Review: Tim Frazer Again by Francis Durbridge (audio book)

Tim Frazer Again by Francis Durbridge read by Anthony Head (AudioGO, September 2011, ISBN: 9781408469682, 2 CDs (2hr 20 mins))

I've previously reviewed an audio book featuring Francis Durbridge's famous creation Paul Temple: Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery in which a writer turns sleuth in the upper end of society. Tim Frazer's isn't quite so high-brow.

Frazer is an engineer who has recently begun working for a secret police/Government department. In this, his second case, he is sent to Amsterdam to shadow Barbara Day. Barbara Day recently ran over and killed a British agent, Leo Salinger, on one of her regular trips to Amsterdam. Was it an accident of something more sinister?

Frazer carries out his assignment and makes an impression. So much so, that when he is back in London he gets embroiled in Barbara's personal and professional life, and when he finds a dead body in her living room, things become quite tricky for him. Even when Frazer has completed his task of finding out whether Salinger was involved in shady dealings or not, he can't let the mystery rest and carries on to the bitter end risking his heart and his life...

This is a complicated story with many twists and turns which kept me hooked. It's action-packed with fights, dangerous men, and a hidden baddie who instils mortal fear in his underlings. Written in the 1960s we see the quaint use of telephone boxes rather than disposable mobile phones. I really enjoyed Tim Frazer Again and Buffy and Merlin's Anthony Head narrates very well with a variety of convincing accents and a low breathy voice for Barbara Day. He also plays Tim Frazer in 2010's The World of Tim Frazer and I'll be looking out for his Paul Temple audio books too.

OT: Doctor Who Audio Book review

Continuing with my occasional reviews of Doctor Who/Torchwood audio books, next up is The Nightmare of Black Island, written by Mike Tucker and read by Anthony Head. As well as appearing in the episode School Reunion, Anthony Head is also the voice of Doctor Who Confidential and this exposure serves him well in his portrayal of Rose and the Doctor.
















The Nightmare of Black Island starts off rather nastily and extremely creepily with the death of a tourist who has recently arrived in a small coastal Welsh village which has an abandoned light-house on a small black-rock island. The man doesn't get much fishing in before he's mauled to death by a 2 metre tall monster. Rose is sleeping in the TARDIS and is able to 'see' this event in her dream. The Doctor guides the TARDIS to the outskirts of the village but when the pair head through the woods to the village proper, they are set upon by not just one monster but a whole variety of peculiar and deadly forms.

Reaching safety in the shape of a local pub, they discover the trouble began when a local man, Nathanial Morton, returned and set up a nursing home. The Doctor and Rose visit the home then getting nowhere, they separate; the Doctor visits the light-house and Rose returns to spy on the home. The Doctor finds a space-craft on the island but he leaves it too late and the monsters return trapping him there, whilst at the home, Rose doesn't avoid detection and gets captured. The duo will need the assistance of the villagers - to first, free the time-travellers and then to help eradicate the monsters and allow the children to sleep peacefully at night once more.

Aside from the beginning with all the monsters this story feels like it could easily be filmed for tv and would make an exciting two parter, but equally it has the feel of the classic Doctor Who episodes of the 70s where the story was split into 4, 6 or even 8 parts. The Doctor and Rose are well written and feel consistent with the tv portrayal. Not too surprising as the author worked on series 1 and 2 in the visual effects department.

Though Anthony Head states, in the not to be missed interview at the end of disc 2, that he doesn't do impersonations he gets the speech patterns correct and provides a flavour of the accents of the Doctor and Rose so that you do hear the tv actors' voices. He also does well with the remaining characters and he has a lovely, warm voice for the straight narration. To date he doesn't appear to have narrated any more - but I'd certainly be keen to listen to them if he did.

The Invisibles - BBC1

I saw the trailer after Waking the Dead for a new BBC drama - The Invisibles. It stars Buffy's Anthony Head and Dalziel and Pascoe's Warren Clarke.


From the BBC website:

Maurice Riley and Syd Woolsey are old friends who return from the good life on the Costa del Crime to a quiet Devon fishing village. They plan to eke out their retirement fishing and availing themselves of the NHS. However, the quiet life is not for them. As their ill-gotten gains run short, they find themselves drawn back into a life of crime, only crime has moved on and they've got new things to learn.

It starts on 1 May at 9pm on BBC1. Watch a trailer and read cast interviews at The Invisibles website.