Bluebird
A burglar shot dead; an unaccountable tragedy on the train tracks; and the remnants of Cold War of psychological experiments. A writer and his student probe the curious history of a remote English village.
Bluebird is a ten-part, six-hour, full-cast audio drama, with original music by Rich. It is free to listen at Google Play, Kobo, Walmart, Libro.FM, Audiobooks.com, Apple, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Storytel, hoopla, Chirp.
‘A fantastic mix of Twin Peaks, British rural hauntology, The X-Files, contemporary true crime drama and the psychogeographic world of Minimum Labyrinth.’
‘Magnificent, unpredictable, and a masterclass in restrained eccentricity.’
‘I can’t recommend this enough. Wonderful weird and poignant writing. Conspiracy theories meet British eccentricity, with elements of Sebald, Aickman, and Machen. An incredibly compelling dark and intricate story.’
‘…an absolute masterpiece… just superb (but then everything you and Rich put together invariably is). I’ve never really listened to audio dramas… thought they weren’t really my cuppa… but this one’s turned me on to the genre.’
Voices
Lizzie Wofford is an award-winning actress from the West Midlands. She trained at Mountview and with the National Youth Music Theatre. Lizzie has acted in a diverse range of media including musicals, plays, pantomimes, films, concerts and immersive theatre. She played Izzy Blake on The Archers for six years. Lizzie’s voice artist work includes audiobooks, video games, audio drama and corporate and commercial work. She is a co-founder of Midlands-based theatre company The Unruly Regiment. Lizzie is a keen rock climber and lives in north London with her flatmate, Tawni the Tiny Terrier.
Will Henry is an actor and voice artist. He trained at Mountview and has produced a range of commercial and heritage voice work, and audio drama. Will has been working with Minimum Labyrinth since 2013 and is well-known to anyone who has dared to penetrate The Thin Veil of London and Doin’ The Lambeth Walk (Oi!).
Isabella Adamec is a raconteur and bon viveur with unrivalled expertise in gin and cake. She is a secret actor.
Phil O’Donnell is a filmmaker and musician. He is a long-time Minimum Labyrinth collaborator and filmed the Align trailer, as well as the ‘For Ann’ music video (on which he also played drums). Phil is currently banned from Pontins.
Robert Kingham is the producer, director and co-writer of Bluebird. He can play who he damn well likes.
Alasdair Mackenzie is Britain’s Most Reasonable Man.
Craig Whitney is a voice artist. Originally from New York City and now based in London, Craig’s voice can be heard in commercials, audiobooks, corporate narration, and documentaries for the likes of Visa, Cisco, Lego, the NFL , Sky TV, Audible and the National Geographic Channel.
Mark Oosterveen is an actor and voice artist. He has appeared on stage internationally. Mark’s screen work includes a recurring role in EastEnders and Doctors (BBC), Unforgotten (ITV), The Girlfriend Experience (Amazon Prime Video), the Terence Davies film Benediction and the Sky series Django. His extensive work as a voice artist includes Star Cops (Big Finish), Pythonesque (BBC Radio 4) and the audiobook of the David Jackson novel The Rule.
John Vernon is an actor and voice artist. He has long experience in animation, film, lip-synching to foreign-language cartoons, live action dubbing, radio and television commercials, and audiobooks. John started out in stand-up comedy, and over a 40-year theatre career has played everything from Shakespeare to modern new writing, most recently appearing in Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre. His television credits include Call The Midwife, Florrie’s Dragons, Eastenders, Heartbeat, and The Bill. John has a claim to rock fame as the voice of the Newsreader for The Who’s Quadrophenia concert in Madison Square Garden.
Rebecca Crankshaw was recently a proud member of the BBC Radio Drama Company, having won a Norman Beaton Fellowship in 2021. She narrates audiobooks and is the voice of villainess Zeera Voss in Blake’s 7 (Big Finish). On stage Rebecca has appeared in many London venues, including the Southbank Centre and Above the Stag. She has also appeared at the Barn in Cirencester, at VAULT festival, and is particularly proud of her work with LGBTQ+ company Outbox Theatre. Television credits include Doctors and Coronation Street.
Rebecca Barry has been singing, dancing and acting since a young age. Her acting work spans film, television, musical theatre and commercials. She has released her own original music.
Massimo Martella is an actor, singer-songwriter, cartoon scriptwriter and voice artist. His voice work includes audiobook and corporate narration.
Cerise Angela is an actor and voice artist. She trained at Identity School of Acting and studied BA Acting and Performance. Cerise’s film work includes Cupid and Amityville Witches (Proportion Productions, 2019), That’s Why (Creative Wick, 2021) and Pincer (Domiphy Pictures, 2021).
Production credits
Written and edited by
ROBERT KINGHAM & RICH COCHRANE
Script consultant
CLARE CHURLY
Polish language consultant
JOANNA PARRY
Studio engineer
CHRIS CLARKE
Foley recording and editing
ROBERT KINGHAM, RICH COCHRANE & CLARE CHURLY
Graphic design by
ROBERT KINGHAM & CLARE CHURLY
Music composed and performed by
RICH COCHRANE
Produced and directed by
ROBERT KINGHAM
Creative Commons attributions
Main image: Hugh Venables
freesound.org: 775noise acclivity arnaump aslakhostaker bertrof bigmanjoe bmaczero casemundy castironcarousel cell31-sound-productions coldwellw connorm94 corkob dav0r dean-raul-diarchangeli dm103 drminky dwightsabeast earthsounds eflexmusic f-m-audio gamedevc guitarguy1985 idomusics jackmichaelking jakeeaton jandre160108 javierserrat joedeshon kinoton klankbeeld konakaboom kwahmah-02 kyles macdaddyno1 marcusgraham325 marlo1981 melle-teich naturenotesuk pedaling-prince plantmonkey pmbrowne pugaeme pushtobreak qubodup rastataper residentsparking richwise robertsvard sagetyrtle sailor55 sforsman snds-good spoonsandlessspoons starkvind suz-soundcreations taira-komori taylor-pro-sounds tempouser tim-kahn unfa werra xulie yap-audio-production ylearkisto zimbot
Zines
We wrote five electronic zines to augment your listening pleasure and take you behind the scenes.
Spoiler alerts: only read these after you have listened to the relevant episodes. So read Zine 1 after listening to Episodes 1 and 2, Zine 2 after Episodes 3 and 4 etc.