Audible, a world-wide leader in spoken-word entertainment, has today released a heart-warming new Audible Original drama, Crush Hour, featuring a spectacular musical score and songs from the cast, starring Ellie Goulding, Douglas Booth, Rory Kinnear, Samantha Barks, Omari Douglas and more.
The podcast follows the stories of unknowingly connected strangers as they navigate love during London’s rush hour. Chance encounters on tubes, taxis, trains and bikes result in hilarious outcomes in this festive musical drama. Crush Hour is a collaboration with Mercury Studios, a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, with the full soundtrack to the podcast being released by Decca Records.
Crush Hour boasts a star-studded cast including Grammy-nominated and two-time Brit award-winning singer Ellie Goulding as Ash who every day sees her dream man, played by Douglas Booth (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) on the train. After she reads an anonymous reference to ‘the girl with the green coat’ in the newspaper’s Crush Hour segment, she is determined to see if he’s written it about her.
West End star, Samantha Barks (Les Misérables) also stars as Lola who, having just left her leaving party after being made redundant from work, finds herself on the night tube desperately trying to place the man in front of her played by Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk). But this is London, and she knows the cardinal rule of not speaking to people on the Tube…
Elsewhere, a hapless Jay (played by Bad Education Movie’s Layton Williams) is lost somewhere between Kings Cross and Bloomsbury, and finds himself taking an Uber with a tipsy Jonny (Omari Douglas, It’s a Sin) who does little to calm his nerves.
The musical’s finale sees the impromptu retaking of vows by Martin and Debbie, played by Rory Kinnear (Skyfall, The Imitation Game) and Julia Davies (Gavin and Stacey), who try to gather an audience to watch their ceremony on Christmas Eve in Kings Cross station. Soon, it becomes clear that the characters are all entwined in one way or another, just in time for Christmas Day.
Crush Hour features an original soundtrack by a full cast ensemble which also includes Nick Collier also known as Ella Vaday (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Keil Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts), and Ben Bailey-Smith (The Split) who all join this musical venture. The musical was created and written by Freya Slipper, directed by Chris Foggin (Fisherman’s Friends, Traces), composed by Chris Read with an original score performed by The London Symphony Orchestra. The series features episodes written by Doug Crossley, Spring Day and Leila Navabi. Crush Hour was produced by Marc Robinson, Mark Hopkins & Claire Rhodes, and developed in association with Twenty Thirteen Films.
The full original soundtrack to the series will also be released by UMG’s Decca Records in line with the podcast’s November 17 launch date.