2. Midwinter Day The Dark Is Rising

Will awakes in a different time, centuries before his own. Where a familiar farm stood there is a huge forest, blanketed in snow. The Rider, a terrifying agent of the Dark, tries to kidnap him but Will is rescued by a white horse and taken to a pair of carved oak doors set on a hillside. Listen on headphones for 3D immersive sound. #TheDarkIsRising
Will Stanton: Noah Alexander
John Smith/Paul Stanton/Mr Beaumont: Thomas Arnold
Bus Conductor/Jamaican Old One/James Stanton: Danny Bailey
Stephen Stanton: Simon Bubb
Mrs Stanton/Mrs Pettigrew/Dr Armstrong: Amanda Hadingue
The Walker/Hawkin: Toby Jones
Narrator: Simon McBurney
The Rider/Mr Mithothin/Mr Stanton/Farmer Dawson: Tim McMullan
Merriman: Paul Rhys
Maggie Barnes/Mary Stanton: Natasha Stone
The Lady/Miss Greythorne: Harriet Walter
Herne: Miles Yekinni
The chorister: Vinay Singh
Radio announcer: Samuel West

Soundscape design: Gareth Fry
Music: Josh Sneesby
Original songs by Johnny Flynn, Luisa Gerstein and Héloïse Tunstall-Behrens

Adapted for audio by Robert Macfarlane and Simon McBurney
Dramaturg: James Yeatman

Director: Simon McBurney
Producers: Catherine Bailey and Tim Bell

A Complicité and Catherine Bailey Production for BBC World Service
Commissioned by Simon Pitts