Having gained worldwide renown for his role as Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau earned scores of fans thanks to his powerful portrayal of the villain-turned-anti-hero.
In one of his latest projects, he showcases his skills yet again as a voice actor and co-creator of Radioman, a gripping Audible podcast produced by Big Light Productions and Ill Kippers in partnership with Vespucci, which is inspired by an unbelievable true story.
‘There was this one specific story that just caught our eye – we thought it was unbelievable,’ Nikolaj told Metro.co.uk, when recalling how he became aware of the tale.
‘It was basically that thing about creating your own narrative, and this is about a guy who did it to the most extreme effect. It was all out of “let’s tell a great story”.’
Inspired by the ‘insane’ true story of Dimiter Kenarov – who wrote a 2009 article titled Mask of Sanity detailing how he reported on the crimes of a serial killer – Radioman follows former radio DJ Chas Vincent-Jones (Nikolaj) in the fictional Yorkshire town of Tanford.
Chas and his old friend DCI Ian Whittaker (David Morrissey) use a podcast called Crimesville to investigate local crimes, which sets them down a path filled with betrayal, social media fame and murders.
Tonight, Nikolaj, score composer Benbrick, Big Light Productions creative lead Emily Feller and Radioman writer Joe Derrick are taking part in a live virtual session as part of the London Podcast Festival, where they’ll be delving into the creative process behind the scenes of the 10-part podcast.
Metro.co.uk caught up with both Nikolaj and Emily ahead of the event, as they both explained how fulfilling the ambition they had for the audio drama proved to be one of their greatest challenges throughout its development.
‘It’s such a crazy thing that happens in the story, that when you find out the end – I mean, this is a murder mystery – when you find out at the end who’s actually doing all of this, it is insane,’ Nikolaj said.
‘I feel like it seems the world is going a little bit crazy. I mean, everything is a little out of whack,’ the 52-year-old added, expressing his hope that listeners will go ‘on this journey of going: “Holy s**t, how the hell did we end up here?”’
Having worked on TV programmes including Medici and Leonardo, Emily outlined how although they had a ‘lower budget’ for Radioman as an audio drama, they had ‘absolutely no expectation of having lower production values’.
‘You’re reaching to achieve fantastic production on less money in less time, and with equally as talented people. So it’s just been the most brilliant experience for us at Big Light to be involved in the show,’ she stated.
Early on, Nikolaj and writer Joe were keen on bringing award-winning songwriter and producer Benbrick – aka Paul Carter – on board, but they were told that it wouldn’t be possible as he wasn’t within their budget.
Nonetheless, being forced to ‘think outside the box’ worked to their advantage, as they went directly to Benbrick – who Emily described as a ‘audio version of a visionary’ – and persuaded him to read the script, inspiring him to jump onto the project with them.
Covering around 20 pages of script a day when recording the dialogue, Nikolaj found the experience ‘insanely inspiring’ and ‘a little scary’, describing how they created a ‘weird hybrid between when you read a great book and you see a movie’.
‘We’ve had so many people who’ve listened to it and said, “I can see this,” and that was exactly what we wanted,’ he said.
Following immensely positive feedback from listeners, Emily revealed there’s ‘enormous potential’ for a TV adaptation of the audio drama, a prospect that they’re ‘definitely going to look into’.
When recording the first season of Radioman, which came out on Audible in May this year, the cast and crew had to grapple with Covid restrictions, which saw the voice actors record in booths in an outdoor tent kitted out with a gas heater in cold weather.
As a co-creator of the drama, Nikolaj was ‘there all the time’, sometimes stepping in to play other characters so his fellow actors had someone to play off when reading their parts.
Summarising his hope for Radioman, both the first season and any potential future outings, he added: ‘You want to entertain people, that’s what we all want. We want people to be hooked, whatever it is, you’re doing.’
Radioman: Behind-The-Scenes live online event with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Emily Feller, Joe Derrick and Benbrick is on Wednesday 14th September as part of the London Podcast Festival. Tickets are free and available at kingsplace.co.uk.
Radioman is available now on Audible.
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