This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
---|---|
Language(s) | English |
Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
Starring |
|
Created by | Matthew Broughton |
Written by | Matthew Broughton |
Directed by | James Robinson |
Produced by |
|
Original release | 9 August 2016 – 21 December 2020 |
No. of series | 5 |
No. of episodes | 43 |
Opening theme | "Tracks Theme" by Stu Barker |
Website | Official BBC page |
Tracks is a British thriller-mystery fiction podcast created and written by Matthew Broughton, and primarily directed and produced by James Robinson. The show premiered on 9 August 2016, and concluded with its fifth series, Abyss, on 21 December 2020. Each series has its own subtitle, with the first series, originally simply called Tracks, retroactively subtitled Origins. Produced by BBC Cymru Wales, it aired on BBC Radio 4, with some episodes first being made available on the BBC's website, on which the series remains available to listen to.
Matthew Broughton wrote almost all episodes of the series, with Caroline Horton, Katherine Chandler, Lucy Catherine, Matt Hartley, and Timothy X Atack writing some episodes of series 3 and 5. James Robinson produced all episodes and directed most, with Abigail le Fleming, Carl Prekopp, Helen Perry, John Norton and Rebecca Lloyd-Evans acting as producers and/or directors alongside him for one series each.
The series follows the investigations of Dr. Helen Ash, a primary care physician whose life is changed when she witnesses the crash of a plane on which her estranged father was a passenger curious; her curious and determined nature leads her to investigate, leading her to unearth a series of conspiracies related to experimental science. Romola Garai, Hattie Morahan and Olivia Poulet all provide the voice of Helen over the course of the series, alongside Jonathan Forbes as Freddy, her long-lost friend who helps her in her investigations. Most of the series is set in modern times and features Helen as narrator and protagonist; the second series, Strata, is a prequel following a different set of characters in 1980.
The first series, Origins, follows Helen as she investigates her late father Florian, who died in a plane crash on his way to meet her for the first time, leading her, her husband Michael and her long-lost friend Freddy to unearth a large conspiracy related to her father's medical experiments and her own origins.
The second series, Strata, is a prequel set in 1980 in the wilds of Snowdonia, and follows Rachel Turner, a woman on a desperate search for her four-year-old son Joel, who went missing in an earthquake while she was looking for fossils; while looking for him, they stumble upon events relating to a strange pregnancy.
The third series, Chimera, starts as Helen finds out that she is pregnant, despite not having had sex for many months. In her attempts at finding out how she became pregnant, she stumbles upon experiments related to pregnancies, which may be related to both her pregnancy and her own birth.
In the fourth series, Indigo, Helen investigates strange events relating to individuals whose mental age does not seem to match their physical age.
The fifth and final series, Abyss, follows Helen, now suffering from terminal cancer, investigating the mysterious sinking of a boat.
All cast members are credited per episode without categorization. Actors are listed below as main cast if they appear in at least half of a series' episodes. Unlike in episode credits, performers are not credited for appearing in a series if it is only via footage from a previous series.
Volume | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 9 | August 9, 2016 | September 27, 2016 | |
2 | 6 | November 6, 2017 | December 4, 2017 | |
3 | 9 | November 1, 2018 | November 27, 2018 | |
4 | 10 | October 28, 2019 | November 8, 2019 | |
5 | 9 | October 26, 2020 | December 21, 2020 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Duration | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Episode One" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | August 9, 2016 |
1 | 2 | "Episode Two" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | August 16, 2016 |
1 | 3 | "Episode Three" | Helen Perry | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | August 23, 2016 |
1 | 4 | "Episode Four" | Helen Perry | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | August 30, 2016 |
1 | 5 | "Episode Five" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | September 6, 2016 |
1 | 6 | "Episode Six" | Helen Perry | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | September 13, 2016 |
1 | 7 | "Episode Seven" | Abigail le Fleming | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | September 20, 2016 |
1 | 8 | "Episode Eight" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | September 27, 2016 |
1 | 9 | "Episode Nine" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | September 27, 2016 |
Note: Strata was originally released online under the format below; it later aired on BBC Radio 4 as two episodes, each comprising three of the original format's episodes. The official BBC website offers both formats, with the two-episodes format being referred to as "Omnibus Part 1" and "Omnibus Part 2". [2]
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Duration | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Strata: Episode One" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 19 minutes | November 6, 2017 |
1 | 2 | "Strata: Episode Two" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 12 minutes | November 6, 2017 |
1 | 3 | "Strata: Episode Three" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 12 minutes | November 13, 2017 |
1 | 4 | "Strata: Episode Four" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | November 20, 2017 |
1 | 5 | "Strata: Episode Five" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | November 27, 2017 |
1 | 6 | "Strata: Episode Six" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 16 minutes | December 4, 2017 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Duration | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Chimera: Episode One" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | November 1, 2018 |
1 | 2 | "Chimera: Episode Two" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | November 8, 2018 |
1 | 3 | "Chimera: Episode Three" | Rebecca Lloyd-Evans | Matt Hartley | 44 minutes | November 15, 2018 |
1 | 4 | "Chimera: Episode Four" | Carl Prekopp | Lucy Catherine | 44 minutes | November 22, 2018 |
1 | 5 | "Chimera: Episode Five" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | November 29, 2018 |
1 | 6 | "Chimera: Episode Six" | Rebecca Lloyd-Evans | Caroline Horton | 44 minutes | December 6, 2018 |
1 | 7 | "Chimera: Episode Seven" | James Robinson | Timothy X Atack | 43 minutes | December 13, 2018 |
1 | 8 | "Chimera: Episode Eight" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | November 20, 2017 |
1 | 9 | "Chimera: Episode Nine" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | December 27, 2017 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Duration | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Indigo: Episode One" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 13 minutes | October 28, 2019 |
1 | 2 | "Indigo: Episode Two" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | October 29, 2019 |
1 | 3 | "Indigo: Episode Three" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 13 minutes | October 30, 2019 |
1 | 4 | "Indigo: Episode Four" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 13 minutes | October 31, 2019 |
1 | 5 | "Indigo: Episode Five" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 13 minutes | November 1, 2019 |
1 | 6 | "Indigo: Episode Six" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | November 4, 2019 |
1 | 7 | "Indigo: Episode Seven" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 13 minutes | November 5, 2019 |
1 | 8 | "Indigo: Episode Eight" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | November 6, 2019 |
1 | 9 | "Indigo: Episode Nine" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | November 7, 2019 |
1 | 10 | "Indigo: Episode Ten" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 14 minutes | November 8, 2019 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Duration | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Abyss: Episode One" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | October 26, 2020 |
1 | 2 | "Abyss: Episode Two" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | November 2, 2019 |
1 | 3 | "Abyss: Episode Three" | John Norton | Caroline Horton | 13 minutes | November 9, 2020 |
1 | 4 | "Abyss: Episode Four" | James Robinson | Lucy Catherine | 44 minutes | November 16, 2020 |
1 | 5 | "Abyss: Episode Five" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 43 minutes | November 23, 2020 |
1 | 6 | "Abyss: Episode Six" | John Norton | Katherine Chandler | 43 minutes | November 30, 2020 |
1 | 7 | "Abyss: Episode Seven" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | December 7, 2020 |
1 | 8 | "Abyss: Episode Eight" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | December 14, 2020 |
1 | 9 | "Abyss: Episode Nine" | James Robinson | Matthew Broughton | 44 minutes | December 21, 2020 |
According to the BBC, the first series of Tracks was "the most successful drama series launched by [BBC] Radio 4 in 2016." [2]
The first episode of the series earned Nigel Newis a BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama at the 2017 ceremony, with Broughton and producers James Robinson, Helen Perry and Abigail le Fleming earning a nomination for Best Audio Drama (Series or Serial). [3] At the 2018 ceremony, Strata was nominated for Best Podcast or Online Only Audio Drama. [4]
The first series won Best Fiction Podcast at the 2017 British Podcast Awards. [5]
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his 1997 Comedy Premiere special of the same name. The series follows three couples experiencing the ups-and-downs of romance, originally Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, Pete and Jenny Gifford and Karen and David Marsden. As the original series progressed, the Giffords divorced and Pete married Jo Ellison, whilst Karen and David also separated, forming relationships with Mark Cubitt and Robyn Duff.
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, known for her roles as Rachel Bradley in the British comedy drama Cold Feet (1997–2003) and Emily Waltham in the American sitcom Friends (1998–1999).
Romola Sadie Garai is a British actress and film director. Known for her extensive work on stage and screen, she often acts in period films. Her early film roles include Nicholas Nickleby (2002), I Capture the Castle (2003), Inside I'm Dancing (2004), and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004). She has gained prominence for her performances in the critically acclaimed costume dramas such as Vanity Fair (2004), As You Like It (2006), Amazing Grace (2007), Atonement (2007), Glorious 39 (2009), and Suffragette (2015).
Richard Hope is a British actor who gained recognition from Brideshead Revisited as the doltish junior officer, Hooper, under Jeremy Irons charge. He is best known for playing Harris Pascoe in the UK TV drama Poldark. His theatre career includes portraying Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace at the Royal National Theatre and having starred in another Tolstoy adaptation by Helen Edmundson, playing Levin in Anna Karenina. In 2015, he played Hector in The History Boys. In 2018–2019, he starred in the West End production The Woman in Black as Arthur Kipps.
Helen Edmundson is a British playwright, screenwriter and producer. She has won awards and critical acclaim both for her original writing and for her adaptations of various literary classics for the stage and screen.
Amanda Hale is a British actress.
Mary I of England has been depicted in popular culture a number of times.
Planet B is a science fiction drama series first broadcast on BBC Radio 7 on 2 March 2009 as part of BBC Radio's science fiction season between February and March 2009. Planet B is set in a virtual world called "Planet B" in which people play as life-size avatars. The first series follows John Armstrong who attempts to find his girlfriend Lioba Fielding who is dead in the real world but alive in Planet B. As he travels between various worlds he becomes entangled in an array of strange scenarios, teleporting from each adventure to the next with his companion Medley, a "rogue avatar" who has no human controller. All the while, John and Medley are being watched by a dog-like antivirus programme called Cerberus who, along with the Planet B Corporation, considers the rogues to be a computer virus that need to be wiped out. In the second season, Lioba is on the run from Planet B and travels the virtual world with computer games expert Kip Berenger after they are attacked by Cerberus.
Emma is a four-part BBC television drama serial adaptation of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma. The episodes were written by Sandy Welch, writer of previous BBC costume dramas Jane Eyre and North & South, and directed by Jim O'Hanlon. The serial stars Romola Garai as the titular heroine Emma Woodhouse, Jonny Lee Miller as her loyal lifelong friend Mr. Knightley, and Michael Gambon as Emma's father, Mr. Woodhouse. The serial originally ran weekly on Sunday nights on BBC One from 4 to 25 October 2009.
Rachel Louise Bradley is a fictional character portrayed by Helen Baxendale in the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet. Rachel is introduced in the pilot episode (1997), where she begins a relationship with Adam Williams. Their relationship has highs and lows throughout the series; Rachel reveals a secret husband in the first series (1998) and has an abortion in the second (1999), which supposedly prevents her from conceiving a child in the future. She and Adam marry in the third series (2000) and are surprised to discover that she is pregnant in the fourth (2001). They both begin raising their child in the fifth series (2003), but Rachel's life is cut short when she is killed in a car crash.
The Crimson Petal and the White is a 2011 four part television serial, adapted from Michel Faber's 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White. Starring Romola Garai as Sugar and Chris O'Dowd as William Rackham, the drama aired in the UK during April 2011 on BBC Two. The supporting cast includes Shirley Henderson, Richard E. Grant and Gillian Anderson. Critical reviews of the drama were mixed but generally positive.
The Hour is a British television drama series broadcast on BBC. The series was centred on a then-new current-affairs show being launched by the BBC in June 1956, at the time of the Hungarian Revolution and Suez Crisis. It stars Ben Whishaw, Dominic West, and Romola Garai, with a supporting cast including Tim Pigott-Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Burn Gorman, Anton Lesser, Anna Chancellor, Julian Rhind-Tutt, and Oona Chaplin. It was written by Abi Morgan.
Helen Alexandra Lewis is a British journalist and a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is a former deputy editor of the New Statesman, and has also written for The Guardian and The Sunday Times.
Born to Kill is a British television drama, produced by World Productions, that was first broadcast on Channel 4 from 20 April to 11 May 2017. The four-part serial stars Jack Rowan as Sam Woodford, a seemingly ordinary 16-year-old schoolboy who harbours secret psychopathic tendencies. The series also stars Romola Garai as Sam's mother, Jenny; Lara Peake as Sam's girlfriend, Chrissie; Earl Cave as Sam's only friend, Oscar; Daniel Mays as Chrissie's father, Bill; and Richard Coyle as Sam's father, Peter. The series was written and created by Tracey Malone and Kate Ashfield, becoming Malone's second original television production following Rillington Place. The series is distributed worldwide by BBC Worldwide.
The Miniaturist is a 2017 BBC television miniseries adaptation of the debut novel of the same name by Jessie Burton. The series was directed by Guillem Morales and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Romola Garai and Alex Hassell and first aired in two parts from 26–27 December 2017 on BBC One. In the United States, it aired in three parts from 9–27 September 2018 on PBS's Masterpiece.
Vigil is a British police procedural television serial created by Tom Edge and produced by World Productions. The six-part first series, which aired on BBC One in August 2021 and featured Suranne Jones, Rose Leslie, Shaun Evans, Paterson Joseph, Gary Lewis and Martin Compston, is set in Scotland and much of the action takes place on HMS Vigil, a fictional ballistic missile submarine of the Royal Navy. The second series, whch aired in December 2023, again features Jones, Leslie and Lewis alongside Dougray Scott and Romola Garai, and is set in Scotland and the fictional Middle Eastern nation Wudyan.
Julian Simpson is a British writer and director working in film, television and audio. He is best known for his radio plays for BBC Radio, most of which take place within his "Pleasant Green" universe with loose connections to each other, including The Lovecraft Investigations series, based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
Archive 81 is a horror podcast created by Daniel Powell and Marc Sollinger and starring Amelia Kidd. It uses the found footage technique and follows the story of Dan, an archivist tasked to restore the audio recordings of Melody Pendras during her stay at the Visser Apartment. A television adaptation of the same name premiered on Netflix in January 2022.
The Lovecraft Investigations is a mystery thriller/horror fiction podcast created, written and directed by Julian Simpson, based on several works of H. P. Lovecraft. Produced by Karen Rose and Sweet Talk Productions for BBC Radio 4, the podcast premiered on 2 January 2019, and initially ended on 29 November 2020 with the conclusion of its third season. It was revived with a fourth season released on 16 October 2023.
Nisha K Nayar is a British actress. After coming to prominence in the 1993 film Bhaji on the Beach, she had starring roles as Debra Kumar in the film Out of Hours in 1998 and as Elaine "the Pain" Boyak in the CBBC children's series, The Story of Tracy Beaker from 2002 to 2005. She also appeared as Joyce Hammond in the ITV crime drama Rose and Maloney between 2004 and 2005 and starred as Fran Keeley in the Channel 4 drama Before We Die in 2021.