About Neverwhere
Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere.
An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the strange world of London Below.
So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube cry of 'Mind the Gap' takes on new meaning; for the inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl鈥檚 Court, Old Bailey and Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington.
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. All the while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in London Above.
A six part adaption of 鈥檚 novel adapted by Dirk Maggs for Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbens, Romola Garai, George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis.
London Above
London as we know it. Bustling, noisy, the capital city of the United Kingdom. Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Pace, Westminster, Hackney, the City; tourists, black taxis, red buses and post boxes. A place where rats don鈥檛 talk and landmarks aren鈥檛 known for their conversational qualities.
London Below
A subterranean London, far below the streets of London Above. Populated with people who have fallen between the cracks in society, London Below is a mysterious and murky world of shadows and danger. Here there really is an Earl of Earl鈥檚 Court, a Baron at Baron鈥檚 Court, shepherds at Shepherd鈥檚 Bush and and angel. Called Islington. It is also the home of the Great Beast of London, an ancient and terrifying creature dwelling somewhere deep in the Labyrinth, at the very heart of London Below.