‘1963: FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MEN’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Rock ‘n’ rolling with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa – Celebrating 50 Years of ‘Doctor Who’
Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’.
I love every minute of this audio drama! It’s lovely, fantastic and terrific! 🙂
‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ is fab! I love the 1960s setting, the music and the story! I also love the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in it! I heard the story not once, not twice, but THREE times after getting the CD in the post before I went to the ‘Regenerations 2013’ convention in September 2013.
I’ve had the CD cover of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ signed by Peter Davison at ‘H-Con’ in Eastleigh, Hampshire in July 2015 and by the lovely Sarah Sutton at the ‘Regenerations 2013’ convention in Swansea in September 2013. I’m so pleased Peter and Sarah signed the CD cover for me.
I like the ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common’ CD cover. It has the three Common Men and the Fifth Doctor doing the iconic Beatles walk. There’s also an image of Nyssa in the midst of a crowd of screaming teenagers. It looks impressive and it’s a really creative and inventive CD cover by Big Finish!
‘Fanfare’ is the first in a multi-Doctor trilogy featuring the theme of 1963 throughout to celebrate 50 years of ‘Doctor Who’! It’s a four-part adventure by Eddie Robson, who delivers a clever tale about the Beatles being taken out of time and replaced by another pop group that follows a similar path. 🙂
The Doctor takes Nyssa to see the Beatles in 1963. They’re to get off a plane at an airport where a huge crowd of fans are ‘shouting’ at them. But wait a minute! It’s not the Beatles! It’s the Common Men, who have taken over the Beatles’ place in history! Something is wrong and the Doctor knows it! 😐
You see! The 2019 film ‘Yesterday’ didn’t do that idea first! ‘Fanfare For The Common Men’ did it first. 😀 I must check out the film ‘Yesterday’ sometime. I wonder if the filmmakers got the idea for their film from hearing ‘Fanfare’. They must have been lucky in being able to utilise the Beatles’ music for their film.
I really like ‘Fanfare’! Eddie Robson captures the 1960s well. I love the atmosphere with the Beatles-like attitude and the screaming crowds. The story can be pretty complex since it’s not just set in 1963, as it shifts from 1963 to 1960 to 1967 to 1970 and back to 1963 again. But it was a joy to hear!
Director Barnaby Edwards, the musicians and the sound designers have also done a great job in capturing the 1960s in this story. From the CD front cover right into the story, you do feel you’re in the 1960s zone. I enjoyed the Common Men’s northern voices and how they sing their songs in this story!
♪ “Oh, won’t you please love me? Girl, I’m begging you please. Oh won’t you…” ♫ – (coughs) Sorry, I got carried away. I might find myself singing on the odd occasion in this review, so please bear with me.
Sarah Sutton as Nyssa is lovely. She enjoyed recording this audio story, with it being set in the 1960s and having a Beatles-style to it. Sarah loved the CD discs of this release, as they look like original vinyl records. At ‘Regenerations 2013’, she said she wanted to eat them. She needs a big appetite! 😀
In this story, Sarah delivers one of her best performances as Nyssa. I’m pleased she’s in this 50th anniversary ‘Doctor Who’ story. Sarah was stunned when I told her I heard this story three times. I shared how much I loved this story with me loving the 1960s and the music sounding so Beatles-like.
♪ “Oh, won’t you please love me? Girl, I’m begging you please. Oh won’t you…” ♫ – Sorry, sorry. I did it again. I can’t seem to get that song out of my head whenever I hear it!
Nyssa gets transported back in time to 1960 where she meets the Common Men in Hamburg, Germany. She gets to see their gigs and enjoy their music. I liked the relationship she formed with Korky. Nyssa is mostly separated from the Doctor in this and gets to have her own adventure as well.
The cast of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. From left to right: David Dobson, Ryan Sampson, Alison Thea-Skot, Andrew Knott, Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison.
Peter Davison excels as the Fifth Doctor throughout with energy and enthusiasm. The Doctor journeys in time to learn more about the Common Men before he discovers they’re aliens. I like how Peter’s Doctor works things out when he’s solving the mystery, unravelling things layer by layer here.
Peter knows his Beatles well and he’s very enthused about the plot and the story’s action with the semi-Beatles style to it. Peter puts so much into his performance as the Doctor as he’s full of energy. You don’t doubt for one second he’s the Doctor and I’m sure he enjoyed doing this story with Sarah. 🙂
The three Common Men are Mark, James and Korky. Mitch Benn guest stars as Mark Carville, who is a John Lennon-like character on the guitar. I like Mark’s casual northern manner here. Fans rave about him being great and he knows he is. 😀 He can be broody at times, but he performs a good gig.
♪ “Oh, won’t you please love me? Girl, I’m begging you please. Oh won’t you…” ♫ – ARGH!!! What’s wrong with me? This song’s infecting me! I can’t stop singing it! Stop it, Tim! Stop it! 😀
David Dobson, Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison, Ryan Sampson, Alison Thea-Skot and Andrew Knott in ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’.
Andrew Knott guest stars as James O’Meara, who is a Paul McCartney-like character on the bass. James is an easy-going guy, but a bit of a control freak. I like how there’s friendly rivalry between him and Mark when they seem to be threatening to spilt the group up and Korky referees between them.
David Dobson guest stars as Korky Goldsmith, who is a Ringo Starr-like character on the drums. He seems to like Nyssa. Who wouldn’t? He tries to pamper Nyssa when she’s in Hamburg. I like how Korky takes a shine to Nyssa. She calmly reveals to him that he’s an alien and he takes it rather well.
The story’s villain is Ryan Sampson (from ‘The Sontaran Stratagem’/’The Poison Sky’) as Lenny Kruger. Lenny is an American-like character with some serious anger issues. He’s mysterious and has his agenda in controlling the Common Men. His motivations for replacing the Beatles get revealed. 🙂
There’s also Alison Thea-Skot as Rita and Sadie. I like how Alison plays two different fans of the Common Men in Rita and Sadie’s characters. Rita is nicer and helps the Doctor out, whilst Sadie’s more obsessive and she’s helping Lenny. There’s also Jonty Stephens as Paravatar in the audio adventure.
As well as directing ‘Fanfare’, Barnaby Edwards plays a newsreader in the audio drama. I find Barnaby Edwards to be a great Big Finish audio director. I’ve met him a couple of times at two ‘Pandorica’ conventions. It’d be nice to catch up with Barnaby again to chat about this audio story. 🙂
The CD extras are as follows. At the end of Disc 1, there’s a suite of incidental music to enjoy and it sounds very 1960s. 😀 There are three songs sung by the Common Men with the lyrics by Barnaby Edwards and Howard Carter. The three songs are ‘Who Is That Man’, ‘Just Count To Three’ and ‘Oh Won’t You Please Love Me?’
♪ “Oh, won’t you please love me? Girl, I’m begging you please. Oh won’t you…” ♫ – Oh, ARGH!!!! I’ve got to stop doing that! Keep that song out of my head! Can’t I keep that song out of my head?!!!
Just to mention, there’s a familiar catchy tune featured in the suite of incidental music. It was played during the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ – the first ‘Doctor Who’ story in the TV series – where Susan was listening to her transistor radio. I found that to be a nice touch featured in the music. 🙂
At the end of Disc 2, there’s a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the next ‘Doctor Who’ story called ‘1963: The Space Race’, starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. There are also some behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Mitch Benn, Andrew Knott, David Dobson, Ryan Sampson, etc. I liked it when during the interviews, Peter and Sarah shared about their involvement in the 50th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ with ‘The Light At The End’ and attending conventions. There’s also an interview with Howard Carter who talks about the story’s music and sound design. 🙂
If you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ via a 6 or 12 CD/download subscription, you’ll get the following extras. There’s a PDF script and extended extras for ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. There’s also a bonus Short Trip audio called ‘Methuselah’ with the Fifth Doctor and Peri, read by John Banks.
In December 2020, it was a Peter Davison-filled Christmas for me! 😀 As well as seeing the 2020 Christmas Special of ‘Call the Midwife’ on TV on Christmas Day, I enjoyed listening to the ASDA-exclusive vinyl of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. I was thrilled about receiving it in that year.
‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ was originally released on a 2-disc CD set by Big Finish in September 2013. The ASDA-exclusive vinyl of the story solved my Fifth Doctor/Nyssa fix for Christmas 2020 after what had been a nightmare of a year with the Covid-19 pandemic happening. 🙂
As I couldn’t see Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton at a convention in 2020 due to Covid-19, I was lucky to have a vinyl edition of one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ audios to listen to over Christmas 2020. That and seeing Sarah Sutton via a Zoom chat session on the 22nd of November, it was so fantastic!
David Dobson, Andrew Knott, Mitch Benn, Sarah Sutton, and Peter Davison in ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’.
It was amazing to have ‘Fanfare’ re-released as a vinyl. I’m glad it was re-released as a vinyl back in 2020, since it does feel rather fitting. The CD discs looked like vinyl discs, so it’s great that a ‘Doctor Who’ story about the 1960s and having Beatles-like music in it could have its own vinyl edition here.
I had a vinyl experience of a Fifth Doctor/Nyssa audio before in ‘Spare Parts’. Big Finish also re-released ‘The Chimes of Midnight’ starring Paul McGann and India Fisher on vinyl. The vinyl editions of those two ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventures had been released as 4-disc sets and not as 2-disc sets!
The stories themselves were also divided into six episodes as opposed to four. ‘Fanfare’ on vinyl is spread across 2 discs with ‘Part One’ on Disc 1, Side A; ‘Part Two’ on Disc 1, Side B; ‘Part Three’ on Disc 2, Side A and ‘Part Four’ on Disc 2, Side B. A very different, but satisfying listening experience! 😀
The vinyl discs themselves are 140g red and purple as it’s a gatefold double LP. Each of the four episodes are on each side of the 2 discs. There aren’t any CD extras like the suite of incidental music (which I do love) as well as the behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews about the story’s making. 😐
It was lovely to hear Peter and Sarah as the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa again and re-experience one of my favourite Big Finish audios on vinyl. Spending time on Christmas Day and Boxing Day 2020 hearing ‘Fanfare’ on vinyl was a delight, since I missed seeing Sarah and Peter at conventions then. 🙂
The cast of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. From left to right: Ryan Sampson, Sarah Sutton, David Dobson, Andrew Knott, Peter Davison, Mitch Benn, Alison Thea-Skot and Jonty Stephens.
I like how the vinyl is presented, especially as the front cover features the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa on it. It’s a big selling point for me – to see Peter and Sarah on the vinyl’s front cover! 😀 It was also lovely to find an extra behind-the-scenes photo of Peter and Sarah with the ‘Fanfare’ cast in the set.
Here’s a colour version of the photo.
The cast of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’. From left to right: Ryan Sampson, Sarah Sutton, David Dobson, Andrew Knott, Peter Davison, Mitch Benn, Alison Thea-Skot and Jonty Stephens.
I hadn’t seen the behind-the-scenes photo (albeit in black-and-white) in the vinyl set before. Eddie Robson’s writer notes from the CD set are also included in the vinyl set, which is nice. 🙂 It was also very lovely to see the lyrics for the song ‘Oh Won’t You Please Love Me?’ contained in the vinyl set. 🙂
♪ “Oh, won’t you please love me? Girl, I’m begging you please. Oh won’t you…” ♫ – UGH!!! I should have seen that one coming! 😀
Listening to the story again on vinyl has been compelling and it’s still easy to get into despite the jumping back-and-forth in time to 1960, 1963, 1967 and 1970. I admit, the ending is quite complex and it needs to be heard more than once, but it’s still a pretty engaging, gripping audio story to hear.
I’m glad my Christmas 2020 was a happy one with hearing Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton in the vinyl edition of ‘Fanfare For The Common Men’ as well as seeing Peter in the ‘Call the Midwife’ 2020 Christmas Special. It’s something that cheered me up in a tough year and the 1960s music helped. 🙂
As of 2022, I’ve had my vinyl cover of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ signed by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’ in July 2022.
‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ is a terrific story! I enjoyed Sarah Sutton who’s lovely as Nyssa and Peter Davison is brilliant as the Doctor. I can’t tell you how much I love this story. I can’t believe how lucky I was in receiving the CD in the post before I attended ‘Regenerations 2013’ in Swansea. 🙂
‘Fanfare’ remains one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories by Big Finish. It’s incredible that back in 2013, it was made to celebrate 50 years of a TV show I grew to love and I still love it to this day. I’m also amazed I had my CD cover of the story signed by Peter and Sarah at conventions, which is great!
I wish everyone could have the vinyl edition of ‘Fanfare’ as it’s an ASDA-exclusive release in the UK.
♪ “…I’m down upon my knees!!!” ♫
‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ rating – 9/10
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Bradley's Basement 
Fantastic enthusiastic review, do you like this story then Tim? Lol.
It is a very well written story by Eddie Robson & i like how the drama unfolds throughout the four episodes starting as a character drama but slows builds into something slightly more sinister, this is definitely up there as one of the best Fifth Doctor & Nyssa stories produced by Big Finish.
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Hi Simon.
I’m glad you enjoyed my enthusiastic review on this story. I certainly do like it. Does it show in my review? 😀
Yes it is very well-written by Eddie Robson and it is interesting how the story unfolds with the Common Men and how they replaced the Beatles’ place in history. I’m glad you think it’s one of the best Fifth Doctor and Nyssa stories by Big Finish as I certainly agree.
Tim. 🙂
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