River Song has been imprisoned in the Stormcage, facing multiple life sentences for the Doctor's assassination... or, at least, she was. Now, time is collapsing, and River is unexpectedly marooned in Tudor England, 1536 - with a mysterious alien companion, Dust.
Someone, or something, has broken history: the distortions centring on the court of King Henry VIII. River must find the culprit, and fix the damage, before it's too late. But some players, for whom established history does not end happily, may have other ideas...
Recorded on: 22, 24, 27 and 29 January 2025
Recorded at: The Soundhouse
Producer David Richardson said: "Everyone is fascinated by the court of Henry VIII and his doomed wives; the story has been told in TV dramas and films for decades, most recently in Wolf Hall. This is a very different take: what might have happened if River Song was there, thrown unwillingly into Earth's past?
"What if history doesn't play out as we thought... if those characters on the board game moved in different directions, made different choices? Rochana has delivered a belter of a script and one that really gives our actors something magical to play with."
Writer Rochana Patel added: "This is a vast, sprawling, lavish historical drama - with a dose of science fiction thrown in! Normally, when you get a 'celebrity historical', you'll get just one famous character, and only one episode to explore their story; but here we have multiple characters and multiple episodes, so we can really delve into the complexities of Tudor England, 1536!
"It's the biggest, longest pseudo-historical story in the Whoniverse! An epic drama, featuring Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, Mary Tudor and many others - with River Song right at the heart of the royal intrigue... If you enjoy series like Wolf Hall and The Tudors, you should find plenty to enjoy here!"
Charithra Chandran, Harry Myers, Alex Kingston, Joseph Capp
