Having enjoyed the film countless times on television, plus having met the world of Oz again recently though the musical Wicked and Sam Rami’s 2013 prequel movie Oz the Great and Powerful, it is fair to say we thought we knew the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz quite well.

This audio version, adapted from Frank L. Baum’s original 1900 novel by Doctor Who scribe Marc Platt (‘Ghost Light’, ‘Spare Parts’), actually held plenty of surprises for us.

For starters, those famous ruby slippers? Silver (you can apparently thank Technicolor for the change!) And did you ever wonder why there was a Wicked Witch of the East and West, but only a lone Good Witch of the North? Again that was a Hollywood shortcut. It was fascinating to discover there was a good deal more to the story than made it to the screen in 1939.

The tale begins as we remember, when a spirited young orphan named Dorothy Gale is whisked, house, dog and all, to the Land of Oz where she inadvertently kills a Wicked Witch upon crash landing – freeing an enslaved land of Munchkins.

Drawing together her familiar band of the brainless Scarecrow, heartless Tin Woodsman and cowardly Lion, she journeys down the yellow brick road towards the Emerald City and a meeting with the great and terrible wizard Oz. Their travels bring them into contact with talking mice, vicious crows and murderous wolves as the Wicked Witch of the West works against them.

Director Scott Handcock has cast four principals who are all tremendously engaging, with Ally Doman’s Dorothy a believable innocent, albeit with an unfortunate talent for inadvertent witch-murder. Stuart Milligan (Jonathan Creek) also shines as Oz himself, the magical showman with a talent for self-promotion

On the dark side, Rachel Atkins’ Wicked Witch is a monstrously fabulous creation with her one telescopic eye and she offers up heaps of enthusiastic cackling as she grapples with Dorothy and friends. Ostensibly out for revenge, her real agenda involves possession of those magical silver shoes.

There are also some amusing work related issues as she deals with Dan Starkey’s winged Monkey Captain who, although commanded by a magical cap, is a real jobsworth and a total stickler for the rules.

Having been thoroughly entertained and illuminated, and with thirteen other books by Baum ripe for adaptation, we hope this is not the last we hear from the strange and magical Land of Oz

Extras: Big Finish have provided a making-of featurette, Recording The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .

Published in Septembe 2015 by Big Finish.

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