“I'm a huge Dark Shadows fan and I love Carolyn,” says Cody Quijano-Schell, writer of Dark Shadows: The Flip Side. “She's a whirlwind of a character. She transitions from being sweet and vulnerable to being a monstrous brat… often in the same scene. The moment she first appeared dancing in the Blue Whale is the exact moment I fell in love with Dark Shadows. The original instrumental pop music composed by Robert Cobert is phenomenal. The tracks gave scenes set in the Blue Whale such a distinctive texture. That’s why I was so excited to hear there would be a new original song written just to accompany my script!”

The story features a specially composed song by singer-songwriter Sean McGhee – one half of the band Artmagic, with Richard Oakes from Suede, and shortly to go on tour with the legend that is Alison Moyet. “Sean's a very old friend, and an experienced songwriter and producer,” says co-producer David Darlington, “and when I saw that there was scope in The Flip Side for a specially-composed song, I knew that rather than bashing my own head against walls for days on end trying to come up with singable melodies and lyrics, I could get him to write it to order!”

“I don't usually write period pieces, but the chance to compose an imaginary 1970s radio hit for a ghost story was too much to resist,” says Sean. “I located my inner Carole King for the music and kept the lyrics close to the spirit of Cody's excellent script, and the result is a song called The Better Side. It's quite unlike anything I've done before... but that's part of the fun.”

“The idea worked so well, so quickly,” David continues, “that I immediately enlisted Sean to come up with some ideas for incidental music as well – he's been working alongside me on that aspect for this whole run, providing themes and sequences that I've hammered into the right shape for the finished mixes. It's been a very different way of working but a creatively rewarding one.”

A full interview with Sean about his involvement in Dark Shadows can be found at http://www.artmagicmusic.com.

“The Flip Side is about a night of fun that has gone horribly wrong,” continues Quijano-Schell. “Forced to confront her troubled past and the legacy of her family, Carolyn's in a fight for her own survival as well as fighting for the lives of her loved ones. By the end of the story she has a terrible decision to make.”

Dark Shadows (1966-1971) was a US TV series which told the story of the cursed Collins family. Set in the town of Collinsport, it featured witches, vampires, werewolves and warlocks plotting and scheming against each other. It was remade as a film starring Johnny Depp.