middleton in The Village (2013), and Johnjo O'Shea in Common (2014). His feature film credits include Spike Island (2012), Anita B. (2014), The Pass (2016), and Peterloo (2018).
Lance Sieveking was an English writer and pioneer BBC radio and television producer. He was married three times, and was father to archaeologist Gale Sieveking (1925–2007) and Fortean-writer Paul Sieveking (1949–).
The twenty-seventh series of Casualty began airing on BBC One on 18 August 2012 with an episode featuring a disaster at a music festival. Filming series 26 was completed in April 2012 and filming series 27 began a week later. The first episode was in the normal format – a 50-minute episode. This season is 44 episodes, increasing from 42 for the previous one. Viewing figures for the first episode were 5.19 million viewers, continuing to be one of the most watched programmes of a Saturday night.
Robert Bockstael is a Canadian actor, director and writer.
Sherlock Holmes is the overall title given to the series of radio dramas adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories that aired between 1952 and 1969 on BBC radio stations. The episodes starred Carleton Hobbs as Sherlock Holmes and Norman Shelley as Dr. Watson. All but four of Doyle's sixty Sherlock Holmes stories were adapted with Hobbs and Shelley in the leading roles, and some of the stories were adapted more than once with different supporting actors.