Audio company, Big Finish will begin shipping physical copies – CDs and boxsets – of its various ranges, including Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Blake’s 7, today (8th June 2020).

The Big Finish warehouse closed due to the UK lockdown, which began in March, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. This means the company has around 10 weeks of releases to pack and ship. It may take some time to see to all these orders, but it’s a great sign that things are getting moving again.

Big Finish staff will be returning to work on a split-shift basis. Steps have been taken to ensure the protection of warehouse workers, including providing safety equipment and a regular schedule of deep cleaning, which will allow the introduction of a one-person per day rota pattern for the coming weeks.

Company chairman, Jason Haigh-Ellery said:

“Our listeners have been extremely patient over the past three months, while our warehouse staff have been furloughed, and as we operated a digital-first release schedule. I would like to thank all our customers for their understanding during this time; we really couldn’t have done it without you.  

“We are now delighted to be in a position to begin shipping the orders for physical products we have taken since 24th March.  

 “The team has put procedures in place to ensure the continued safety of our staff. However, we naturally have a lot of pending orders to work through, and our warehouse is not yet back to full capacity, so we ask that customers continue to bear with us as we start to clear the backlog.  

 “To make it fair for everyone, outstanding orders for collector’s edition CDs and box sets will be fulfilled on a ‘per month’ basis; so, orders placed in April will be batched up and mailed out first, followed by those placed in May and June.  

 “Please note we are still awaiting the delivery of some stock from our pressing plant and we cannot guarantee the status of local mail or postal services. We expect there to be continued delays, particularly for overseas customers.”

Since March, Big Finish has been operating on a downloads-only basis, so this is great to see.

I went shopping the other day and spoke to a particularly down-hearted worker who was adamant life wouldn’t get back to normal. But it will. We will. Life will out. And life is a wonderful thing.