Part 5: The Garden
In an idyllic countryside English garden, Helen potters. No matter what happens in the world outside, her garden will always be there when Helen needs to hide away. With her flowers, and her trees, and the bees in the back that know exactly what she did. Ignorance is bliss, right?
A psychological audio thriller. Unsettling. Gripping. Scary.
Strap yourself in: this is a listening experience like no other…
(we recommend headphones for this one)
The Garden is Part Five in our science-fiction anthology, Cloud 9.
Content warning: This piece contains horror, threat of death, and psychological torment.
Listen here!
You can listen on your favourite podcast platforms, right here:
The Garden’s
Creative Team
Shaun Mendum
Writer/Producer
Benjamin Peel’s play Not a Game for Girls received a fifth production in 2024 when it was staged by Pepper’s Ghost Theatre Company in Stantonbury (director, Rosemary Hill). It was published by Oberon Books in 2018.
His play The Three Stages of Monica (director, Kevin Foott) was performed in Liverpool as part of Make it Write’s Weird & Wonderful Festival in 2025 where it won two awards for best production and best script.
He wrote the short film Messages, a co-production between Evening Cat Productions and Shepherd Creative (director Joseph Shepherd) which was released in late 2024. It garnered four festival laurels plus it received the Best Styling award at the same Weird & Wonderful Festival.
He has had work published in three anthologies and has written and self-produced several short audio dramas and monologues. He was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize in 2023.
Andrew Mark-Sewell
Director
Andrew Mark Sewell is a former BBC Creative Director and now multi-award-winning radio drama producer/director (Best Drama & Fiction Producer at the Audio Production Awards 2022), publisher and indie filmmaker. Co-founder of UK indie B7 Media and new audio drama platform Audioteria.com, Sewell is also on the NYF Radio Advisory Board.
Sewell is best known for the audio drama re-imagining of comic-strip space hero Dan Dare and cult BBC television series Blake’s 7. Other dramas for BBC Radio 4 include Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, legal drama Barred and the much-praised retelling of the poem ‘Mahabharata’ set in modern Mumbai, Mahabharata Now. He was lead UK producer on the Wondery+ WW2 series Unsinkable featuring Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Brian Cox and John Malkovich, co-created and directed the radio soap opera Greenborne and most recently directed Theatre of the Damned featuring Amir El-Masry, Sam Crane and Kelly Burke, inspired by the true story of the legendary theatre in Paris, The Grand Guignol.
Film credits include Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and a four-film collaboration with Canadian director Paul Andrew Kimball; The Cuckoo in the Clock, Roundabout, Exit Thread and The Colour of Spring. Sewell is currently in pre-production of crime horror film Kill Everything with Ed Polgardy, who produced the hit horror film The Wretched.
Matthew Kulewicz
Sound Design
Matthew Kulewicz, is an award winning Dialogue Designer and Sound Mixer whose work has been featured on multiple AAA games and animated features/series. Some recent titles include "Arcane: Season 2", "Batman: Arkham Shadow", "Star Wars: Outlaws" and "Death Stranding 2: On the Beach". Outside of engineering he is a SAG-e voice actor specializing in extreme/creature vocals, with numerous casted titles currently under NDA.
As an educator Matthew is a full-time professor of sound/sound design at Chapman University in Orange County, LA. He is also an active member of MPSE, NAVA and the Television Academy.
Imran Ahmad
Original Score
Charlotte Hubbard creates music as “ThunderBird”, as well as having recorded in several bands and with other artists, and as a session musician on keyboards, backing and lead vocals and other instruments including Native American flute, Guitar and Accordion.
Charlotte has had work placed on a Hulu commercial, worked with stadium level musicians, and has created music/sounds for various UFO podcasts, crime audio books and for local online and VR heritage projects.
You can listen to ThunderBird on spotify, youtube and other platforms via this link;
ADDITIONAL CREATIVES:
OLOF ROCKNER - Artwork
ThunderBird - Opening Theme Music
Haitch - Recording Engineer
Helen Quigley - Audio Trailer
Tatiana Szewczuk - Visual Trailer
Shaun Mendum - Trailer Voice Over
Special thanks to Jukebox Recording Studios
Shaun Mendum - Lead Producer/Curator
Jun Noh - Co-Producer
Helen Quigley - Co-Producer
The Garden’s Cast
Katy Ma
Helen
Miriam Babooram is a mixed race (Mauritian/ British) voice artist and actor originally from the North-East of England, now living in London. She has been acting for over 20 years and has over eight years of experience as a voice artist.
Miriam has worked on a number of audio dramas, including stories for The Cabernet of Fictional Delights, 12 Months 12 Stories Podcast and Shout It In The Evening Podcast. She has voiced many different characters from scary ghosts to sensible skiers, even a disillusioned piece of mistletoe who was just looking for love.
You’ll often find Miriam voicing charity campaigns including The Celebrity Just Giving Awards 2023 and 2024, commercials for The Alzheimer’s Research Society and web explainers for The Children’s Fashion and Textile Trust.
You can find out more about Miriam at www.miriambabooramvo.com or subscribe to her substack https://miriambabooram.substack.com/ where you can hear her read her original poetry.
Gary Turn
Henry
Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Gary is probably best remembered for playing ‘Carlos Diaz’ in Yorkshire Television’s Emmerdale and the evil ‘Nathan Blake’ in Hollyoaks - Let Loose.
Other television credits include playing Anthony Bourdain for Starz Autopsy, Casualty, Soldier, Soldier, (Carlton), The Bill (Thames), Anatomy of a Crime (BBC), Courtroom (Mersey TV) and Families (Granada).
On Film he played ‘Duncan Grant’ in Carrington and ‘Roberto’ in Never Mind.
Most recently in theatre Gary played Erroll in “A Question of Errol Flynn” at the Sir John Mills theatre Ipswic, and Peter Meredith in Strictly Murder, which toured the UK for Hello World productions and is due to be turned into a major feature film next year.
Amelia Sewell
Mia
Amelia Sewell is student at the much-respected Redroofs School for the Performing Arts with whom she featured in various musical stage performances, including most recently at Disneyland Paris.
"The Garden" marks Amelia’s debut audio drama role and she's proud to have now added “creepy child” to her acting CV.
Louisa Gummer
Judith/Doctor
Joanna Simpkins is an actress and writer who hails from Hull in Yorkshire she trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Her theatre work varies widely from Contemporary plays, Classic texts and Physical theatre.
Some of her theatre work includes Elektra, The Vertical Hour (Theatre by the Lake) Robin Hood and the Major Oak, and Jinny (Derby Theatre) Kabeiroi (PunchDrunk).
TV credits include Doctors (BBC) Emmerdale (ITV).
Radio/Podcasts Include; Bad Ark (BBC Radio 4), The Long Player, What a Real Punch Sounds Like (Ragged Scratch Podcasts)
She most recently was one of five artists awarded a Commission by Volcano Theatre to develop a new short form theatre work; she is currently developing this work into a full-length production.
Helen Quigley
Co-Producer
Helen Quigley is freelance audio producer working on audio drama with B7 Media, and branded podcasts with Fresh Air Production and Boffin Media.
Previously she was a Producer for Comedy Central UK responsible for producing two of the UK’s first comedy podcasts; Robin Ince’s Show and Tell and Utter Shambles.
Audio drama producer credits include Theatre of the Damned - inspired by a true story set in 1920s Paris; Greenborne - a radio soap opera and Harry’s Home, about a family coping with dementia. For Audible, she co-produced the docudrama The Space Race, the psychological thriller series The Effect and multiple audiobooks. Credits for BBC Radio 4 include the courtroom drama Barred, the nine part Indian saga Mahabharata Now and she will make her Radio 4 directing debut this year with a soon-to-be-announced Christmas drama.
She was also co-producer and dialogue editor on the Wondery+ audio movie Unsinkable, starring Brian Cox, John Malkovich and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.
Helen is based in Chelmsford - the birthplace of wireless - working from her garden office and recording studio as Soundliness, a boutique podcast production company which launched its first podcast series, Hot Flashes: Menopause Monologues in Spring 2025.
Meet the Producers!
Shaun Mendum
Co-Producer and Project LeadWith a background in theatre and audio, Shaun’s work includes working as an actor in video games, animation, radio drama, and writing and directing a short for the BBC.
Shaun’s vision was to provide a platform that brought emerging and established artists together, and to create a body of audio drama that captivated audiences in fresh, exciting, and unsettlingly real worlds.
Jun Noh
Jun is a writer-director and actor, passionate about the blend of cinema, theatre, and philosophy. He enjoys tension in stillness, and storytelling that confronts belief and grief. A Leverhulme Arts Scholar, with an MFA in Professional Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
Co-Producer