BBC Radio 4, October 30 2021, and on BBC Sounds

The effects of fairy fruit on the good people of Lud-in-the-Mist

I have to admit that the first I’d heard of the book on which this was based was when the press release for this dramatization came out – but some swift investigation then showed that it’s held in very high esteem by a lot of people, notably Neil Gaiman, who’s penned an intro to a reprint… and makes his presence felt in Joy Wilkinson’s one hour play.

There’s a definite feeling that there’s much more going on just offstage during this production, the effects of which we see on some of those involved, and there’s an odd mix of hard headed realism about human nature and deep fantasy that becomes beguiling. Olivia Poulet’s narrator serves both as our objective guide to the state of Dorimare, adjacent to Fairyland, and as something of a subjective commentator and you quickly get engrossed in the various machinations, some very worldly, others distinctly less so.

Gaiman has something more than just the promised cameo, playing a character who feels as if he’s stepped out of one of Gaiman’s own tales, while Richard Lumsden and Lloyd Hutchison involve you in their characters’ travails. Abigail le Fleming brings together a strong cast across the board to serve Wilkinson’s script well, while Cal Knightley’s sound design helps maintain the odd borderline of fantasy and reality.

Verdict: A different sort of Halloween tale that will whisk you to a different sort of world. 8/10

Paul Simpson