SJA Audiobook Exclusive!

On Friday, 26 Sepember 2008 - I had the oppurtunity to go to the Bath Festival of Children's Literature and meet our very own Lis Sladen! My ticket to the event, kindly donated to SARAH-JANE.tv by the festival organiser, allowed me to sit in on an hour-long inteview with Lis, get an item signed by her during the autograph session and even score a rare promo disc from BBC Audiobooks [who were sponsering the event] which contained sample excerpts from the new SJA audiobooks, The Ghost House and The Time Capsule!:


Also exclusively revealed at the event were the covers for the new SJA audiobooks! WARNING: Spoilers from the excerpts below!

Sarah Jane was in her kitchen looking over her credit card bills, when she heard a crash outside her home and a man shouting in alarm. She goes to investigate in her sleeping gown to find a milkman had dropped his crate of milk and was staring up at something in disbelief. Sarah Jane jogs over to him and asks him if he's alright. The man jumps around and looks at her flustered, then enquires where the camera's are. Sarah Jane, confused, asks him what he means. 'It's amazing what they can do, these telly people' he replies. Sarah Jane notices what may have drawn his attention. One of the homes on Bannerman Road looked...out of place. Just yesterday, most of the houses on Bannerman Road had looked alike. They had done so since the 1960's when the old houses were knocked down and more modern mass-produced homes were put up in their place. However, one house looked like it had been untouched. A victorian-looking residence, the ghost of housing past, seemed to have been shoe-horned between 37 and 41 Bannerman Road - and it definitely wasn't there before. The milkman remarked that the owners, who were currently on vacation, must have had some renovation work done. Sarah Jane takes a step toward the house and feels a slight heat haze...a warning to stay back, perhaps? And yet, when she peered through the windows - she saw all the tell-tale signs of modern life; a flat-screen TV, a DVD player, family portraits on the wall etc. Only the exterior of the house had changed, it seemed. And as if the house had noticed her watching, thick lace curtains slowly drew themselves shut to block her view...

Sarah Jane informs us that everyone in Luke's year had to find five days of work experience with local businesses, giving them a flavour of what it felt like working 9-5 jobs. Clyde, it seems, was working at a supermarket called Betterworths - which is where Sarah Jane meets him when she goes grocery shopping. 'When I put retail on the application form,' he tells her. 'I thought y'know - a clothes shop with some cred. Or the computer game store in the arcade, that'd have been sweet!' 'And miss out on that uniform?' Sarah Jane teases. 'Yeah...' Clyde replies, gesturing at his work shirt sarcastically. 'Nylon is so coming back! You should see the emo kid on the wet fish counter. Looks like he wants to throw himself into the freezer and die.' We learn that Luke, who currently had a work placement at a museum, usually does the grocery shopping. Unlike most 14-year-olds, he can figure out the most efficient route around the supermarket and can calculate the total before arriving at the counter. He even does the grocery shopping for one of Sarah Jane's neighbours, Mr Ploughman - though Sarah Jane feels he conned Luke into the job by pretending to be more frail and weak than he really was. 'I swear that war wound gets worse when he thinks he's been spotted!' Sarah Jane remarks to herself. We learn that Mr Ploughman had asked Sarah Jane, among other residents of Bannerman Road, to complain about some building work going on in the wasteland behind his house. Sarah Jane made her excuses and hadn't seen him since. Clyde's watch suddenly starts to make a buzzing noise. The watch, which had been a birthday present from his mother, had broken barely a week after he'd received it. Sarah Jane had repaired it using her sonic lipstick, and now it never seemed to wind down. 'It's doing it again!' Clyde gasped, as every needle on every dial of the watch span frantically. Clyde scuttled off down an ailse darting his head from side-to-side with the watch held out in front of him. 'He must be nearby!'

The interview panel, though informative, reiterated information most fans who followed SJA closely would have known already; for example, how many episodes there were this series, which villains would be making an appearance and what we could expect from the second series in general.

I really enjoyed listening to her talking at length about the stuff that went on behind the scenes, like how the young cast had to do several takes during the Sontaran scenes because they laughed so often. She also talked about how warm it was on some parts of the attic set, and, on a related note - spoke about the Children In Need set tour competition we'd reported on recently.

There was even a Q&A session with the audience, and I was quite surprised to hear some of the kids coming out with some really smart questions. Lis confirmed that the Doctor would NOT be appearing in the second series of SJA. This, however, didn't get any reaction whatsoever compared to when she informed the audience that K9 wouldn't be making an appearance either. Everyone went 'Awwww!' at that point, which really goes to show how well-loved a certain robot dog is! The panel ended soon after to rapturous applause, and Lis went off to sign autographs for the next hour or so:

So yeah, consider my appetite well and truly whet for the second series [starting tomorrow], and the audiobooks coming out on 13 November 2008!