BBV Time Travellers: Punchline

BBV Time Travellers #10

by Robert Shearman, Jeremy Leadbetter (Pseudonym)

A perfect house...
A perfect son...
A perfect wife...

WIFE?

When your life is a 70's sit-com and every episode ends happily, why on Earth would you want to change?

In Suburbton, no one can hear you scream...

Genres: Doctor Who

Audio CD

First published February 1, 2000

About the author

Robert Shearman has worked as a writer for television, radio and the stage. He was appointed resident dramatist at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and has received several international awards for his theatrical work, including the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, the World Drama Trust Award and the Guinness Award for Ingenuity in association with the Royal National Theatre. His plays have been regularly produced by Alan Ayckbourn, and on BBC Radio by Martin Jarvis. However, he is probably best known as a writer for Doctor Who, reintroducing the Daleks for its BAFTA winning first series, in an episode nominated for a Hugo Award.

His first collection of short stories, Tiny Deaths, was published by Comma Press in 2007. It won the World Fantasy Award for best collection, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and nominated for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize. One of the stories from it was selected by the National Library Board of Singapore as part of the annual Read! Singapore campaign. In 2008 his short story project for BBC7, The Chain Gang, won him a Sony Award, and he provided a second series for them in 2009.

He is now at work on his first novel.

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the Seventh Doctor ever used the chameleon arch, he'd probably end up in a 1970s sitcom. This is Doctor Who but not as we know it.
This audio drama was very clever, very funny and is available on Youtube.

[Ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my intro to this… weirder corner of the Universe. Yes, it’s actually the final part of this series. But it works surprisingly well as a standalone audio.

It’s a very Robert Shearman plot & … Sylvester McCoy’s character is fascinating. Totally checking out the rest when/ if I can :)

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, and very good idea, that is better than the execution. The main plot does get a bit repetitive, but that's part of the fun. I would love to hear this with all the Doctor Who trappings.

[Leela42 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audio adventure with, er, the Dominie without companion. Good story, although not something I'd want to listen to more than twice. A superior variant of a plot device used in far too many 1990s sci-fi audio dramas.

[Keiran Thegreat · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the strongest of the BBV audio dramas. An interesting idea, well executed with some excellent acting. The story would actually work well as a stage play with only four characters and one set needed. Well worth listening to.

[Texv Velis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow Punchline was different then I thought it would be but I really enjoyed it. Well written.