BBC Radio 4, December 18, 2020 and on BBC Sounds

Alice’s time in 1945 becomes even more perplexing…

There’s something a little odd about this final episode of London Particular – a lot of the time it seems to be holding up a banner going “Please commission a full series based around this” as we get a whole raft of new questions very early on in the episode, and then some answers that take us very firmly into territory mined by Timeslip (both the original TV series and the Big Finish continuation).

What started as an interesting take on the idea of thresholds that allow passage through time suddenly gets into talk of preserving history and stopping Nazi plans – complete with an appearance by Roger Ringrose as Winston Churchill. I can’t work out whether the first two parts are meant to be setting the scene for this turn of events, or that this sudden shift is meant to be as jarring to the audience as it is to Alice.

And then the ending throws another possibility into the mix, as Alice encounters someone who can put her in touch with her brother Alan. That scene works very well, with both Scarlet Brookes and Ian Dunnett Jnr making its implausibility credible – aided by Aaron Gelkoff’s Isaac.

There’s more than enough potential here to warrant a continuation – not least examining the questions raised over Alice having to fulfil her appointed part in history and what might happen if she doesn’t – but there’s just about sufficient resolution to make this work on its own.

Verdict: A disappointing turn towards familiar time travel tropes mid-episode is redeemed to a large extent by the closing scene. 7/10

Paul Simpson