Crush Hour: A Musical Podcast with Ellie Goulding, Douglas Booth, Rory Kinnear, Layton William, Omari Douglas, Keziah Joseph, Aneurin Barnard cover art

Crush Hour: A Musical

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Crush Hour: A Musical

By: Freya Slipper, Doug Crossley, Spring Day, Leila Navabi
Narrated by: Ellie Goulding, Douglas Booth, Rory Kinnear, Layton William, Omari Douglas, Keziah Joseph, Aneurin Barnard
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About this listen

Crush Hour: A Musical follows the stories of unknowingly connected strangers in London as they navigate love during rush hour. Various chance encounters on tubes, taxis, trains and bikes result in hilarious outcomes in this festive musical drama

Grammy-nominated and two-time Brit award-winning singer Ellie Goulding plays Ash, who every day takes the same morning train as her dream man, Rob (Douglas Booth). Lola (West End star Samantha Barks) finds herself on the night Tube desperately trying to place the man in front of her (Aneurin Barnard) but she knows the cardinal rule of not speaking to people on the Tube. A hapless Jay (Layton Williams) is lost somewhere between Kings Cross and Bloomsbury, and finds himself taking an Uber with a tipsy Jonny (Omari Douglas) who does little to calm his nerves. And Martin (Rory Kinnear) and Debbie (Julia Davies), try to gather an audience to watch their vow renewal ceremony on Christmas Eve in Kings Cross station. Soon, it becomes clear that the characters are all entwined in one way or another, just in time for Christmas Day.

The Crush Hour original soundtrack with the full cast ensemble also includes Nick Collier, aka Ella Vaday (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Keill Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts) and Ben Bailey-Smith (The Split).

Crush Hour was created and written by Freya Slipper, directed by Chris Foggin (Fisherman’s Friends, Traces), composed by Chris Read with an original score performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The series features episodes written by Doug Crossley, Spring Day and Leila Navabi. Crush Hour was produced by Marc Robinson, Mark Hopkins and Claire Rhodes, and developed in association with Twenty Thirteen Films.

Now available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.

©2022 Audible, Ltd. (P)2022 Audible, Ltd. City Life Contemporary Genre Fiction Holidays Urban

A sneak peek into the podcast

<i>Crush Hour</i>
Ash, Fran and Rob arrive at Kings Cross Station
Can romance emerge from an embarrassing moment?
Jay and Jonny were strangers before they shared a taxi
  • Crush Hour
  • Ash, Fran and Rob arrive at Kings Cross Station
  • Can romance emerge from an embarrassing moment?
  • Jay and Jonny were strangers before they shared a taxi
Episodes
  • Ep 1: The Train

    Ep 1: The Train
    Nov 17 2022

    ASH AND ROB: THE TRAIN

    Ash’s dream guy gets on her train every day and she’s obsessed. Everyone in her office knows about ‘Train Guy’. So, when her work bestie, Fran, sees someone referencing the ‘girl with the green coat’ in the newspaper’s ‘Crush Hour’ feature, she’s pretty sure that Train Guy feels the same about Ash. But there’s a lot of ‘train guys’ and a lot of girls in green coats in London.
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    31 mins
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  • Ep 2: The Taxi

    Ep 2: The Taxi
    Nov 17 2022

    JONNY AND JAY: THE TAXI

    Jay’s lost somewhere between Kings Cross and Bloomsbury trying to get to a University Interview after his train was delayed. He calls an Uber, worried he’ll be late, (being late just doesn’t happen to Jay). However, when it turns up, with a tipsy Jonny inside, he realises the journey isn’t going to do much to calm his nerves.
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    27 mins
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  • Ep 3: The Tube

    Ep 3: The Tube
    Nov 17 2022

    LOLA AND JOEL: THE TUBE

    Lola’s been made redundant and only six people came to her leaving do. There was a lot of booze. Now she’s on the night tube, feeling queasy and trying to place the face of a man in her carriage – where does she know him from? Joel has been working late again and the only thing he’s thinking about is sleep. Until a woman on his carriage is sick everywhere – where does he know her from? In this hazy, nighttime episode, we hear the inner monologues of two people who know that talking to anyone on the tube is a cardinal sin, but tonight they are going to have to break the rules.
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    27 mins
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Ash | Faversham | User interface designer | Live in faversham but work in London. I'm quite organised when it comes to work. I think Christmas songs are only for December. Known to mix up green and khaki. I guess you could say I'm a bit of a romantic...

Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is a multi-platinum-selling, BRIT Award winning and GRAMMY nominated, British singer songwriter, amassing record sales of 18 million albums, 140 million singles and 23 billion streams worldwide. Ellie is a long-standing activist and philanthropist who uses her platform to engage young people with global issues.

Douglas Booth

Douglas Booth's career spans across film, TV, theatre and radio. He starred in the BBC's adaptation of Great Expectations, as well as playing Boy George in Worried About the Boy.

Layton Williams

Layton's career spans across TV and film, but is best known for his successful West-end career, appearing in sell-out shows such as Billy Elliot, Rent, Hairspray and Everybody's Talking About Jamie.

Omari Douglas

BAFTA-nominated actor Omari can be seen in his breakthrough role in Russell T Davies’ acclaimed series It’s a Sin. As well as this, Omari features in And Mrs and I Hate Suzie Too.

Samantha Barks

Samantha stars as Elsa in the hit West End production of Disney’s Frozen. Samantha garnered rave reviews and acclaim for her performance as the iconic 'Eponine' in Universal’s Les Misérables.

Aneurin Barnard

Aneurin is an award winning actor, best known on stage for his Olivier winning performance in Spring Awakening and on screen for his roles in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, BBC series Time and Peaky Blinders.

Christy O’Donnell

Christy O’Donnell is a singer and actor best known for Find Me In Paris and Moon Dogs. In 2021 Amazon Music added Christy to their prestigious list of artists to watch.

Lizzie Annis

Lizzie recently made her stage debut opposite Amy Adams in The Glass Menagerie in the West End. Later in the year Lizzie will be seen as a leading series regular role in The Witcher: Blood Origin for Netflix.

Keziah Joseph

Keziah is an award-winning actress working extensively in theatre, including Olivier nominated Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Offie-winning Language of Kindness, and in radio and animation: The Archers, Dr Who, Octonauts.

Alicia Corrales

Alicia Corrales (They/She) is a Queer, Hispanic / Scottish performer from Glasgow. Alicia made her professional debut in Six the Musical, and has since gone on to continue on the UK tour and West End.

Rory Kinnear

Rory is an English actor and playwright who has worked with many companies, amongst them the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. He is known for playing Bill Tanner in the Daniel Craig era of James Bond films.

Julia Davis

BAFTA winner Julia acts, writes and directs; working in tv shows like Gavin and Stacey, Nighty Night, *Sally4ever *and films like Four Lions and Phantom Thread

Paul Kaye

Paul has a fantastically wide range of dramatic and comedic accents and loves nothing more than going ‘off the leash’ when improvisation is called for. He also sings like an angel, and acts like one too...

Kiell Smith-Bynoe

Kiell is an actor and writer best known for leading roles in hit BBC sitcom Ghosts, BAFTA-Award winning Stath Lets Flats and his own comedy special Red Flag on Channel 4.

Ben Bailey Smith

Ben's career began under the alias of Doc Brown, before diversifying into mainstream TV and film acting, screen writing and children's picture books and novels.

Ella Vaday

Nick Collier, also known as Ella Vaday, is an English drag queen, actor and dancer - best known for being a finalist on the third series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

Meet the writers of Crush Hour

The Crush Hour cast get swiping

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Foot tapping from the start A roller coaster of different songs and voices, upbeat and then the ballards. Then the song that gets stuck in your head, London's The Town for Me.

Loved it!

La la Land collides with the Rush Hour

We All Need A Little Crush Hour

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Alas Episode 6 refuses to play. Despite the repeated description of St Pancras Station as King's Cross I enjoyed the episodes following the entangled of lovelorn people in London (some are commuters from Kent).

Episode 6 is a mystery.

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I do not know how I really felt about this book/story/musical when I stared listening to it but I was pleasantly surprized! I could not stop listening until the lack of more episodes made me stop. The stories are very uplifting because I live in London now and I came over here because I found love... In all places it was cape town Airport where I met the love of my life. Met in 2007 moved to London in 2008 which is the sane year we tied the knot and I can honestly say that we love each other even more every day. The episode: EMMA AND BEN: THE BUS is about the disabled lady finding love in the strangest of places reminded me of my journey to love.

Glad I gave this audible musical a chance

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A novel idea. A musical podcast. I enjoyed listening to this more than i thought I would

really enjoyable listen

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This was perfect can we please have more musicals audible really good to listen too

Loved it

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Listening to this is like going to a West End musical crossed with Love Actually crossed with a stand-up comic’s relatable observations on finding love in London…all from the comfort of your own home (or from your commute, or wherever you choose to listen to this).

Great music, great cast. Listen to this to brighten these cold winter mornings or dark winter nights.

Great soundtrack, great cast. A clever and very enjoyable commentary on life and love in London

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Loved it. It really came to life whilst commuting on the train /tube. felt like I was there with them on my journey into London.

Utterly wonderful!

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Just listened to this in one go, I absolutely loved it. I love the musical aspect, I felt like I was listening to an actual musical and could envisage the whole thing in my mind. What a great great idea for a podcast. Can see myself listening to this on repeat 😁

This is brilliant!

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I loved each storyline and they all linked together. Occasionally I forgot who the characters were whilst picturing the scenes in my head. Ellie Goulding's voice is amazing, she should do more musicals - definitely a line of work she is suited too.

Absolutely awesome

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I was initially put off by the singing/musical aspect when I saw this series (I often find it hard to concentrate on the storyline in musicals), but I'm so happy I gave it a chance as I was hooked and didn't want it to end! I'm a sucker for meet cute stories so this didn't disappoint on that front. You feel slightly bereft when each episode ends as they are only short little stories but all the people in it are somehow linked and referenced throughout. The music was beautiful (I've been listening to the playlist non stop since), and I loved the performances of all the actors! 10/10, LOVED IT!

So happy I gave it a chance!

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