Echoes.

Audio  As I write this, the world, or at least our tiny corner of it, is ecstatic about the news that the previously missing Doctor Who episodes The Nightmare Begins and Devil's Planet (or first and third instalments of The Dalek Masterplan) have been recovered and will be viewable via the BBC iPlayer on the 4th of April. You can read about the news via this oddly worded BBC article. Perhaps Toby springing the surprise on Peter will be part of a documentary on some future physical release of the episodes, although the teary moment was on BBC Breakfast this morning (and can be seen via YouTube). None of which has anything to do with this Eighth Doctor boxset, but I needed something to put in this opening paragraph and it makes a change from moaning about release schedules.

Birdsong

Obviously, with my highbrow brain, the title of this doesn't go to the Sebastian Faulks novel championed by William Hague on The Big Read, but to the bits of sound used to cover up the swears and unauthorised chatter from when Kermode and Mayo's podcast was at the BBC. None of which has anything to do with this audio, which has a similar story to The Rescue with the TARDIS team finding some scouts waiting for the rest of their colony to arrive, and nothing being as it seems, although it's probably not a spoiler to suggest birds have something to do with it. It features former Susan Foreman actress Jane Asher as one of the survivors and is just a very pleasant listen.

Lost Hearts

Another run-out for the celebrity historical as Monty James helps the Doctor investigate ghosts on a university campus in what ends up ploughing through a whole Moffat season of time dilations in about fifty minutes. Nicola Walker is on particularly great form as Liv finds herself seeking a solution alone whilst trying to convince the TARDIS to move using its telepathic circuits. Best in show is Tim Bentinck as the very Zaroff-like Professor Alistair Gray, whose rich voice and ripe delivery pit him against some of the show's best villains, and whose intellectual shell masks a personality which is completely unhinged and without a particularly rational motivation (the best kind).

Slow Beasts

On his website, the writer of Slow Beasts, Dan Rebellato talks about how "this is a culmination of a 48-year journey with Doctor Who" having been a fan since childhood.  He's written about it loads on his blog and clearly understands the thing, so it's no surprise that this is the most original of the stories on the set. In the "slow beasts", he conjures images which might not be credibly created on screen and that can probably only really work in our imaginations. There's also some brilliant writing for the Eighth Doctor as he finds a way to communicate with these colossal statues which involves something we could all do more of: listening. There's also an imaginative use of Derek Griffiths, playing on our expectations of him as a piece of casting.

Placement:  The usual.

Odeon Oldham

For EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert.  It's another Odeon with a statue in front (see also), on this occasion Annie Kenney, the suffragette who seems to have partly inspired Carey Mulligan's fictional character in the film Suffragette (2015).  Possibly my favourite suburban Odeon so far.  Opened in 2016 at about the time of the AMC takeover, it was built as an extension onto the existing but derelict Oldham Town Hall, retaining the fixtures of the Grade II listed building whilst still installing cinema screens into the interior, along with a massive Costa Coffee on the ground floor.  It's most noticeable in Screen Two, which used to be the old court house.  An usher allowed me to nip in and take some photos which I've haphazardly collaged together here:

So as not to affect the existing fixtures, the screen is a massive version of the pulldown kind you often find in conference centres, lecture theatres and people with big living rooms.  Behind is the original crest or coat of arms.  There's a much better image here, along with some history of the scheme.  If I'd known about this I would have booked whatever film was showing here, but instead I'd opted for Screen One, which has a more traditional auditorium with stadium seating.

In the corridor leading up to Screen One is a small display of items from Oldham's original Odeon on Union Street, including these actual advertising banners.

 

All of these films date from 1967 when Rank still had ownership of the chain and were in the process of expansion.  The rest of the areas are littered with old leather chairs from its time as council chambers.  There's also an old door attached to the wall (not pictured) with no explanation of where it came from.