Goalhanger Lines Up Political Thriller Audio Drama ‘Bear Hunt’
EXCLUSIVE: The Rest is Entertainment maker Goalhanger is behind an audio drama series that it is billing as the “British Bourne.”
Bear Hunt is the first release from Goalhanger Drama, a new scripted unit for Gary Lineker, Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport’s UK-based media business that launches today. The ten-part series follows “a fictional mission to assassinate one of the world’s most powerful and heavily protected leaders.”
Per the synopsis, “Three-hundred-fifty British civilians are dead, and Russia is responsible. Number 10 hits back as a hapless Prime Minister plays his hand in the age of regime decapitation. Billed as a ‘British Bourne,’ Bear Hunt is a geopolitical action thriller spanning Westminster, Washington and the battlefield, before heading deep behind enemy lines on an extraordinarily dangerous mission.”
As with Goalhanger’s drama series Sherlock & Co., Bear Hunt will tap into voice talent from across the company’s podcast network, with Al Murray, co-host of We Have Ways of Making You Talk, and Dominic Sandbrook, co-host of The Rest Is History and The Book Club, both contributing.
Donald Pirie leads the cast as Sgt. Tom MacDuff, aka “Duffy”, with others in the ensemble of more than 50 voice actors including Thomas Mitchells as Prime Minister Alex Kernoway, Naomi Miller as Director of Intelligence Mel Murray, Michael Lyle as Addie Azikiwe, Lauren Ingram as Miriam Brann, Freddie Trenholme as Sgt. Shaun Wade and Luke Jasztal as former spymaster Sir Pilgrim Moore.
The show comes from Goalhanger’s drama bosses Joel Emery and Adam Jarrell, and was developed with input from current and former military and defence professionals, including serving airborne serviceman and military adviser Sergeant Dave Allen.
“I first met Dave Allen in Arnhem in 2024, when Al Murray, James Holland and I were recording We Have Ways of Making You Talk for the 80th anniversary of Market Garden,” said Pastor, Goalhanger’s co-founder. “A year later, walking our dogs on the Dorset coast, I asked him a hypothetical question: ‘If the British government decided to eliminate a foreign leader, how would we do it?’ Dave immediately replied: ‘Do you want your assassin back?’ And that was it. We were off.
“Every time Joel, Adam and I got a little fanciful with the story, Dave dragged us back to reality. The weapons, logistics and practicalities all had to stand up. Bear Hunt is completely fictional, but we wanted the world around it to feel frighteningly plausible.”
Emery and Jarrell pointed to the creative freedom of audio drama as key to production. “With Bear Hunt, we can move from Downing Street to Washington, onto the battlefield and deep behind enemy lines, while the listener does so much of the visual work themselves. After Sherlock & Co., we wanted to take that freedom into a completely different genre and it’s exactly the kind of ambitious, original storytelling we want to build more of with Goalhanger Drama.”
The first two episodes of Bear Hunt will launch on 10 September, with new episodes released weekly on all major podcast platforms.
Bear Hunt is the first release from Goalhanger Drama, with further original productions planned for 2027. Sherlock & Co. debuted back in 2023 under the Goalhanger Podcasts unit. The dedicated drama division was launched after Deadline had revealed TV unit Goalhanger Films was being shut down to focus on podcasts.
