Murmurs: Crack in Reality: A BBC Radio Immersive Drama Collection

by Tom Crowley, Alex Lawther (Narrator), Peter Bankole (Narrator)

Ten mind-altering tales from some of the best new drama writers.

There's a crack in reality. Our world has brushed up against another, and something is breaking through. Ordinary people are experiencing strange disruptions, as inexplicable events and bizarre elements from the other side start to interfere with their lives.... 

A ghost soldier embarks on a time-travelling mission. A homeless woman discovers a portal to a parallel universe. A librarian becomes gradually invisible. A queue stretches across the North of England, as people wait years for an answer to one question. And a mother and daughter realise that someone - or something - is listening in on their conversations and fixing their problems. These are just some of the intimate, immersive stories in this collection - all set in the same shared universe, and including seven standalones and one three-part drama. 

With echoes of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, Murmurs mixes horror, sci-fi and fantasy to gripping effect. Told through phone calls, answerphone messages, radio broadcasts, voice notes and other 'found recordings', and enhanced by an eerie, otherworldly soundscape, it will intrigue, disturb, disorientate and burrow deep under your skin. But don't be alarmed - just listen to the murmurs.... 

Among the casts are Peter Bankole (Peaky Blinders), Abra Thompson (This Country), Camille Coduri (King Gary), Valene Kane (The Fall) and Alex Lawther (The End of the F--king World). 

Production credits

Music by Mary Epworth 

A BBC Cymru Wales Production 

First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 9th January 2021 

Over and Out  

Lieutenant Beaumont - Peter Bankole 

Kim - Katrina Allen 

Amira - Helene Maksoud 

Jimmy - Adam Courting 

Written by Tom Crowley 

Directed by David Devereux 

When We Are Heard (Part 1)  

Millie - Abra Thompson 

Beth - Camille Coduri 

Written by Janina Matthewson 

Directed by James Robinson 

Night Jungle  

Eve - Aimee-Ffion Edwards 

Alison - Larissa Hope 

Mr Wensum - Ben Crowe 

June - Claire Cage 

Written by Beth Crane 

Directed by Helen Perry 

A Miracle 

Precious - Danielle Vitalis 

Temi - Doyin Ajiboye 

Crazy Lady - Janice Acquah 

The Reporter - Adam Courting 

Written by Eno Mfon 

Directed by John Norton 

When We Are Heard (Part 2)  

Millie - Abra Thompson 

Beth - Camille Coduri 

Written by Janina Matthewson 

Directed by James Robinson 

Last Night on Earth  

Germaine - Georgia Henshaw 

Detective Blake - Don Gilet 

Booker - Lloyd Everitt 

Ryan - Dom Francis 

Written by Greer Ellison 

Directed by John Norton 

Disappearances  

Mo - Valene Kane 

Midge - Dylan Llewellyn 

Midge's Mum - Eiry Thomas 

Library Technician - Saikat Ahamed 

Written by Jesse Schwenk 

Directed by Helen Perry 

Man's Best Friend  

Lloyd - Alex Lawther 

Nadia - Monica Sagar 

Jacquie - Heather Craney 

Marco - Lucio Veronesi 

Police Officers - Adam Courting & Scarlett Courtney 

Written by Robert Valentine 

Directed by John Norton 

The Queue  

Elena - Adelle Leonce 

Bronwyn - Gwyneth Keyworth 

Neal - Ian Smith 

Wilkes - Jessica Turner 

Claire - Laura Christy 

Carlson - Ikky Elyas 

Written by Jen and Chris Sugden 

Directed by David Devereux 

When We Are Heard (Part 3)  

Millie - Abra Thompson 

Beth - Camille Coduri 

Nurse - Scarlett Courtney 

Train Announcer - Adam Courting 

Written by Janina Matthewson 

Directed by James Robinson 

Audible Audio

Published May 20, 2021

About the author

Tom Crowley graduated from Marquette and Johns Hopkins Universities. He served as an infantry officer in the Vietnam War where he was wounded and decorated for his service.

He worked in Asia as a Foreign Service Officer and with GE spending time in every country in north east and south east Asia. Retired in Bangkok he worked for fourteen years as a full time volunteer with the Mercy Centre, an NGO that helps protect and educate street kids. Tom’s passion is playing pool and, when not otherwise busy, he will be found along side a pool table near his home in Kensington, Maryland.

Tom's latest book is "Mercy's Heroes" telling the story of the herioc children and staff he worked with at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok.

Tom is also the author of non-fiction work “Bangkok Pool Blues”, and the Matt Chance adventures “Viper’s Tail” and “Murder in the Slaughterhouse”. "Murder in the Slaughterhouse" received a Bronze medal award from the Military Writer's Society of America in 2015. His Vietnam memoir is “Shrapnel Wounds.” His latest magazine article (Oct 2017, World War II Quarterly) is Merrill's Marauders in Burma.

His author’s page is at www.facebook.com\tomcrowleybooks

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the later episodes about the queue lined up in Yorkshire to wait in lines for years (if at a necessity to suspend quite a lot of disbelief) to ask a seer her answer to each supplicant’s one question. The previous, more Twilight Zone, storylines in the ten installments found your typically diverse BBC cast in predicaments after a break in the space-time fabric, eerie mold and vegetation growth, invisible limbs, a car crash, a wedding party crashed by a hound, a librarian’s disorienting archive, magic box changing objects, wishes granted to a befuddled pair in a flat, a soldier’s fate, a refugee from the Middle East and VE-Day radio transmissions. All is left unresolved.

The use of repetitive phone messages on various answering machines is annoying but a clever way to heighten anxiety familiar to us all. However the cumulative duration of such conversations meant that valuable moments which could have been given to plotting were taken up by the prompts repeated.

It’s intermittently engaging and as I obviously kept on to find where the ten parts over five hours would wind up suffice to say like most such stories these days, it’s written so the season may not end with the last half-hour. Sound effects are what you expect from the Beeb and production value is top notch.