River Song (audio drama series)

The Diary of River Song and its direct successor The Death and Life of River Song are two audio play series from Big Finish Productions based on the character of the same name who appears in the British television series Doctor Who played by Alex Kingston, who reprises the character in the audio series.^[1]

River Song
Big Finish Productions audio drama
Series	The Worlds of Doctor Who
Featuring	River Song
Directed by	Ken Bentley David O'Mahony (S12)
Produced by	David Richardson James Goss (S12)
Executive producer(s)	Jason Haigh-Ellery Nicholas Briggs
Starring	Alex Kingston
Music	Howard Carter
Release date	December 2015 (2015-12) – present

Background

Originally announced in 2015 as The Diary of River Song, the audio series is one of the first from Big Finish Productions to prominently feature elements from the revived era of Doctor Who (2005–). The character of River Song was introduced in the fourth series episode "Silence in the Library" (2008) with the Tenth Doctor as a mysterious figure from his future. She later became a recurring character across the fifth, sixth and seventh series of the programme, during which her true identity is revealed as Melody Pond, daughter to the Eleventh Doctor's companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and the Doctor's future wife. River Song's last TV appearance would come in the 2015 Christmas special "The Husbands of River Song" alongside the Twelfth Doctor.

In the first boxset story, The Rulers of the Universe, River cross paths with the Eighth Doctor, a still younger incarnation. She would appear again alongside the Eighth Doctor in the Doom Coalition series. The second series of The Diary of River Song features encounters with both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.^[2][3] The third series, announced September 2017, features an encounter with the Fifth Doctor with Frances Barber reprising her role of Madame Kovarian.^[4]

Announced in October 2017, Big Finish confirmed that River Song would return for a fourth and fifth series to be released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The fourth series features an encounter with the Fourth Doctor;^[5][6] whilst the fifth series features encounters with multiple versions of The Master.^[7][8]

Big Finish subsequently renewed The Diary of River Song in October 2018, for a further two more series (the sixth and seventh) to be released in 2019 and 2020.^[9] In August 2020, the series was confirmed as renewed for its eighth series.^[10] Big Finish Productions revealed in July 2021 a ninth series, uniting River with the Third Doctor, UNIT and Liz Shaw, would debut in October 2021. A tenth series was revealed by Big Finish in March 2022 to debut in July 2022.^[11] An eleventh series, announced in August 2022, debuted in January 2023;^[12] whilst a twelfth and final series was announced in June 2023 for release the following August.^[13]

In April 2024, Big Finish announced a sequel series featuring River Song with Kingston reprising the role titled The Death and Life of River Song, which depicts River's post-mortem adventures as a data ghost, as first seen in "The Name of the Doctor" (2013).^[14] The series began in August 2024. With the announcement, Big Finish retroactively renamed the entire audio series to simply River Song, with The Diary of River Song and The Death and Life of River Song serving as individual series within the range.

Cast

List indicator

This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least two seasons.

•   A green cell indicates the actor is a main cast member.
•   A red cell indicates the actor is a recurring cast member.
•   A light blue cell indicates the actor is a guest or special guest cast member.

Actor	Character	Appearances
		The Diary of River Song												The Death and Life of River Song
		S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	S9	S10	S11	S12	S1	S2	S3
Alex Kingston	River Song	✓
Paul McGann	The Doctor	✓	Does not appear
Sylvester McCoy		Does not appear	✓	Does not appear
Colin Baker		Does not appear	✓	Does not appear
Peter Davison		Does not appear		✓	Does not appear
Tom Baker		Does not appear			✓	Does not appear
Tim Treloar		Does not appear					✓	Does not appear		✓	Does not appear
David Bradley		Does not appear					✓	Does not appear
David Tennant		Does not appear							✓	Does not appear
Salome Haertel	Rachel Burrows	Does not appear	✓	Does not appear					✓	Does not appear
Nina Toussaint-White	Brooke	Does not appear		✓	Does not appear								✓	Does not appear
Timothy Blore	Luke Sullieman	Does not appear				✓	Does not appear	✓	Does not appear

Notable guests

• Alexander Vlahos as Bertie Potts
• Joanna Horton as Brooke
• Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian
• Michelle Gomez as Missy
• Geoffrey Beevers, Eric Roberts & Derek Jacobi as The Master
• Claudia Grant as Susan Foreman
• Jamie Glover as Ian Chesterton
• Jemma Powell as Barbara Wright
• Ralph Watson as Captain Knight
• Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago
• John Leeson as K9
• Jane Slavin as Anya Kingdom
• Joe Sims as Mark Seven
• Jon Culshaw as The Brigadier & The Master
• Daisy Ashford as Liz Shaw
• Mimî M. Khayisa as Other River Song
• Harry Peacock as Proper Dave
• Isla Blair as Older Mary Mortimer
• Wendy Craig as Older Maddie Mortimer
• Jemima Rooper as Mary Mortimer
• Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler
• Sophie Aldred as Dorothy 'Ace' McShane
• Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka

Episodes

The Diary of River Song

Series 1 (2015)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Boundless Sea"	Ken Bentley	Jenny T Colgan	Bertie Potts	December 2015 (2015-12)
2	"I Went to a Marvellous Party"	Ken Bentley	Justin Richards	Bertie Potts, Mr. Song
3	"Signs"	Ken Bentley	James Goss	Mr. Song
4	"The Rulers of the Universe"	Ken Bentley	Matt Fitton	Eighth Doctor, Bertie Potts

Series 2 (2016)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Unknown"	Ken Bentley	Guy Adams	Seventh Doctor	December 2016 (2016-12)
2	"Five Twenty-Nine"		John Dorney	Rachel Burrows
3	"World Enough and Time"		James Goss	Sixth Doctor
4	"The Eye of the Storm"		Matt Fitton	Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor, Rachel Burrows

Series 3 (2018)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Lady in the Lake"	Ken Bentley	Nev Fountain	Fifth Doctor, Brooke	January 2018 (2018-01)
2	"A Requiem for the Doctor"		Jacqueline Rayner	Fifth Doctor, Brooke
3	"My Dinner with Andrew"		John Dorney	Fifth Doctor, Brooke, Madame Kovarian
4	"The Furies"		Matt Fitton	Fifth Doctor, Brooke, Madame Kovarian

Series 4 (2018)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"Time in a Bottle"	Ken Bentley	Emma Reeves and Matt Fitton	Spod, Gammarae, Dante	September 2018 (2018-09)
2	"Kings of Infinite Space"		Donald McLeary	Spod, Gammarae, Dante
3	"Whodunnit?"		Matt Fitton	Dante, Franz Kafka
4	"Someone I Once Knew"		John Dorney	Fourth Doctor, Dante, Gammarae

Series 5 (2019)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Bekdel Test"	Ken Bentley	Jonathan Morris	Missy	January 2019 (2019-01)
2	"Animal Instinct"	Ken Bentley	Roy Gill	Luke Sullieman, The Decayed Master
3	"The Lifeboat and the Deathboat"	Ken Bentley & Jason Haigh-Ellery	Eddie Robson	The Morphant Master
4	"Concealed Weapon"	Ken Bentley	Scott Handcock	The War Master

Series 6 (2019)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"An Unearthly Woman"	Ken Bentley	Matt Fitton	First Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright (An Unearthly Child)	August 2019 (2019-08)
2	"The Web of Time"		John Dorney	Captain Knight, Yeti, The Great Intelligence (The Web of Fear)
3	"Peepshow"		Guy Adams	Third Doctor, Ogrons, Sontarans, Drashigs (Carnival of Monsters)
4	"The Talents of Greel"		Paul Morris	Henry Gordon Jago, Weng-Chiang (The Talons of Weng-Chiang)

Series 7 (2020)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"Colony of Strangers"	Ken Bentley	James Goss	–	January 2020 (2020-01)
2	"Abbey of Heretics"		Lizbeth Myles	–
3	"Barrister to the Stars"		James Kettle	–
4	"Carnival of Angels"		Roy Gill	Luke Sullieman, Weeping Angels

Series 8 (2021)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"Slight Glimpses of Tomorrow"	Ken Bentley	James Goss	Rachel Burrows	January 2021 (2021-01)
2	"A Brave New World"		Tracy Ann Baines	Tenth Doctor, Rachel Burrows
3	"A Forever Home"		Alfie Shaw	K9
4	"Queen of the Mechonoids"		Jonathan Morris	Anya Kingdom, Mark Seven, Mechonoids

Series 9: New Recruit (2021)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Blood Woods"	Ken Bentley	Lizbeth Myles	The Brigadier, Liz Shaw	October 2021 (2021-10)
2	"Terror of the Suburbs"		James Kettle	Liz Shaw
3	"Never Alone"		Helen Goldwyn	Liz Shaw
4	"Rivers of Light"		Lisa McMullin	Third Doctor, The Brigadier, Liz Shaw, The Master

Series 10: Two Rivers and a Firewall (2022)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Two Rivers"	Ken Bentley	Tim Foley	–	August 2022 (2022-08)
2	"Beauty on the Inside"		Lizzie Hopley	–
3	"Black Friday"		Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle	Autons
4	"Firewall"		Barnaby Kay	Proper Dave

Series 11: Friend of the Family (2023)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Rules of the House"[12]	Ken Bentley	Tim Foley	–	January 2023 (2023-01)
2	"The Key to the Door"[12]
3	"The Bird from the Nest"[12]
4	"The Isle on the Shore"[12]

Series 12: The Orphan Quartet (2023)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"The Excise Men"	David O'Mahony	Lou Morgan	–	August 2023 (2023-08)
2	"Harvest of the Krotons"		James Goss	Jackie Tyler, Krotons
3	"Dead Man Talking"		Tim Foley	–
4	"The Wife of River Song"		Lizzie Hopley	Brooke

The Death and Life of River Song

Series 1: Last Words (2024)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"Apokalypsis"	Ken Bentley	Robert Valentine	-	August 2024 (2024-08)
2	"Fate and Fatality"
3	"The Black Hours"
4	"Book of the Dead"

Series 2: Ace and Tegan (2025)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	"Castaways"	Ken Bentley	James Moran	Dorothy 'Ace' McShane, Tegan Jovanka	March 2025 (2025-03)
2	"Driftwood"		Roland Moore	Ace
3	"Dead Rising"		Roland Moore	Tegan
4	"The End is the Beginning is the End"		James Moran	Ace, Tegan

Series 3: The Dissolution of Time

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Featuring	Released
1	TBA	Ken Bentley	Rochana Patel	TBA	August 2025 (2025-08)[14]
2
3
4

Awards and nominations

Name of the award ceremony, year presented, category, nominee(s) of the award, and the result of the nomination

Award ceremony	Year	Category	Work(s)	Result	Ref.
Scribe Awards	2020	Best Audio	Concealed Weapon	Nominated	[15]