Who are Big Finish?

Big Finish has been producing high-quality, innovative and award-winning audio drama for 25 years. There are now literally hundreds of releases to choose from, with new titles added to our catalogue every month. The majority of Big Finish releases are based on TV series, including genre favourites like Doctor Who, Torchwood, Blake's 7, Survivors, Dark Shadows, The Prisoner, Adam Adamant Lives! and The Avengers.

Our stories feature familiar and much-loved characters in all-new audio adventures, and many of the actors who appeared in the original shows have returned to recreate their roles for us. The majority of our productions are either full-cast dramas or dramatic readings using just one or two voices, and feature dynamic sound design and original music.

Big Finish offers hours of entertainment, excitement and intrigue. You've never heard it so good!

How can I catch up on the latest news from Big Finish?

The news section of this website features daily updates, and you can find us on a number of social media platforms where we share our latest announcements. These include our Facebook page, Twitter feed, Instagram, SoundCloud and YouTube channel, or you can subscribe to our RSS feed.

You can also sign up for the Big Finish Newsletter, which delivers all the information about our latest releases and promotions direct to your inbox, as well as offering exclusive preview downloads each month. In addition, you can download or stream the weekly Big Finish Podcast. 

Should you wish to unsubscribe to our newsletter, the best way is to log in to My Account here on the website and update your preferences. Alternatively, you can click the unsubscribe link which is included at the bottom of every newsletter. Please note that there may be a short delay before the subscriber database reflects changes submitted via the unsubscribe link.

Will Big Finish be producing dramas based on the new TV series of Doctor Who?

Until 2015, Big Finish releases were drawn from the worlds of 'Classic' Doctor Who, featuring the first eight Doctors and their companions. This restriction has now been lifted, and we have an increasing number of projects based around the 'New' series. Characters featured include:

• full-cast Tenth Doctor Adventures, starring David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Billie Piper
• full-cast Ninth Doctor Adventures, starring Christopher Eccleston, releasing from May 2021
• multi-voice narrated adventures for the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors in The Doctor Chronicles
• Rose Tyler in The Dimension Cannon
• Donna Noble in Kidnapped!
• Martha Jones in The Year of Martha Jones
• River Song in The Diary of River Song and guesting in various other ranges. Check the River Song Collection to find all her BF appearances to date.
• Kate Stewart and her team in UNIT: The New Series
• Captain Jack Harkness in The Lives of Captain Jack
• Winston Churchill in Doctor Who: The Churchill Years
• Strax the Sontaran in Jago & Litefoot & Strax, and alongside Madame Vastra and her wife Jenny in The Paternoster Gang
• The Weeping Angels, the Judoon and the Sycorax in Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 1
• The Vashta Nerada, the Carrionites and the Racnoss in Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 2
• The Hoxx of Balhoon, the Tivolians and the Kantrofarri in Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 3
• Jenny in Jenny - The Doctor's Daughter
• Lady Christina de Souza in Lady Christina
• Missy
• The War Master
• Rory Williams in The Lone Centurion
• Sacha Dhawan's Master in Call Me Master
• The Fugitive Doctor, as portrayed by Jo Martin
• Rani Chandra in Rani Takes on the World

And there are more releases to come!

Will Big Finish be featuring the Time War in any of your forthcoming dramas?

Yes! From December 2015, Big Finish released Doctor Who: The War Doctor, a series of full-cast box sets starring the late Sir John Hurt and set during the Last Great Time War.

From October 2017, we began releasing Doctor Who: The Time War, a series of box sets covering the beginning of the Eighth Doctor's life during the Time War, followed by The War Master, starring Sir Derek Jacobi, Gallifrey Time War and War Room, and Susan's War.

In October 2020 we announced The War Doctor Begins, a new series of adventures telling the origin story of the War Doctor, and starring Jonathon Carley.

Doctor Who: Once and Future, an epic 60th anniversary story, features many incarnations of the Doctor and his friends suffering from the fallout of the Time War.

In addition, the Eighth Doctor adventures The Sontaran Ordeal (Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 1) and Day of the Vashta Nerada (Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 2), also take place during the conflict, as well as Doctor Who: Short Trips: A Heart on Both Sides, and Doctor Who: Short Trips: All Hands on Deck.

Will Peter Capaldi be appearing as the Twelfth Doctor or Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor in any Big Finish releases?

Our licence to produce content based on Doctor Who now includes storylines and characters up to and including Jodie Whittaker's final appearance in The Power of the Doctor.

View our Twelfth Doctor Collection for releases from this era of the series.

Call Me Master, featuring Sacha Dhawan's Master, and The Fugitive Doctor, as portrayed by Jo Martin, are both available for pre-order.

Keep an eye on the news section of the website, our social media pages, or subscribe to our newsletter for further announcements about new Twelfth or Thirteenth Doctor era titles.

Why don’t Big Finish produce an audio series based on 'X' TV show/comic-strip/book series?

We are always considering new series suitable for audio, and we read your suggestions with interest, but there are many practical and legal considerations to take into account.

Keep an eye on the news section of the website, our social media pages, or subscribe to our newsletter for announcements about new titles.

Can I send my story idea/script to Big Finish?

We are very sorry but Big Finish is not able to accept any unsolicited scripts, storylines or pitches for any of our ranges.

Please do not send these to us, as they will be deleted without being read.

From time to time we may invite submissions as part of a story competition, which will be announced in our news section, via social media on Facebook and Twitter, and in the Big Finish Podcast. 

Where has the Big Finish Forum gone?

In September 2015 we regretfully announced that the Big Finish Forum was indefinitely suspended, and it was taken down permanently in July 2017. Unfortunately, the increasing demands on our time both in moderation and countering extensive spam attacks often exceeded our resources and goodwill. However, you can continue to interact with Big Finish and fellow BF fans via social media on Facebook and X (formally Twitter).

Can I get work experience at Big Finish?

Big Finish is a small company with only a handful of full and part-time employees, many working from home for much of the time. Regrettably, this means that we currently do not have any capacity to accommodate work experience placements.

I'm an actor who would like you to consider casting me in one of your audio dramas. How do I get in touch?

You should email us with your CV and voicereel at [email protected].

Please ensure that you include your name, playing age and native accent in the title of the email to help us ensure that your submission is directed appropriately. Please also indicate if you have access to a home studio, and what type of equipment you have.

BUYING FROM BIG FINISH

I'm outside the UK. Can I buy from Big Finish?

Yes. Our downloads are available for purchase wherever you live in the universe, and we ship our CDs to all territories. You can find more information about our shipping rates here.

Please note that from January 2021, customs charges apply to all shipments from the UK into EU countries. Make sure that you check the threshold allowances for your country of residence for an indication of the additional fees this may incur. Customers are responsible for the payment of all customs charges.

How do I pay for my order?

You can make payment on our website with PayPal, or by credit card via Opayo (formerly SagePay). At this time, Opayo do not process Visa gift cards, so unfortunately you will not be able to use them for purchases here.  From November 2022, you can also use a Big Finish Gift Card to pay for all or part of your order.

How can I get help with my Big Finish order?

If you want to place an order offline, pay by cheque or need more assistance at any part of the process, you can contact us via email or phone.

Our Sales team can be reached at [email protected], or by telephone on +44 1628 824102.

If you have problems with an existing order, subscriptions, lost, damaged or incomplete orders, or you are experiencing issues with credit card payments, please direct your query to our warehouse team at [email protected]. Please make sure you include your order number in your email.

For more information, visit the Contact Us page.

How long do Big Finish orders take to ship?

** PLEASE NOTE: From December 2020 our warehouse is operational again, but with reduced staff capacity to ensure a safe working environment. Many deliveries of stock from our pressing plant are still running behind our digital release dates, and we are not able to guarantee the status of local mail or postal services. We expect there to be continued delays, particularly for overseas customers. If you are outside the UK, please allow the full 28 days after the despatch date shown on your order before you contact us about missing items.**

You can read more about our current policy here: Big Finish Warehouse re-opens.

* * * * *

The Big Finish Sales team work extremely hard to ship all orders as soon as they are available, and new releases should deliver to UK customers within a few days of the release date.

However, we do ask you to allow the traditional 28 days for delivery. This is typically an overestimation, and you should receive your goods well within this time frame. It’s also worth checking with your local Royal Mail delivery office to see if they’re holding your parcel. Occasionally cards aren’t left when deliveries fail.

In the unlikely event that you have not received your order after 28 days, please contact [email protected].

Missed/Uncollected Deliveries

If an order is returned to us following failed delivery attempts, or because the time to collect the order from a postal office has elapsed, the customer is liable for any charges incurred to redeliver the order plus any ‘Return to Sender’ fees.

If the customer does not wish for the order to be redelivered, they will be refunded the purchase price of the items minus any ‘Return to Sender’ fees. We will not refund the original postage charge.

I have a question about my Big Finish account, or feedback/ comments about a Big Finish product or story. Who can I contact?

You can email our production team at any time via [email protected]. They're always happy to help, but please allow up to 48 hours for them to get back to you!

I've tried registering for a Big Finish account, but I haven't received a confirmation email. 

Historically, Hotmail, BT and AT&T customers have had our automated messages blocked or sent to their spam folders, but we believe that these issues have now been cleared. Please do ensure that @bigfinish.com is added to your local "white list" of safe senders.

If you do not receive a validation email, please email [email protected] for assistance.

HELP! I can't access my Big Finish account, what can I do?

For our best service, we recommend you only create one account, which will allow you to access all of your purchases via the same login. If you are experiencing difficulties accessing your existing account, please read this section carefully, and contact us before creating another account.

If you find that you cannot access your account via the usual login process, please email [email protected] for assistance.

Since the launch of our new website in April 2019, there have been some changes to log-in requirements.

Should you need to do so, you can reset your password here.

New passwords should be at least 8 characters long, and must include at least one number, one upper and one lower case character.

You will always need to use your email address to log in on both the new website and the BF app. Your old username is no longer valid, and only one instance of any email address can be used.

Please note: At this time, Big Finish accounts cannot be merged, and we would ask you not to create multiple accounts using different email addresses.

I've used PayPal to place an order, but the transaction is labelled “Awaiting PayPal confirmation”. What does this mean?

The “Awaiting PayPal confirmation” status indicates a problem on the PayPal side of the process. Your order has not progressed, and you should not have not been charged. Please try placing the order again. If the problem persists, please contact our Sales team at [email protected].

I've heard that ‘Subscribers get more at bigfinish.com’. What more are the benefits of buying a Big Finish subscription?

Although our Monthly Adventures range of Doctor Who audios has now ended, you can still purchase a subscription (an order comprising either 6 or 12 consecutive releases).  Purchasing a Subscription offers a number of exclusive benefits:

• A saving of 30% against buying titles individually.
• A free release of your choice, from across the Big Finish catalogue (any single-disc Big Finish release priced £10.99 or less)
• Free Short Trips downloads (two per 6 releases subscription, and four with a 12-release subscription)
• Extended special features on selected releases
• access to a PDF of the script

In addition, certain bonus releases are issued free to subscribers when your order includes a specific story. Click here for further details about Big Finish Subscriptions.

Are Big Finish productions available for download?

Yes. Most CD purchases come with a complimentary digital version, meaning that once you buy a title from Big Finish you will have instant access to the associated download files in your account. You also have the option of making a digital-only purchase.

If you have pre-ordered a title then you will find your downloads available to you in your account on the date of release.

If you accidentally delete or lose a file, then you can simply download it again, as your purchases will remain attached to your online account.

IMPORTANT: Big Finish strongly advises all our customers to ensure that you have downloaded all the content from our website that you have purchased and retain backup copies offline, to safeguard against future disappointment or loss of access eg if BFP rights expire and we are no longer able to offer the content via our website. Please be aware that downloading within the BF App does not constitute an offline backup.  You should visit My Account via the website, and access the zips attached to each release in your purchase history. 

You can also access your download purchases via the Big Finish App.

If you buy CDs directly from Big Finish at an event such as Big Finish Day, please make sure you mention when you are making your purchase that you have a Big Finish account and we will be happy to make the digital version available to you.

However, please note that due to some fraudulent claims, we can no longer process any unverified event purchases retrospectively. 

A small proportion of our productions are not currently available as downloads for contractual reasons. We hope to make all content available for download, but in some cases, this may not be possible. Click here for the full list of CDs where downloads are not available, and also those which are currently download-only.

What is the difference between mp3 and Audiobook downloads?

The majority of Big Finish releases are available for download in both mp3 and Audiobook (m4b) formats.

• mp3 downloads most usually present the content in multiple files (by track) just as they appear on the CD version, and should be compatible with all digital media players.
• Audiobook (m4b) downloads are presented as one or more longer files, with chaptering per part/episode, and are primarily suitable for playback on iPods and other Apple devices.

Click here for more downloading tips.

Are downloads available to everyone?

Download files are available to anyone who has purchased a release with download rights directly from the Big Finish website since 1^st February 2008. We require written proof of purchase for older orders which are not recorded online. If you've placed an order with us over the phone, downloads can be manually added to your account.

Please contact the team at [email protected] for assistance, quoting any related sales order info you have so that we can validate your purchase.

Can I make copies of my Big Finish CDs and downloads?

Big Finish Productions is happy for our customers to copy purchased CD content for digital playback, or burn purchased downloads to CD, as long as it is strictly for personal use.

However, please remember that sharing CDs with third parties, exchanging mp3s with friends or uploading them to file-sharing websites/platforms is an infringement of International Copyright Law and can be subject to criminal prosecution.

We estimate that Big Finish loses up to three-quarters of its potential revenue to piracy, and we will seek to prosecute anyone identified as a bootlegger or pirate. The maximum penalty for offences of audio piracy is 10 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The Proceeds of Crime Act legislation now also enables confiscation of assets and goods.

Please remember that piracy affects us all. The more people who make a legal purchase of a Big Finish CD or download, the greater the opportunity for price cuts and special offers for our loyal listeners - and you'll be funding new productions too!

For more information, please refer to our Terms & Conditions.

Why can’t I purchase CD versions of the first 150+ Doctor Who Monthly Adventures?

In August 2013, we took the decision to make the first 50 Doctor Who Monthly Adventures releases available as download only, once the remaining stock had been sold. This was followed in October 2017, when #51-100 were announced as going out of print. There are currently no plans to re-press these stories on CD, but they can be downloaded for just £2.99 each.

In February 2020, we announced that #101-150 would not be repressed. These releases are now only available as downloads at £7.99 each.

In August 2021, we announced that #151-200 would not be repressed once our current stock is sold, so don't miss your chance to grab a copy on CD! Visit our Last Chance on CD page to find out what is still available.

Why are some Big Finish ranges no longer available to order?

Unfortunately, certain Big Finish titles are no longer available to purchase as our distribution licences have expired. Releases currently not available to order include:

• The Tomorrow People
• Sapphire & Steel
• Highlander
• 2000AD / Judge Dredd
• The Sigmund Freud Files
• The Martian Chronicles

Watch the news section of the website, our social media pages, or subscribe to our newsletter for announcements about new releases and returning ranges.

Apart from the Big Finish website, where else can I buy Big Finish products?

Big Finish products are stocked by many of the specialist science fiction shops throughout the UK, including Galaxy Four, Forbidden Planet and Burtons Books.

If you cannot find our titles on the shelves locally, then any good bookshop will be able to order our titles for you. Quoting the Retail ISBN for the item you require will help them locate it. The ISBN can be found on the relevant product page of this website, on the Technical Details tab.

You can sometimes also find us in the dealers room at major Doctor Who conventions in the UK and selected other genre events – come and say hello! View our Events Diary for more information.

Which international retailers stock Big Finish products?

You can buy Big Finish releases in the US from Who North America, Doctor Who Store and Mike's Comics amongst others, and from Galaxy Bookshop in Australia.

Last updated: 5th May 2024