Mid-century UK is a peaceful place. The system squeezed and squeezed until everyone and everything broke all at once in May ’33. Obsessive Capital Accumulation Syndrome was discovered, greed as an actual disease and it changed everything. For the better. Obviously.

Right?

Leo (Arun Blair-Mangat) and his sound engineer Jamie (Alyth Ross) are producing an audio documentary about the events leading up the revolution. But as they interview some of the people who were there, OCAS sufferers and revolutionaries alike, the cracks start to appear. In their views of the past. In their relationship. In themselves…

Do me a favour. Buy this. I’ll give you three reasons why you should, starting with the most capitalist and ending with the most creative.

Capitalism first then. This is a steal. A bargain. £4.99 for a 45 minute pilot episode. Fully produced, complete story, great cast, great direction. This is a pilot, I suspect, in a lot of senses. It’s the start of OCAS and it also plays like a pilot for Big Finish potentially releasing other shows like this. It’s a great format, it works, and it deserves to succeed.

Secondly, it’s a ridiculously, unsettlingly timely idea. Throw a rock and you’ll hit five stories about gross unfairness in the workplace, worker’s rights, institutional corruption or whatever the world’s richest bigot has done to disgrace himself even further this hour. It’s horrific. It’s enraging and there’s nothing we can do. Except, perhaps, find balm in art that’s created in our times, feels like we do and dares to try and talk about what we’re all going through.

Third and final reason. If you’re worried this is a polemic, then… stop. It’s not. It does the near impossible and, through Leo and Jamie, it makes the debate between the old world and the new the driving force of the show. They’re making a documentary about the day the world changed. Jamie for one can remember what it was like before. She’s not sure if the new world is entirely perfect. Leo’s furious that it didn’t show up sooner. Neither of them are entirely right but the dialogue they slowly enter is a thousand miles away from cowardly ‘both sides’ centrism. Instead, it’s two idealistic, kind young people trying to figure out if the world they’ve inherited is better than the world that it killed.

Bonus time! This is ridiculously well put together. From a format point of view, structuring the episode like a documentary means they get to spotlight the entire cast, play with music and do some innovative, successful things. The cast are all great, but Blair-Mangat and Ross are especially great. David O’Mahony’s direction is light touch and witty and every single beat of Theo X, Charles Kirby & Andrew Kevin Fawn’s excellent script is given the space it needs to land.

Verdict: OCAS isn’t just about the future; it deserves to be the future. Do the future, and yourself, a favour and pick it up. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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