baker-3Every thirteen years something terrible happens in the village of Happenstance – and this time Suzy is there to witness it…

As totally insane as ever, Baker’s End continues its tales of the legendary TOM BAKER (the formatting is required to match the performance), his housekeeper – who finally gets a first name – and his former TV companion Suzy, who narrates much of the story. There feels like rather a lot more plot to get through in Paul Magrs’ latest adventure, and Katy Manning’s narration is a touch more prominent, but it all comes together with some nice rug pulling out in the final quarter hour…

Magrs’ script throws in some choice Doctor Who quotations (a very appropriate one from The Deadly Assassin, for example, and a Sylvester McCoy line that sounds more ominous in Baker’s sepulchrous tones) and there are plenty of lovely descriptive touches, particularly in the narration. We get to learn a lot more about Mrs Frimbly with director Simon Barnard ensuring Susan Jameson, Manning and Baker extract every ounce of (melo)drama from each scene – even when it’s a simple preparation of cabbage soup – and the post production work by Simon Robinson helps ramp everything up to 11.

Verdict: An epic tale of Cabbages and Queens – utterly mad, but great fun. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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