Hey fellow bees.
I like listening to podcasts as it helps me focus and is just a fun way to experience other peoples thoughts and opinions.
Recently I started listening to actual audio dramas, like the ones produced by QCode (Carrier, Blackout) or even the narrated Hobbit / LOTR books with sound effects.
Are there any other good audio dramas or producers that you can recommend? Any genre is OK, just the ones you like most!
Bbc Radio 4 have any number of dramas in their back catalogue. One that I particularly enjoyed is Alan Plater’s Only a Matter of Time - available on the Internet archive, I find.
Then Orson Welles original War of the Worlds by the Mercury Theatre on the Air in 1938 is well worth a listen. That is available in several places around the Web.
Then, of course, there is Big Finish, who started off doing Doctor Who audios and have produced hundreds over the years - far more hours than there are of T V Doctor Who, classic and new - but they also produce a lot of other dramas, based on other properties and some completely original.
Overall their earlier ones are where the standout tales are, but they are fairly reliably entertaining throughout.
You can check out the stormlight archive Graphic Audio. I’m assuming most things by graphic audio will be good too. Their whole thing is having a full cast with music and sound effects for the books they do
Welcome to Night Vale is sort of in that vein, a cross between a podcast and a drama.
I have long enjoyed a series called The Truth. The vast majority of episodes are one-off stories. The actors tend to be very good. The stories run the gamut from fantasy and sci-fi, to speculative fiction and horror. Most stories contain some fantastical element, but not all. I tend to finish episodes wanting desperately to share that story with a friend. They asked for listeners to vote last year on which story they liked best. Here are the stories with the most votes:
The Dark End of the Mall Tape Delay Possible Side Effects Rideshare Fish Girl You’re Not Alone
The Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire…) Star wars audio books are sensational. Lots of music and sound effects, and the reader expertly replicates the actors’ voices from the movies. Totally recommended if you’re looking for something akin to an audio play.
If you want horror, The Magnus Archives is an excellent 5 season (200 episode!) drama that completed a few year ago.
A horror fiction anthology examining the mysteries within the archives of London based The Magnus Institute, an organization dedicated to documenting and researching the esoteric and the weird.
The extra behind-the-scenes content is fun, too!
As someone already mentioned, BBC Radio 4 have some brilliant dramas. One of my favourites is “Tracks” by Matthew Broughton. Fully dramatised with cast/sound design/score its a thriller with a medical edge. lots of twists and turns There are 5 seasons too.
Yesterday I was wondering if I would get any reaction at all, these responses are phenomenal! I’ll look into them one by one, thanks everyone!
Ensable readings of audiobooks are great when done well. My favorite is a recording of the His Dark Materials series narrated by the author and with different voice actors for all characters.
For something a bit more classic (and free), I also really enjoyed the Librivox Dramatic reading of Dracula, though some readers come off better than others.
In both cases, the books really lend themselves to the format: in His Dark Materials, there’s near constant dialogue since every character has a companion spirit to chat with, and Dracula is written as a series of letters and journals so each chapter follows a different character’s perspective and style.
Yes! One of my lesser known favorites is Within The Wires, which tells a different, loosely connected story each season which all take place in a kind of speculative universe. It’s really human and so good, kind of genre hopping. Also excellent are all the ones you’ve probably heard of: The Magnus Archives (cosmic horror), Welcome To Night Vale (cosmic horror but cozy), Ars Paradoxica (thematically heavy time travel cold war story), Wolf 359 (space station mystery sitcom), The Bright Sessions (superpowers and therapy), and Mabel (dreamy, weird, earthy horror love story).
The Once And Future Nerd is a fantastic original audio drama series.
The Once And Future Nerd is a fantastic original audio drama series.
The Once And Future Nerd is a fantastic original audio drama series.
