Someone’s determined to cut down the family tree…

Film buffs might recognise the borrowing in the tagline above to a certain highly regarded comedy movie featuring Alec Guinness – and Kind Hearts and Coronets is the clear inspiration for this latest adventure for the Fifth Doctor and his initial TARDIS crew. As director Barnaby Edwards points out in the extras, though, it’s not a beat for beat redo of the film; if anything, it’s nearer The Persuaders’ take on the same subject in the episode A Death in the Family (well worth a look next time it comes round on ITV4). Edwards ensures the tone never gets either too silly (which would have been, like, totes easy given some of the characters) or too melodramatic.

Samuel West clearly has a ball playing the many members of the family, who are all very different and meet sticky ends in assorted intriguing ways. It’s the sort of role I suspect many actors would give their eye teeth for, and West demonstrates great versatility – as well as providing one of the funniest Big Finish scenes since the heyday of The One Doctor as an uncomfortable Time Lord finds the tables turned during an interrogation. Phil Cornwell and Sophie Winkleman also both give terrific performances.

David Llewellyn’s script uses all the TARDIS crew well, separating them for quite a bit of the story, and there’s one moment where I was absolutely convinced that the villain of the piece was going to complain that he’d have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for the meddling kids! Andy Hardwick’s sound design is very nicely done, with some interesting scene mixes that work very well.

Verdict: Another classic film inspires a terrific Doctor Who audio tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson