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Taking the team abroad seems to magnify conflicts between them…

Cavan Scott and Mark Wright give the Counter Measures actors plenty to play with in this unusual story, as minor conflicts magnify into sometimes quite serious disagreements, and a sense of perspective seems to desert our normally stalwart British heroes.

There’s a fine line in this sort of tale, which, as befits its espionage setting, is filled with twists and turns. You don’t want the audience to feel stupid when the revelations arrive, nor should they come completely out of left field (even if that’s how history shows such things tend to happen in the spy world in real life!) Scott and Wright get it pretty much nailed down: chances are you’ll understand what’s going on a few moments before the characters do – because we’ve been privy to more instances than any one of them has – and motivations are clarified just when they need to be before things feel out of kilter.

The requirement to make sure everything screams 1960s is met – this is Allison’s first ever plane flight – and the story is woven into history in our world: the Bedford-Stuyvesant riots referred to did take place (New York was a very different place then!)

Verdict: It’ll be interesting to see if the fault lines revealed here are followed up; another great success. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order Counter Measures series 2 from Big Finish

Click for our reviews of Manhunt   and   The Fifth Citadel