Time Spanner is a new Radio4 sitcom pilot written by and starring Simon Kane (pictured above second from the left) as Martin Gaye, the reluctant Time Traveller whose name definitely does not sound like Marvin Gaye at all. Framing the story we have the brilliant John Finnemore as the dead dog that was sent to space, who acts as narrator to the show. London Hughes, who plays Martin’s love interest and David Mitchell as Daniel Kraken (not 100% sure on the spelling to be honest), the (slightly) evil head of the storage empire (who can’t seem to find his trousers) that Martin works for. Daniel tricks Martin into becoming a test subject for his new time machine and from there Martin goes to heaven and embarks on a crazy adventure.
It was a wonderful recording; Gareth Edwards came out and did a little warm up for the audience which was fun! The cast were amazing! London Hughes worked very well with Simon Kane, and John played a perfect Dog! David plays a great villain here, I loved his delivery, almost in a superhero type voice. I think there was a line where he said ‘Marty’ instead of ‘Martin’ which was a really nice little Back To The Future joke. Also the jokes about his previous test subject were very, very funny. There was also fantastic line about watches and swans from John Finnemore which i won’t spoil, but was particularly amazing. The only problem was, it was over so quickly! It really left you wanting more.
You can tell just by looking at twitter how well the show was received! I’m sure it will get broadcast, although, we didn’t hear any information on that matter, and it is a pilot after all. Regardless I think this show is well on it’s way to a full series! I hope everyone gets to hear this brilliant pilot in the not too distant future (see what I did there?) Thanks to Amanda for letting me use her great photographs! https://twitter.com/cheesescientist
A Dose Of David Mitchell 