B7 Media for Audible, available now

Harper McKenzie isn’t overly happy about her son Callum’s plans to go backpacking – but where has he disappeared to? And why does no one seem to remember him?

This new ten-part serial from B7 Media rewards careful listening, and grips from the start. You may not always like the characters, but you become sufficiently invested in their problems that when the story takes some quite sharp turns, you’re engaged enough to go with it.

That’s as far as I’m going to be spoilery about this, because one of the delights is finding out where writers Richard Kurti & Bev Doyle, Colin Brake, Thandi Lubimbi and Una McCormack are taking you next. It feels initially as if we’re in Hitchcockian territory as Harper desperately tries to find out why her son isn’t where she expects him to be, and gets stonewalled at every turn… until she finds a critical piece of evidence that proves that she’s not as crazy as she thinks. Shortly after she meets someone who is in a similar situation and we start to get the first inklings as to what The Effect of the title is (and a certain Alex Proyas film does come to mind as the story progresses).

It’s quite a wild ride, and to ensure that it’s got the necessary grounding, director Andrew Mark Sewell has assembled a strong cast, led by Primeval’s Juliet Aubrey as Harper – the sort of character who at times makes you want to stick them in front of a mirror and make them realise that they’re being their own worst enemy. Elena Saurel’s Isabel is key to the tale, although no-one I know (including myself) who has perfect pitch goes on and on and on about it quite the way Isabel does! Peter Bankolé’s Theo and Nicola Bryant’s Sandra provide good foils for Harper as necessary while Patrice Naiambana’s Father Okoro and Geoff McGivern’s Jonathan Parkes prove to have far more to them than you initially suspect. The main cast is rounded out by Timothy Blore (whose character name is a little bit of a spoiler). Alistair Lock’s sound design and Anna Phoebe’s music are used well to advance the storytelling.

Some of the ideas will feel quite familiar, and that familiarity is used to misdirect the listener on more than one occasion. Unlike most B7 Media productions which have had their roots in other media – Dan Dare, I Robot and of course, Blake’s 7 – this is an original creation, and bodes well for this new direction for the company.

Verdict: Divided into easily absorbable chunks, this is an intriguing thriller and well worth a listen. 9/10

Paul Simpson