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It’s time for two intrepid explorers to leave the safety of their fallout shelter and discover what lies in the wastelands…

If you want some broad, black humour-laced SF comedy which looks at the boundaries of taste, and decides they’re well worth going over, then check out this new series from Audible. It’s produced by Dirk Maggs and David Morley, sound designed by Tom Maggs, and directed by Morley from scripts by Chris Grezo and Rupert Knowles.

We’ve all seen the movies (or TV serials such as Doctor Who’s The Enemy of the World) where the last vestiges of the human race are secure beneath ground, while who knows what is out there in the radioactive wastelands. This takes as many tropes from that idea as it can and often turns them on their head. The two people sent – Gemma Whelan’s social climber Veronica and Rupert Hound’ Gary, whose IQ manages to register a minus reading – are not exactly equipped for the world they find, and when they become hopelessly lost, they’re reliant on Sindhu Vee’s Lady Reaver (and her mutant companion, the downtrodden Clump, played by Marek Larwood) to try to find their way back…. because Lady Reaver is the best pirate there is. And the shelter’s the ultimate prize.

I warn you now, you’ll groan at some of the gags, and you may never look at chocolate (or indeed any large fowl) in quite the same way again, but each half hour episode contains more than enough fun to bring you back for the next one. The sound design is well done, and the dialogue moves along at a cracking pace.

Verdict: Imagine the ISIRTA team doing a post-apocalyptic movie with some help from the Bottom writers… 8/10

Paul Simpson

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