BBC Radio 4, August 17. 2021

After an incident in the “smart town” of Garwood, the inevitable enquiry seeks to find out who – or what – was to blame…

Marietta Kirkbride provides us with the second episode of Angst! and follows Martin Jameson’s opener with a slightly more realistic tale, doing what science fiction does best – extrapolating from the tropes and habits of the present to see where humanity goes next. And that’s apparently Milton Keynes, as run completely by an AI, known as GARI (although I think most of the characters think of him as Gary!). They don’t have to think too much; everything is being sorted for them, from the temperature of the shower to the amount of milk required for the cat. But what happens when something goes wrong?

The play’s told on the whole through the testimony of the survivors who paint a vivid picture of a town that’s almost smug in its complacency until an 80s tune starts to be heard… everywhere. Or is it until a new person moves in? Is someone trying to send a message? A familiar voice is heard from the previous episode, but are they trying to help or hinder? And will the crowd use their torches (on their phones, of course) to head through the streets to deal with that which they blame?

A lot of questions, and Kirkbride does a good job of leaving enough to the listener’s imagination while giving an explanation of sorts. Director Nicolas Jackson gives this a very different type of paranoid feel… although it left me dreading ever hearing that damned song again…

Verdict: The algorithm can never be wrong… can it? 8/10

Paul Simpson