Neil Gaiman mentioned at the press launch for Neverwhere that a radio adaptation gave them a limitless budget. By the end of episode 1 we haven’t even got to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Angel Islington or Christopher Lee’s Earl’s Court yet… What’s more, Anthony Head and David Schofield are wonderfully odious as Croup and Vandermar, Bernard Cribbins is perfect casting as the earthy roof-top dweller Old Bailey, and Johnny Vegas is great in his brief appearance The Lord Ratspeaker. Natalie Dormer’s Door is both driven and good-natured, David Harewood gives gentleman adventurer the Marquis de Carabas a preening impatience to go with the swashbuckling, and Sophie Okonedo brings a nice sense of wry amusement to the no-nonsense Hunter. James McAvoy is superb as Richard Mayhew, bringing the genial but nervy Scotsman to life with a combination of sparkling wit and understandable confusion.

Neverwhere has the kind of cast that Hollywood would kill for and they’re all a perfect fit for their roles.

The BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s beloved novel Neverwhere, starring James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch and Natalie Dormer, started on Saturday and continues this evening at 6.00pm, and here are 5 reasons why you should be listening to it. The series will air in six parts, with the first being available now and the rest will air beginning Monday.James McAvoy and Natalie Dormer play Richard and Door in Neverwhere All the while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in London Above. Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to discover who ordered them to murder her family. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the strange world of London Below. The first episode of Neverwhere, the BBC 4 radio play starring James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch and a cast of British luminaries, is now available for streaming on the BBC 4 website.īased on the best-seller from Sandman creator Neil Gaiman, an act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of London.

Neverwhere bbc radio