Ben and Polly find they are being watched after they return to London, 1966…

There’s something in the air at the moment – or there was a few months ago when various projects were being planned. We’ve got the all-singing, all-dancing ITV version of The Ipcress File just started; there’s Julian Simpson’s homage/pastiche Who Killed Aldrich Kemp? on BBC Sounds/Radio 4; and for Doctor Who fans, there’s the latest in Paul Magrs’ Beyond the Doctor tales, focusing on Ben Jackson and Polly Wright. Each takes inspiration from the large and small screen espionage capers of the time they’re set, particularly the movie based on Len Deighton’s original novel that introduced the spy now known as Harry Palmer and there’s great fun to be had listening to this audio a second time and catching all the references (as well as whacking great ones like Roald Dahl’s additions to You Only Live Twice, which was in preparation).

There’s a suitable air of paranoia throughout that Anneke Wills delivers extremely well – and her rendition of Mike Craze’s Ben is spot on, particularly when it’s clear that he’s maybe playing his own game. It really helps to have heard at least the previous one in the series – London 1965 – but there’s enough here for it to stand alone, even if we do get some elements hanging over ready for the finale featuring Mrs Wibbsey.

David Roocroft’s sound design mingles the mundane and the extraordinary, and if you’re wondering about the possible potential of feline agents (outside of course of Gary Seven’s boss/assistant) then it’s worth remembering what happened when the CIA did try to use cats (as I discovered when I was researching my book on spying)… Shall we just say it did not end well…

Verdict:  The 80 minutes fly by as Ben and Polly’s story continues. Possibly my favourite of the three in this sequence. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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