Mulgrave Audio, a small company producing original audio drama, will release Patchwuff, a touching rites-of-passage drama starring legendary TV presenter Valerie Singleton in June. Valerie is 88 today.
Valerie, perhaps best known as a Blue Peter present, turns 88 years old today, 9th April, and this is her first lead acting role for over 60 years. The production also features original songs and music from Sandra Kerr, composer of the soundtrack to classic 1970s children’s show Bagpuss.
Patchwuff, narrated by iconic TV presenter Valerie Singleton, Mulgrave Audio’s third audio drama also comes with an original soundtrack by folk legend Sandra Kerr, singer and co-writer of the music from 1970s children’s favourite Bagpuss.
Patchwuff is written by Mulgrave Audio co-founder Andrew T. Smith and is available to pre-order now, and will be released for digital download on 3rd June 2025, with limited edition 10” vinyl copies to follow.
Patchwuff is the third release from Mulgrave Audio, a company formed in 2023 to produce original audio drama. This short story, clocking in at 14 minutes long, is the second of the company’s bite-sized “Little Hauntings” releases.
Written by Andrew T. Smith, Patchwuff tells the story of Peter, a young boy whose best friend is a tatty cloth dog, hand-made by his doting grandmother. When a high-flying TV executive visits the house and decides to bring Patchwuff’s stories to the small screen, Peter finds his loyalties divided.
“The idea came to me after seeing a photograph of Emily, the girl from Bagpuss, all grown up,” says Andrew. “It made me wonder how the very public friendship between a child and their stuffed pal would change over the years. See also Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh!
“Through the eye of a children’s series, I wanted to explore more adult themes – our relationship to the past, our approach to ageing, and how our formative experiences can shape our future.”
The story is narrated by a genuine TV legend. Before she presented BBC children’s show Blue Peter from 1962 to 1975 (and, unforgettably, once walked a lion!), Valerie Singleton worked regularly as a radio and theatre performer and built a career as one of the country’s leading female voiceover artists. Patchwuff is her first lead acting role for over six decades.
“Until I met the wonderful Valerie a few years ago, I had no idea about her pre-Blue Peter acting career,” continues Andrew. “But armed with this knowledge, I knew she was the only choice for the narrator. The role called not only for someone whose voice evokes the gentle children’s television of yesteryear, but also somebody who could handle quite serious subject matters as the play progresses.”
After reading Andrew’s script, Valerie was delighted to accept the role. She recalls an emotional reaction at her first read-through.
“I thought it was lovely,” says Valerie. “I read it as a story for children, then got to the end and burst into tears. It’s about a little boy who visits his grandmother’s sewing room – and you even put ‘sticky tape’ in there, which I thought was very kind of you! He grows up and gets married and has a family, but then things don’t go so well for him… which happens to a lot of us as we get older. And perhaps, because I’m getting older myself, I identified with that.”
“And yes, I trained to be an actress. I was at RADA, with a lot of marvellous people. Including Peter O’Toole, Albert Finney, Peter Bowles and Alan Bates!”
The soundtrack, meanwhile, is provided by a legend of the folk music world. And, indeed, another performer with strong links to a golden age of children’s television. Sandra Kerr has enjoyed a sixty-year career as a writer and performer of traditional music, and in 1974 she joined her then-husband John Faulkner to create the soundtrack for Bagpuss. Fifty years on, Sandra has composed and recorded a completely original score for Patchwuff, including two brand new songs.
“I was really intrigued and moved by the script,” says Sandra. “I loved the way that it moved through Peter’s childhood, and I loved the relationship between Peter and his grandmother. That’s an important connection, and all of it had resonance for me – speaking as an old lady and a Nana!”
One of Sandra’s new songs, ‘Forget-Me-Not’, draws directly from some of the play’s more touching themes.
“The little phrase, ‘Forget-Me-Not’, encapsulates so many things,” she explains. “It’s about the flower, but it’s also saying ‘Don’t forget me when I’m old and frail’. And of course, the names of flowers come into so many traditional folk songs. Think of ‘The Seeds of Love’ and ‘Scarborough Fair’. So immediately I thought of a song about ageing and memory, called ‘Forget-Me-Not’, and couched in the language of flowers and plants.”
Patchwuff will be released on 3rd June 2025 for digital download, with a limited edition 10” vinyl to follow shortly afterwards. Both are available to pre-order now. Digital download versions (provided free with vinyl purchases) will also include Sandra Kerr’s isolated songs and a special analogue version of Patchwuff, created using a 1970s Revox reel-to-reel tape machine for that authentic vintage feel.
• Patchwuff is released on 3rd June 2025, and is available to pre-order now from mulgraveaudio.co.uk
Previous Releases – Lurgy and Fellfoul, still available
The debut Mulgrave Audio release was Simon Perkins‘ Lurgy, released in 2023. Written by Bob Fischer, it was set in 1974 and told the story of a troubled teenager drawn into surreal conversations with a sinister TV continuity announcer.
Starburst described it as “Spellbinding… will leave you contemplating your very existence”, while SFX declared: “Haunting, poignant and brimming with nostalgia, it’s one to listen to with the lights out.”
“Excellent voice acting and sound design” commented Shindig. “Fans of Inside No 9 and spooky period kids’ shows like Children of the Stones will find plenty to cherish.”
The second Mulgrave Audio release was Fellfoul, released in 2024. Written by Andrew Orton, it followed the fantastical journey of a young woman fascinated by the strange fandom of an obscure 1980s fantasy film.
SFX felt this “Strongly evokes Alan Garner’s The Owl Service… A pitch-perfect conjuring of a specific era and mood… steeped in eerie nostalgia.”
“Mulgrave Audio have carved out their own niche, delivering fascinating, spellbinding journeys into worlds a step to the side of our own,” noted Starburst. “The future looks very bright, even if the light is filtered through a wonderfully strange filter.”
Mulgrave Audio was founded in 2023 by three North-eastern writers: Bob Fischer, Andrew Orton and Andrew T. Smith. Bob Fischer is from Teesside and writes for Fortean Times, Electronic Sound and Doctor Who Magazine. He is the creator of The Haunted Generation website, has presented radio programmes for BBC Tees and 6 Music, and his book Wiffle Lever To Full! was a travelogue of sci-fi conventions.
Andrew Orton is from County Durham and is the author of Hooded Man, a two-volume series of books detailing the production of 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood. He is also an accomplished graphic artist and CGI designer, and provides Mulgrave Audio’s distinctive artwork.
Andrew T. Smith is from Gateshead, has written books about the Marx Brothers and Last of the Summer Wine, and is the director of Cartoon Carnival, a documentary film about the early years of animation. He is also the co-creator of the internationally-broadcast puppet TV series, Nebula-75.
The company intends to release further audio dramas across multiple formats.
• Patchwuff is released on 3rd June 2025, and is available to pre-order now from mulgraveaudio.co.uk
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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