B7 Media’s “Dan Dare Audio Adventures” get another outing on BBC Radio 4 Extra

By John Freeman on May 16, 2021

Spaceship Away! The first series of Dan Dare Audio Adventures from B7 Media is currently being repeated this week on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Catch-up here on BBC Sounds.

In Voyage to Venus, which stars Ed Stoppard as Dan Dare, dramatised by by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle, arriving at Venus, will brilliant test pilot, Dan Dare, be able to hold his own against a cunning new enemy?

The adventures are based on the Eagle comic strip “Dan Dare” created by the Reverend Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson. Voyage to Venus is running on BBC Radio 4 Extra this week, with The Red Moon Mystery, written by Jim Swallow, coming up next.

I was delighted to be involved in this project, utilising my revamp of the Dan Dare mythos originally created for an abandoned revival of the character for STRIP Magazine, which sadly didn’t happen, although a test strip written by me, drawn by Joe Pimentel, with much appreciated art assist and colour by John Ridgway, did feature in Spaceship Away Issue 41, as we reported here.

• Catch up on The Voyage to Venus now on BBC Sounds – or, better still, buy the complete Season One box set from the official Dan Dare Audio Adventures web site – www.dandareaudio.com

*Dan Dare Character Design by Joe Pimentel for Print Media*

• downthetubes: A Martian Menace invades Spaceship Away – the official, Dan Dare-inspired comics magazine

• Back issues of Spaceship Away are available here

About the Author
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John Freeman

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.