There he meets the Earl of Earl's Court, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of the Black Friars, comes face to face with the Great Beast of London, and encounters an Angel. An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into the strange world of London Below. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. If you’re looking for an urban fantasy adventure with a deadpan sense of humor and a very English aesthetic, I strongly recommend giving it a listen.Beneath the streets of London there is another London. Neverwhere should be available through the BBC Radio 4 website or on iTunes. If I had to complain, Richard Mayhew’s failure to adjust to London Below starts to grate after a while, but that’s standard procedure for these audience surrogate characters. The characters they play are somewhat simplistic, but very well realized and charming. Croup is played by Anthony Stewart Head, the Angel Islington by Benedict Cumberbatch, and Christopher Lee has a brilliant cameo as the Earl of Earl’s Court. For cast members you’ve actually heard of, the villainous Mr. The plot is driven by the Lady Door (Natalie Dormer), with support from Sophie Okonedo as Hunter and David Harewood as the Marquis de Carabas.

James McAvoy takes the lead as Richard Mayhew, a Scotsman transported to a strange and backwards fairy-tale land called London, and then later to London Below. London Below, the ethereal underbelly of London, is a place of supernatural sludge and paranormal grit. The real draw is Neil Gaiman’s mastery of warped whimsy, crafted to draw the audience into a fantasy world that can be recognized in the real one.

Neverwhere has a simple premise: the protagonist is an everyman dragged into an extraordinary world to help a young woman and to grow as a person. Now BBC Radio 4 has produced it as an audio drama and I think it’s really good.įor those unfamiliar with the format, an audio drama is a half-dead storytelling format from the days when radio had actual content that is now enjoying a bit of a resurgence thanks to the prevalence of podcasts. There was also a comic book, a couple of stage adaptations, and a film script that now roasts in the depths of Development Hell. This story was originally a TV series before Neil Gaiman turned it into a book after the show turned out to be a plate of poo pancakes.

Neverwhere bbc radio