Mythos: The Village

Julian Simpson has helped us out behind the scenes in the past, and he asked us to post the following on his behalf:

This one really shouldn't exist.

Somewhere back in the mists of time, the first Mythos radio play slipped unnoticed through the BBC commissioning system. I had wanted to do something "A bit X-Files, but British", which is probably what I pitched. It is not quite what they got.

Instead of two FBI agents, they got Mary Lairre, the ghost of a murdered French nun, and Jonathan Hicks, a podcaster who had been investigating something called "The Department", which had first reared its head in my play "Fugue State", a year or so before (I was already world-building, but I didn't know it yet). And instead of aliens, they got a strange Essex village plagued by witchcraft.

In case you can't already tell, I tend to make these things up as I go along. The story that emerged in the first Mythos started off being a bit spooky and then became very silly very fast. But it did have some kind of internal logic and, while it didn't always work on paper, we had Nicola Walker and Jonathan Bailey and Tim McInnerny and Steven Mackintosh in the main parts, and those actors, as I have found time and again, can make anything work.

The BBC don't tell you how many people listen to shows, but Mythos must have done some numbers, because they came back and asked for two more. For Glamis and Albion, the character of Jonathan Hicks seemed too limiting - if we were really going to take flight in this world, I needed people who knew it already; I didn't want a character constantly questioning everything and needing explanations. And so Hicks was killed off in a chronological mishap and he was replaced by Cinderella Parker (Phoebe Fox), at which moment my favourite double-act of all time was born. The character of Jonathan Hicks was not consigned to the scrapheap, however, he was simply renamed Matthew Heawood, and given his own show...

I've always treated Mythos as something of a guilty secret. I loved writing it, more than I've ever loved writing anything, but I didn't really believe that anyone was listening, and I suspected the actors were indulging me by turning up to the recordings. Clearly these tales were beneath everybody - time travel, trolls, Knights of the Round Table, wild coincidences. Yes, the stories were intended as an exploration of the fables that shape our culture, but I thought the only person who got that was me. So when the BBC politely declined to make any more, I wasn't surprised. Mythos was a brilliant playground, but I was the only kid there, and the land was needed to make something proper for grown-ups.

In the meantime, we made The Lovecraft Investigations, and I smuggled an ever-so-slightly-more-serious version of Parker into that, and then I smuggled Lairre in too, in a different guise. I knew I was supposed to let these characters go, but I couldn't.

Fast forward to 2025. The Kickstarter for Lovecraft Investigations: Crowley is underway. It has hit its target in under an hour and people are asking about stretch goals. After looking up what a stretch goal is, I start pondering what else we might make. A couple of weeks into the campaign, I am sitting in Nicola Walker's kitchen, worrying at the problem, when she, slightly sheepishly, says, "I've been talking to Phoebe about this... We really want to do another Mythos." I pick myself up off the floor, check that she is not just messing with me, and then I gently explain that Mythos is a show that no one actually wants to listen to. Nicola is adamant that I am wrong (I believe she may have called me a bad word), and suggests that I float the idea to backers.

Making a show for the BBC is a little bit like performing on a stage without being able to tell if there is an audience watching you or not. You're doing your best, but you don't know if anyone is paying attention. In the case of Mythos, I was certain that the hall was empty. Maybe there was one guy sweeping up at the back of the room, but I was pretty sure even he was rolling his eyes and hoping he could go home soon. But when I floated the idea of a new Mythos to backers, not only did I get an enthusiastic response, and a serious bump in the crowdfund total, but people started to send me fan art, and images of themselves cosplaying characters at parties. There was a real and dedicated fan base for this show that had been in hiding all this time.

And so we went all-out. Mythos: The Village isn't just another Mythos adventure, it's the connective tissue that joins this series to the Lovecraft Investigations and, if you dig really deep, it's my take on where we are as a culture right now. It also contains more half-remembered pop-culture references than you can shake a stick at. Most importantly, though, it is the return of Lairre and Parker (and Parker's biscuits), and it makes a lot more sense of one of the main experts introduced in Crowley. It is also presented in a binaural mix (listen with headphones) and for those who bought the hi-res downloads, you are being treated to David Thomas's sublime Dolby Atmos mix.

I'm unbelievably glad and grateful that we got to bring you this new adventure. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as we had making it.

If you're a Crowley backer, Mythos: The Village will be appearing on the Crowley feed.... Now!

• If you have not backed the show, there will be an opportunity to buy Crowley and Mythos when I get the pre-order store opened over the next few days.
• Mythos: The Village may eventually be available to stream for free, but not for a while.
• The original three episodes of Mythos are available here: https://feeds.captivate.fm/mythos/