Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Mitch Benn, Andrew Knott, David Dobson, Ryan Sampson, Alison Thea- Skot, Jonty Stephens, Barnaby Edwards.
1963 will be remembered for many things, many moments in time which defined how the following 50 years has been looked upon, sometimes with great fondness, sometimes with the pit in the stomach which leaves those living today feeling sick and morally outraged that it was allowed to happen.
The assassination of the charismatic President Kennedy, the abhorrence of Alabama Governor George C. Wallace’s speech in which he promised segregation forever, the unfortunate deaths of Sylvia Plath and Patsy Cline, the stupendous Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal work The Birds being released, the historic first film outing for Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr. No, Dr. Martin Luther King’s momentous sermon on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Dr Beeching’s unpopular and disgraceful report into the proposed changes of the British railway, the infamous Great Train Robbery and the rise of the greatest band to ever come from Liverpool…The Common Men…
Don’t remember them, then as they say, if you can remember the 60’s then you can’t have been there but the Doctor does and in Barnaby Edwards’ 50th anniversary story, 1963: Fanfare For The Common Men, the man from Gallifrey has his work cut out trying to join all the threads of reality in which have been unravelled all because The Beatles never got together and a band of three seemingly loveable Scousers called The Common Men and their ever-increasing rabid fans instead took their place and history starts to bend and change. Such moments in time that need to remain intact.
The story could be seen as a massive tilt of the hat to the 50th anniversary of the much loved B.B.C. programme and to be fair who can blame Big Finish for having fun as well with this and the next two releases that revolve around the seminal moment in which 1963 seems to have become. However it is a story that perhaps may have ignored by the people in charge of television programme, the chance to have a long lingering look at the year in which history was changed as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr released their first two albums and British culture was forever transformed. Thankfully Big Finish, rapidly approaching their own special anniversary of 200 stories since 1999, got together a very good cast in which to do justice to Eddie Robson’s story, the vast array of humour and musical knowledge making 1963: Fanfare For The Common Men a tale worth enjoying.
1963: Fanfare For The Common Men is available from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall