Imaginary Boys (audio story)

Imaginary Boys
Novelised as:	Imaginary Boys
Main character(s):	David Taylor, Lawrence
Main setting:	Newton Aycliffe & Darlington, autumn 2013
Key crew
Writer:	Paul Magrs
Director:	Scott Handcock
Producer:	Scott Handcock
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	3 October 2013
Premiere network:	BBC Radio 4

Imaginary Boys was a BBC Radio audio story written by Paul Magrs. It featured a Novelisor from Verbatim Six, as previously seen in Magrs' Companion Chronicles stories Ringpullworld and Find and Replace. The story also featured characters who had previously appeared in Magrs' novels Strange Boy and The Diary of a Dr. Who Addict and the Short Trips story Fanboys.

The story would later be novelised as a short story under the same title, published in the Wilde Stories 2016 anthology, and later, in the Silver Jubilee anthology.

Publisher's summary

A fantastical tale of teenage love and close encounters.

17 year-old David Taylor begins to see the world in a different light when he meets Lawrence. Lawrence is new in town, new to Earth actually - he claims to be from Verbatim Six, a small planet about three hundred light years away. A strange but very real story of a burgeoning teenage relationship, with all the fear and confusion that goes with it.

Plot

Lawrence, a new boy in David Taylor's class, follows David home, and is narrating everything that David does, as he is a novelisor from Verbatim Six. David does not much like this. He hurries home to his Mam, who has been waiting for him. David goes to his room and reads some poetry, and then talks to his Mam.

more to be added

Cast

• David Taylor - James Baxter
• Lawrence - Geoffrey Breton
• Mam - Jill Halfpenny
• Dad / Simon - Daniel Brocklebank
• Robert - Liam Dascombe

Worldbuilding

• David reads To Autumn by Keats.
• Books at the used bookshop include The Grizzly Space Fandango by Penelope Faithconquest, the Eternal Mayhem Chronicles by Everard Denat, and Entrails by Moonlight by Marcia Sopwith.

Notes

Preview artwork for Imaginary Boys published in Radio Times created by Stuart Manning.

• Imaginary Boys received a "Pick of the Day" article in Radio Times. It contained a piece of artwork created by Stuart Manning.
• While David and his family may originate from Strange Boy, Fanboys, and The Diary of a Dr Who Addict, Imaginary Boys features a different history for them. Most notably, David's pre-Imaginary Boys appearances show him being an adolescent in the 1980s.
• Just like Magrs' previous stories about David, elements of Imaginary Boys are based off of Magrs' life. When Magrs was queer-bashed at the age of 17, his father was the police officer who took his statement on the assault.
• In one scene of Imaginary Boys, David and Lawrence visit the used-bookstore Magda's Mysteries in Darlington, a store which David has been going to for years. However, in The Diary of a Dr Who Addict the Great Big Book Exchange is the used-bookstore which David regularly visits during his trips to Darlington. The two bookstores appear alongside each other in Enter Wildthyme.

Continuity

• Novelisors and Verbatim Six originate from AUDIO: Ringpullworld ^[+]Loading...["Ringpullworld (audio story)"]
• Magda's Mysteries originates from PROSE: The Dreadful Flap ^[+]Loading...["The Dreadful Flap (short story)"]
• Lawrence mentions that Novelisors used to have the ability to fry people's minds. This was seen in both AUDIO: Ringpullworld and AUDIO: Find and Replace ^[+]Loading...["Find and Replace (audio story)"].

External links

• BBC Radio 4 - Afternoon Drama, Imaginary Boys at BBC
• Afternoon Drama: Imaginary Boys at BBC media centre
• My First Afternoon Play on Radio 4 - Next Week! at Life on Magrs