What’s it called?
Mockery Manor
What’s it about?
It’s May 1989 and the setting is Mockery Manor, probably the UK’s most eccentric theme park thanks to attractions such as Empire Land (where you can hear recordings of the Queen Mother), Roswell Land (devoted to the so-called Roswell UFO incident of 1947) and the massive Dream Land, which plays you recordings of your own voice and in which a group of teenagers once took magic mushrooms, lost their minds and ate each other. That’s one of the stories told by Parker, a teenage guide at Mockery Manor and the first friend made by our heroine JJ, who turns up late for a summer job in which her twin sister Bette is already installed. So far so more-or-less straightforward, but things take a turn for the weird in episode two when we’re introduced to the disembodied voice which seems to control the park’s CCTV system and told there’s a body hidden under the concrete somewhere.
Who’s in it?
JJ and her twin sister Bette are voiced by Hayley Evenett and Laurence Owen (who also does sound design) is Parker. It’s written and directed by stand-up comedian Lindsay Sharman.
What’s so good about it?
It’s refreshing to hear a British take on the sort of surreal territory which has made US podcasts such as The Orbiting Human Circus and Welcome To Nightvale such hits. Last week Mockery Manor was nominated in the Best Fiction Podcast category of the prestigious British Podcast Awards.
Fun fact …
Stephen Fry is a fan.
For fans of ...
Murder In Successville
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