Angels (audio story)

was the fourth story in the first series of Doctor Who: Redacted podcast series, published by BBC Sounds and was written by Catherine Brinkworth with additional writing by Juno Dawson and Ella Watts.
It starred Charlie Craggs as Cleo Proctor, Lois Chimimba as Abby McPhail, Holly Quin-Ankrah as Shawna Thompson and Finlay Robertson as Larry Nightingale.
== Publisher's summary ==
Abby gets an interview with her favourite blogger, Larry Nightingale. The two think that maybe some creatures called Weeping Angels have something to do with the country-wide disappearances. Abby figures that meeting a strange man at night in Glasgow Necropolis is probably fine, yeah?
== Plot ==
Cleo walks home one night while leaving herself voice notes about making an episode of The Blue Box Files about the Mandela Effect. Approaching Jordan's flat, she is stopped by a group of police officers, one of which explains that they are investigating a potential kidnapping. However, it is not of Jordan himself but of a young woman. The officer, seemingly unaware of the recent disappearances, lets Cleo in and asks if "that shifty fella" will be following. However, she is unaware that any man has been following her and enters, slightly disturbed.
Later that night, Abby tries out her intro to the next podcast episode to Cleo and Shawna, telling a spooky story about the Weeping Angels of Wester Drumlins. Abby explains how she is convinced they are connected to the blue box and could even be the cause of the disappearances and memory loss. To this end, she reveals that she has secured an interview with one of her heroes: Larry Nightingale from the Into The Unknown blog. Shawna, however, is dubious and tries to convince Abby not to meet with a strange man in the middle of the strange events, getting even more convinced something is wrong when Abby adds that his wife and sister also went missing. Cleo and Shawna are convinced he may be the Doctor, but Cleo is distracted from the ensuing argument when she hears mysterious noises from outside her window. She sees nothing when she gets there, however, and as it is nearly midnight, the trio decide to continue their conversation tomorrow - after the interview, Abby adds.
The next day, Cleo walks down the street and receives a phone call from Jordan. She is initially relieved but is quickly startled when his voice comes through almost incomprehensibly distorted; he is clearly panicking, lost, and very scared. With his call cutting off, she immediately tries phoning Abby but gets no reply, then tries Shawna. She picks up and tells Cleo that Abby has gone to meet Larry anyway, and alone, as Craig pulled out. Shawna immediately decides that they need to get to Abby and fast, so she pays for her and Cleo's train tickets and they decide to meet up soon. Later, Cleo skips work and fondly greets Shawna as she sits next to her on the train, although Shawna notices she is shaking.
That night, Abby enters the Glasgow Necropolis in search of Larry, recording her thoughts for the podcast as she does, but by 7 pm, he is nowhere to be seen. As she begins to think about possibly being surrounded by Weeping Angels, she slowly begins to panic and starts hearing strange things. She later uncovers an ancient box with her name on it buried at their meeting place but is distracted from opening it by the sound of approaching footsteps... that happen to belong to Cleo and Shawna, ready to rescue her. Cleo is desperate to leave before they are killed by a madman, but Abby insists that they should open the box first for answers. She finds inside a 1930s tape recorder and decides to play it.
From the tape, Larry passes on a message to Abby. He explains his story, stating that when he received contact from Abby in 2021, he wanted to meet up with her but he was struggling with the loss of his wife Natasha and later his memory of her and his notes on the Weeping Angels. Eventually, colleagues and friends started disappearing and being forgotten about, so he went to visit the angels and only barely escaped because of "an old friend". In doing so, he was brought to the 1920s to be reunited with Natasha, where he stayed as his memories returned. However, he explains that the angels are unrelated to his amnesia and the disappearances; indeed, when he last encountered them, they almost seemed scared, as if they were running from something even more powerful than them. Larry hopes that the Doctor has not turned against them, but with his memories beginning to fade again, he tells Abby to watch out for the blue box.
As Larry's recording finishes, Abby and Shawna both immediately forget about the Doctor again, to Cleo's frustration. They begin to leave but are jumped by UNIT agents. The soldiers taser Abby, followed quickly by Shawna and then Cleo when they try to intervene. Cleo mutters a plea for help to the Doctor as she begins to pass out.
== Cast ==
* Cleo Proctor - Charlie Craggs
* Abby McPhail - Lois Chimimba
* Shawna Thompson - Holly Quin-Ankrah
* Larry Nightingale - Finlay Robertson
* Jordan Proctor - Jacob Hawley
* Police Officer - Kieran Hodgson (Was originally mis-credited on the website as Karim Kronfli)
* Additional Voices - Kieran Hodgson
== Crew ==
* Written by Catherine Brinkworth
* Additional Writing by Juno Dawson and Ella Watts
* Produced and Directed by Ella Watts
* Executive Producer: James Robinson
* Sound Engineer: Paul Clark
* Studio Assistant: Jacob Tombling
* Sound Design: David Thomas
* Additional Sound Design: Arlie Adlington
* Original Composition: David Devereux
* Production Co-ordinators: Sarah Sharpe and Sarah Nicholls
* Script Editor: Tasha Dhanraj
* Recorded at Sonica Studios, Clapham
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds
== Worldbuilding ==
* Cleo says to the Police Officer that he is duty-bound to explain to her any information on Jordan's whereabouts because of the First Amendment, "or something".
* The Police Officers describes YouTube as not the most reliable source of news.
* Cleo initially presumes that Jordan's disappearance is due to him trying to appear on Ex on the Beach again.
* Cleo wonders if "the Doctor" is in fact an alias for Larry Nightingale, like the Zodiac Killer and Mr Tumble.
* Abby states that train tickets have not been affordable since the 1990s, while Cleo adds that she can barely afford to take the train to Zone 6 of the London network and Shawna claims to have used up her savings to buy a gaming rig on the tickets.
* Shawna hopes that Larry's box is a Blue Peter time capsule instead of a box of human remains.
== Notes ==
* This episode furthers the Aliens of London dating controversy by describing the events of Blink as happening in 2008. While this would indeed line up with the general in-universe dates of the present day-set episodes of Series 3, Blink is actually one of the rare exceptions, with the main plot indeed being set in the year of the episode's broadcast, with only the ending scene being set in 2008.
== Continuity ==
* Jordan is missing. (AUDIO: Lost)
* Abby describes Wester Drumlins and the Weeping Angels inside. (TV: Blink, PROSE: The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins)
* Cleo jokingly asks if they're doing an episode on "alien foetus in a jar". (AUDIO: SOS)
* Larry writes for the Into the Unknown blog. (PROSE: Into the Unknown)
* Larry's wife and sister are missing. (PROSE: Quick favour, TV: Blink)
* Larry was brought to the 1920s. (GAME: The Lonely Assassins)
== External links ==
Category:Redacted audio stories
Category:Stories set in London
Category:Stories set in Glasgow
Category:Stories set in 2022
Category:UNIT audio stories