Synopsis: Jeremiah Bourne is a boy with a remarkable gift. He can travel in time. Not by using a time machine, or stepping through a dimensional portal. It just happens to him, as though by accident. One minute he’s in the present day, the next, he’s a hundred years in the past, standing in the London of 1910.
Jeremiah has two questions; how did he get there – and how can he get back?
Review: Actor/Writer Nigel Planer went on a long journey to craft Jeremiah Bourne In Time. It started when he appeared in Doctor Who Live along with Nicholas Briggs. Planer thought it would be a lovely idea to create a time-traveling character of his own. Three drafts of a Jeremiah Bourne novel later, he reconnected with Briggs when he starred as Professor Cavor in the Big Finish adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The First Men In The Moon. One recording and several emails after that, Planer worked with script editor Jonathan Morris, and listeners have the absolute treat that is this box set.
Story
The time travel mechanism in this story is a plot device — a really interesting plot device in the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife or The House on the Strand — but a plot device all the same. Jeremiah and the people who populate his world are the points of the tale.
Once Jeremiah, or Jem, as he’s called finds himself in 1910. He meets a brilliantly Dickensian assortment of characters. He encounters Phyllis Stokes of The Society for Theosophical Research and her brother, Roger Allcot Standish — magistrate, spiritualist, and nudist. He also crosses paths with Mr. and Mrs. Grout — Edwardian approximations of foster care. Additionally, there’s Ed Viney — thief, gang member, and violent odd jobs man. Rounding out the cast are current and former inmates of the Home for Fallen Girls that supplies the Edwardian foster parents with charges and a mad scientist who conducts experiments in Eugenics.
I loved how all of these characters interacted and how the various plot twists were set up and paid off. Planer and Morris managed the difficult feat of giving listeners closure while expanding the universe for future box sets.
Overall
Jeremiah Bourne In Time has the makings of a marvelous new range for Big Finish. The characters and universe are engaging. The top-notch cast, including Planer in the plumb baddie role, is superb. Bring on Volume 2!
You can purchase Jeremiah Bourne In Time here.
Written By: Nigel Planer
Directed By: Barnaby Edwards
Cast
Sebastian Armesto (Jeremiah Bourne), Sophie Thompson (Phyllis Stokes), Tim McInnerny (Rodger Allcott Standish), Celia Imrie (Clementina Quentinbloom), Nigel Planer (Henry Davenant Hythe), Christopher Ryan (Pete), Tim Bentinck (Mr Grout), Annette Badland (Mrs Grout), Siobhán Redmond (Hemling), Ony Uhiara (Daisy Wallace), Alix Wilton Regan (Lucy Bonnet), Lauren McCrostie (Ruby), Helen Goldwyn (Janet), George Naylor (Ed Viney). Other parts played by members of the cast.
Producer: David Richardson
Script Editor: Jonathan Morris
Executive Producers: Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
Photo credits: Amy Mathieson and Barnaby Edwards
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- Story8.5
- Performances10
- Audio Production10
