The Doctor and Ruby meet The Beatles and discover that the all-powerful Maestro is changing history, with London becoming a battleground for the future of humanity.

In addition to the Doctor Who Christmas episode, we now appear to have the Eurovision episode – and I wonder if this will become an annual event. Transmitted before the Eurovision Song Contest Final in the UK, this is the perfect lead-in to the over-the-top camp musical shenanigans, and that’s the context in which I’m judging it.

It’s February 11 1963 in Abbey Road Studios (while they were still called EMI Studios) and the Doctor and Ruby have snuck in to watch the Beatles record their first album. Except that the Fab Four aren’t that fab, because music has been sucked out of the world by the evil Maestro (drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon).

Music has become a dirty word, and a world without music will eventually become one of desolation. It’s a neat premise and writer Russell T Davies links in to the idea of the Music of the Spheres, which he introduced back in the earliest Doctor Who Prom. But it’s all incredibly silly and just a bit too much.

To say that Monsoon’s performance is ripe is putting it mildly. They are unashamedly a Disney villain of Cruella DeVil or Ursula (The Little Mermaid) proportions and clearly having a ball. If you thought that The Giggle’s Toymaker was over the top, wait till you get a load of this!

But my biggest issue with this story is that it genuinely doesn’t know when to stop, whether it’s the ‘twist’ ending or the moment outside Abbey Road. Gatwa and Gibson continue to zing, but this is just too frothy and inconsequential for my taste.

Verdict: It’s colourful, loud and silly, but like the episode itself, I have many notes. 6/10

Nick Joy