In May last year our MD, Neil Gardner, was speaking at the marvellous CrimeFest event in Bristol. The final question posed on the audiobook panel was “If you could bring one crime/detective novel to audio, which would it be?” Now, considering the questioner was the head of Audible original content, this was a good chance to pitch for some work. So, to the room, Neil pitched THE TALES OF MAX CARRADOS, written by Ernest Bramah in the 1910s, and considered at the time as important as Sherlock Holmes. Carrados is a blind gentleman detective who has an uncanny knack (and some underhand techniques) for ‘seeing’ what his colleagues miss. They are a collection of 29 short stories and one novel, and having produced a set of 5 of them for BBC Radio 4 Extra back in 2009, Neil had been hoping for a chance to explore the character further.
Lo and behold, Audible got back in touch a short while later and commissioned a full set of the stories for their Original Content initiative. Blimey! How exciting to get a new commission, and for Audible!
Over several months plans were hatched and the search began for the ideal reader. We needed someone smooth, cultured, educated and who would imbue Max Carrados with the importance he so deserved.
In late November we heard from Audible that they had secured the vocal services of the UK’s national treasure (and genuinely lovely chap) Stephen Fry…wow, how more perfect a choice could a director hope for? In addition, they wanted to create a Christmas giveaway, featuring a couple of the stories…an exclusive present for their members. Stephen Fry at Crimbo? hat a great pressie!
So in early December, Neil travelled up to the new Audible studios in London and spent a couple of hours with Stephen, and engineer David Darlington. After recording the initial two stories, Stephen was whisked off for a whole host of marketing and PR duties. The Xmas freebie was released on Dec 16th and was universally loved by the listeners, huzzah!
Then over two Wednesday at the start of January, Neil returned to the Audible studios and directed Stephen as he read a further nine short stories. It was a fantastic two days, in the perfect company. Stephen is a mine of knowledge and anecdotes. “I’ve produced and directed some of the biggest and best-known actors in the world, ” says Neil, “and working with Stephen was a real high-point for me. He brings all of his incredible knowledge as well as a warm and encouraging personality. These two days of one-on-one working with Stephen will go down as some of my very favourite working in the audiobook world!”
Following the recording, our Creative Director, Tanja Glittenberg, worked on editing the files, to ensure they sounded absolutely perfect in every way. We pride ourselves on producing clean, warm and engaging audiobooks, and Stephen certainly made it easy to keep to this high standard. Top check listener Susan Omand went through the files with a fine tooth-comb and we were able to deliver the final audiobook, comprising 11 Carrados tales, to Audible earlier this week.
THE TALES OF MAX CARRADOS available to pre-order now over at Audible.co.uk and is released in early February. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed producing it. And massive thanks to Stephen Fry for bringing Max to life, and to the fine folk at Audible for commissioning us and being so supportive and enthusiastic.
