The Longest Night (audio story)

The Longest Night
Main character(s):	Emily, Robert
Featuring:	Hoffman, Currie
Main enemy:	Andrea Winnington
Main setting:	London, January, 2005
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Joseph Lidster
Director:	Edward Salt
Producer:	Ian Farrington and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Music:	David Darlington
Sound:	David Darlington
Cover by:	Red Ink
Release details
Release number:	3
Release date:	March 2005
Format:	1 episode on 1 CD; Download
Production code:	BFPUNITCD03
ISBN:	ISBN 1-84435-115-7
UNIT
← Previous	Snake Head
Next →	The Wasting

The Longest Night was the fourth story in the Big Finish UNIT audio series. It was written by Joseph Lidster.

Publisher's summary

"We interrupt this broadcast..."

Having survived a day at the seaside, Robert Dalton and Emily Chaudhry are enjoying a few pints... Having spent the day answering the phone and praying for some action, Will Hoffman is enjoying a night out... Having signed a controversial new European treaty, the Prime Minister is on his way back to Downing Street... Having survived yet another day, the people of Britain are settling down to eat dinner, stay in, go out, spend time with their friends...

"...we're receiving reports that..."

It's just another ordinary evening in the United Kingdom...

"...a bomb has exploded in central London..."

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Colonel Emily Chaudhry - Siri O'Neal
• Colonel Robert Dalton - Nicholas Deal
• Lieutenant Will Hoffman - Robert Curbishley
• Francis Currie - Michael Hobbs
• Nisha Townsend - Georgina Field
• Scott Christie - Scott Andrews
• The Prime Minister - Steffan Rhodri
• Meena Cartwright - Vineeta Rishi
• PM's Aide - Harry Myers
• Andrea Winnington - Sara Carver
• Major Philip Kirby - Johnson Willis

References

• Chaudhry and Currie refer to the 11 September attacks; the media wonders if the attacks are due to British involvement in Iraq.
• The Prime Minister wonders if the media may blame the attacks on Chechen rebels or the IRA.
• The killer policeman Sergeant Flemming sarcastically quotes the Metropolitan Police Service's "working for a safer London" slogan.
• Dalton and Currie are disparaging about the Daily Mail.
• London is using the Euro as its currency as part of the Euro-Combine Treaty.
• Chaudhry refers to Brimmicombe-Wood as a "Casanova". David Tennant had played this role on television the same year.
• Dalton sings the children's song London's Burning.
• Major cities under attack from ICIS include London, Bradford, Manchester, Glasgow, Lincoln and Hull.
• Over 1000 people, including two members of the British Royal Family and television personalities, were killed within the UK during the attacks, with 452 in London alone and 15 people in Lincoln and Hull.

Notes

• This audio drama was recorded on 5 December 2004 and 30 January 2005 at The Moat Studios.
• Part of the plot involves the bombing of the London Underground to terrorise people. On 7 July 2005, four months after the story was released, the Underground was bombed in real life.
• The audio drama begins to start the end credits theme when Kirby is arrested, only for it to abruptly stop when he reveals he's carrying a bomb.
• PROSE: Rise of the Dominator places The Coup as occurring in late 2004, placing this story as early 2005.
• This story was originally released on CD. It is now available as a download only.
• The story was re-released as part of the UNIT: The Complete Series box set in May 2020.

Continuity

• Albion Hospital from TV: Aliens of London is mentioned as being overwhelmed with injured people.
• The Prime Minister mentions the terrorist attacks on Windsor and Oxford a month earlier as a reason for signing the Euro-Combine Treaty. These were temporal accidents caused by ICIS. (AUDIO: Time Heals)
• Chaudhry and Dalton mention that they were fighting vampires only a couple of hours earlier. (AUDIO: Snake Head)
• One speaker refers to the military action in Syria as a potential motive for the attacks. (AUDIO: Time Heals)
• The Kosovan asylum seeker arrested in Southend is likely Goran. (AUDIO: Snake Head)
• The flu outbreak in the home counties turns out to be an alien virus. (AUDIO: The Wasting)
• Colonel Chaudhry refers to the sleeper agents' brainwashing as "a John Smith situation", referring to UNIT cases involving the Doctor. In response, Colonel Dalton refers to window shop dummies coming to life. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
• Francis Currie has left the BBC and been hired as the front line reporter for Planet 3. Sarah Jane Smith had previously worked for the television news network as an undercover journalist, exposing corruption by companies and officials in high places. (AUDIO: Comeback)
• Chaudry and Dalton were at the White Rabbit. (AUDIO: The Harvest, A Death in the Family)
• Chaudhry remarks that Dalton would have liked Brimmicombe-Wood. Their fathers had been friends. (PROSE: Project: Valhalla)
• The Deputy Prime Minister, Meena Cartwright, commits suicide under pressure from ICIS. This begins a period of political disarray, that continues with the murder of the Prime Minister at some point later. (TV: World War Three)
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart attended Colonel Dalton's funeral. (AUDIO: The Wasting)

External links

• Official The Longest Night page at bigfinish.com
• The Longest Night at the Doctor Who Reference Guide