Show notes
The Family Tree, a new audio drama from Adamthwaite and Pickering, launches on Monday 26 th September 2016. The show will air for 12 weeks, releasing an episode of the drama every Monday and an accompanying commentary episode each Friday. Listeners can subscribe on itunes or via the website, www.thefamilytreepodcast.co.uk. The show is a spin-off from in-conversation podcast, Getting Better Acquainted, featured on BBC Radio 4's In Pod We Trust and BBC Radio 5 Live's Required Listening. Focussed on openness, honesty and truth, the same conversational style is used to explore the story in The Family Tree. When host Dave Pickering is approached by his dad with a mystery from the life of a long-forgotten friend, he decides to investigate it in the only way he knows how: by having conversations. Mark Sullivan, who went missing 15 years ago, has been found dead. His body still has the arm he should have lost in a car accident and seems to have died eight years before he disappeared. In a series of 12 episodes, Dave tries to uncover this mystery through conversations with Mark's family and friends. As he gets to know them, his questions lead to more questions… the mystery runs deeper than anyone imagined. The Family Tree is a magical realist drama about family, belonging, change and identity. The 12 supplementary episodes or 'Cuttings' feature a range of guests from podcasting, journalism and the arts, discussing the issues raised in the show, including themes such as representation, lived experience, identity and social responsibility. Guests include The Allusionist's Helen Zaltzman, Nikesh Shukla, Samantha Asamadu, Kevin Allison of RISK!, CN Lester, Alix Fox, Girl on the Net, Musa Okwonga and The X-Files' Dean Haglund. Visit www.thefamilytreepodcast.co.uk for more information and to hear trailers for the show. ENDS Notes to Editors The Family Tree has a cast of highly-skilled performers with backgrounds in comedy, spoken word and theatre, and includes Joz Norris, Vera Chok and Charles Adrian. In addition to this, Dave Pickering, Tony Pickering and Peter Pickering play themselves, and sketches of the characters by Tony Pickering are available for purchase. Further blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, the show will encourage listeners to phone in with their theories about the mystery. Some of these will be included in the weekly 'Cuttings' episodes. The Family Tree is running a Patreon campaign, aiming to raise funds to produce a second season of the show. We can provide a show logo, cast photographs, character sketches and trailers in advance of the release date. All of these materials are also available on our website. Contact [email protected]