Big Finish Productions 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men

Written by	Eddie Robson
Format	Compact Disc
Released	2013

Starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton

Synopsis: If you remember the Sixties, they say, then you can't have been there. The Doctor remembers the Sixties. That's why he's taking Nyssa on a trip back to November 1963. Back to where it all began. Back to the birth of the biggest band in the history of British music. Back to see those cheeky lads from Liverpool... Mark, James and Korky. The Common Men. The boys who made the Sixties swing with songs like "Oh, Won't You Please Love Me?", "Just Count To Three" and "Who Is That Man". The Doctor remembers the Sixties. And there's something very wrong with the Sixties, if the Beatles no longer exist...

• Praise for the Common Men by Matthew Kresal

Praise for the Common Men by Matthew Kresal 23/5/26

It's hard to believe that Doctor Who's 50th anniversary was a dozen years ago now. The hype building up to the 23rd of November remains vivid in this reviewer's mind, building up as it did to The Day of the Doctor. There was a wider celebration of that anniversary across various media, from comics to reprinted novels (the first time a number of Wilderness Era titles had seen print in nearly a decade) and in audio dramas from Big Finish. While the latter's The Light at the End got much of the attention with a big multi-Doctor story, they also celebrated the anniversary with a trilogy in their monthly range from September to November with a trilogy of stories set in and around 1963 that took listeners (and the Doctor) across the anniversary month. Kicking it off was Eddie Robson's Fanfare for the Common Men with a rather neat premise.

Featuring Peter Davison's Doctor and Nyssa, Robson launches listeners straight into the action at London Airport where they're awaiting the arrival of the Beatles. Soon enough, a music group from Liverpool steps off a plane to screaming fans. Except that, as quickly becomes apparent, another group has taken the place of the Beatles: the Common Men of Mark, James and Korky.

Since Doctor Who came back to TV in 2005, Big Finish have from time to time emulated the current TV era. During RTD's initial tenure, we got the likes of the Lucie Miller audios that put Paul McGann's Doctor into episodes that could have come out of that era. During Steven Moffat's time, a number of Big Finish audios began playing around with "timey wimey" and "time can be rewritten" storytelling. Robson's script owes at least a debt to Moffat, with cause and effect out of order and non-linear storytelling that allows parallel storylines to play out against one another. Something which a central mystery or two (Why take the Beatles out of history? Who are the Common Men actually?) can be played out against. All wrapped up in a nice package by the end with a knowing link back to a brief moment in An Unearthly Child. Something that wouldn't at all have been out of place on TV in 2013, but perhaps better realized on audio by the virtue of being for the fans, by the fans.

Though a lot of the fun listening to this lies in that Beatles connection. It's surprising that it took so long for something close to a proper Doctor Who and the Beatles story to appear (and since this, of course, we got The Devil's Chord on TV). With the Common Men having been effectively swapped out for the Fab Four, Robson drops in a number of references and nods throughout. Song titles and bits of lyric in the dialogue, events re-contextualized to fit both a new timeline and the story that Robson wanted to tell. Something which comes together nicely at the end for a rather fun and satisfying conclusion. If you're someone who counts themselves as a fan of both (or at least have some knowledge of the Beatles), there's a lot to enjoy here.

Robson's script also gives the cast plenty to play with. Davison is on fine form as the Doctor, channeling in some of the actor being a real-life fan of the Beatles but also in places a more serious and even paternal version of this Doctor that Big Finish have developed. That said, Robson also gives Davison some fun and even funny material to play with, something perhaps owed (as Davison notes in the extras) to his having written for the actor with the BBC radio comedy "Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully". Sarah Sutton as Nyssa spends much of the running time on her own, giving both character and performer a chance to shine as a main character playing a part in solving the mystery with her own plot line rather than (as could be the case on TV especially) playing a supporting role. The casting of the three Common Men is strong as well in the form of Mitch Benn as Mark, Andrew Knott as James, and David Dobson as Korky, who all stand apart despite having similar accents as different characters (something which is especially helpful given the amount of scenes where all three of them are talking). Alison Thea-Skot might be the standout of the supporting cast, playing the entire female cast with enough difference between them that if you didn't look at the cast list, you'd likely never know it. While Ryan Sampson as Lenny plays an all-too-obvious villain, it's a cast that brings Robson's script to life with aplomb.

Being focused as the story is on a band, music plays an even bigger role than usual. There's sizable portions of a few songs played at different points in the narrative, with composer Howard Carter neatly pastiching the 1960s British pop scene with plausible hits from an alternative timeline as well as the wider score. A task that the composer was aided in by the three performers, who also turned out to be good vocalists. The song lyrics also subtly nod toward the wider plot, something which took at least a couple of listens to catch onto their fuller meaning. Plus, with this being an anniversary story of sorts, there's even a cover version of that aforementioned song from An Unearthly Child. That this came out after music suites had become part of the extras on each release is a blessing, as it allows Carter's work to shine on its own.

Twelve years on, Fanfare for the Common Men remains a joy to hear. It's everything one could ask for from Big Finish: a strong script well brought to life by the cast and crew. Not to mention that it kicks off the 1963 trilogy splendidly. So why not dig it or give it a first listen and enjoy the sixties that might have been?