Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Ashley's Worlds

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Country
  
New Zealand

Starring
  
see below

Language(s)
  
English

Written by
  
Belinda Todd

Running time
  
3-5 minutes per episode

Produced by
  
Andrew Dubber and Belinda Todd

Ashley's Worlds was a mid-1990s radio comedy series in 100 episodes that was broadcast on 26 radio stations and described by its creators Andrew Dubber and Belinda Todd as a "cartoon for radio".

Contents

Plot

Domestic cat Ashley is transported, or "magiced", into the kingdom of Catatonia, a world completely run by anthropomorphic cats, where he is mistaken for a spy and is thrown into the dungeon of the royal castle. He escapes with the uncouth scrapper Bishop and together with their self-proclaimed hostage Tobias they seek an audience with the princess hoping to resolve Ashley's predicament.

Cast

  • Craig Parker as Ashley, a spoiled cat used to a nice patch of sunshine to sleep in and a house full of humans to pander to his every need. Prior to the transportation his most unpleasant experience involved an unscheduled trip to the vet and a cold thermometer and his most dangerous escapade was a slow flick of the tail coupled with a rather faster closing of the fridge door.
  • Carl Bland as Bishop, a fierce looking criminal cat eager to whip out his card which reads "Bishop the bloodthirsty: specializing in assassinations, intimidations and small wars. No job too messy." Ashley's unusual behavior first has Bishop suspect Ashley is "a crazy".
  • David Weatherley as Tobias, a plump and ageing "aristo'cat'" of the noble Pussinbootle family
  • Belinda Todd as Tabitha, the visually impaired and self-centered princess and ruler of Catatonia whose missing father, the king, was obsessed with discovering the ruins of the lost city Cataract, built by the magically adept ancients.
  • Merv Smith as The Strange Old Cat

    • Ilona Rodgers, Beryl Te Wiata and Emmeline Hawthorne made guest appearances.

    Production

    On average, each 3–5 minutes episode took around 16 hours to make.

    In January 2005, Dubber announced on his blog "The Wireless" that he had registered Ashley's Worlds under a Creative Commons Licence (by-nc-sa 2.0) and seeded a torrent with the series.

    My theory is that the more people have copies of this stuff, the less likely it is to disappear forever. Digital archiving is about dissemination and propagating, not hoarding and hiding.

    Producers Andrew Dubber and Belinda Todd would later produce the radio series Claybourne in 1998.

    References

    Ashley's Worlds Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA