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Madhouse
Written by Zoltán Déry

Download Part 1 - 17.8mb, MP3 Download Part 2 - 15.2mb, MP3 "Production Notes" Here’s a strange thing. Madhouse was completed well over two years ago but due to being the second story in the season, I could not release until now, which has been slightly frustrating. Zoltán Déry sent in his story idea unsolicited and I liked his ideas combining the supernatural and SF, always a rich seam for Doctor Who. Plus I like ghost stories and the idea of a gothic story in haunted house seemed ideal for audio. The production was taped in a church hall in the village of Mawdesley and its acoustics added marvellously to the recording. Clive, Emma and Adrian were friends from my amateur dramatic group and it was fun to be able to bring them into this side of my creative work. It was also fun to get my old friend Paul Ebbs back and hear again the posh villain’s voice he used in the Season 27 story Profit of Doom. We had a read-through, then recorded the play as one complete performance, which seemed to work well. Some scenes were later re-recorded at Clive’s house and I had to recreate the ambience of the hall in software later. After writing for FineLine, Zoltán went on to write a BBV audio The Green Man, so I’m glad we were able to use his talents first, even if the delay in releasing the story meant we couldn’t benefit from any cross publicity! "Writers Notes" Many people have singularly failed to ask me where I get my ideas. This, however, will not stop me from listing some of the sources of inspiration that led me to write “Madhouse”. The main source was a Brian Lumley short story entitled “The Running Man”, published by Games Workshop in their “Call of Cthulhu” RPG sourcebook “Green and Pleasant Land”. The references to Harry Price and his investigations into Borley Rectory in this book and the later Chaosium “CoC” guide to 1920s London led to the creation of the group of investigators, plus all of their equipment. (Only Mr. Price’s portable telephone was left out, since I worried that most listeners would be distracted by an apparent anachronism.) The Gremlin Software PC game “Realms of the Haunting” added a goodly amount of atmosphere. One line from “Image of the Fendahl” helped a lot, as did an early “Doctor Strange” Marvel comic strip by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Mix that little lot together in my feverish imagination and you get “Madhouse”. Not that this final version resembles the early notes too closely. There, the investigators had an extra member while the Doctor was companionless. Even as late as the penultimate draft, the housekeeper was a character, rather than being referred to only in dialogue. However, it was too long, something had to go, and so Mrs. Arkham went. The extra investigator was merged into the existing character of Mr. Churchill in the first draft. At this point everything fell into place, and the whole plot began to make sense (to me, at least.) So, here it is: “Madhouse”, my tribute to all those “Old Dark House” horror films and books, as well as to my favourite television series. To order Madhouse on high quality CD, please click here. Contact Us Latest News Links Film Reviews Site Credits Profiles Green Room