The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive at the Festival of Britain, and the Doctor can’t help tinkering…

It’s another of those stories where you simply want to download it and listen without being spoiled by any of the information given about it in the publicity – so if you’ve not heard it yet, simply take away from this review that Wendy Padbury delivers a fine performance as the three members of her TARDIS crew as well as the other people involved, and there are some very nicely done sound effects.

For those who have heard it and didn’t know what was coming, I wonder how many like me thought that this might well be a straight historical for the last black and white TARDIS team, albeit one set less than two decades before it would have been “broadcast”. Ian Potter spends a lot of time building the atmosphere at the Festival of Britain on the South Bank, emphasising how different what was created for the festival was from what was there previously – perhaps occasionally letting the research come through a bit too much, but that’s always a very fine line to walk – before the threat becomes explicit.

These Short Trips can sometimes feel like a Companion Chronicle, focusing on the character played by the narrator, but Potter – and Padbury in her performance – ensures that we’re equally au fait with what both Jamie and Zoe are feeling. The particular threat is a nice idea – I’m not sure if it tallies with their appearance in a New Adventure set a few years later, but that would be the icing on the cake if it does.

James Callaghan’s sound design is very effective, treating elements of the dialogue within the narrative and creating the background sounds associated with the period and the foes featured without it feeling too obtrusive.

Verdict: An enjoyable trip to the Dome of Discovery. 8/10

Paul Simpson