Sergeant Andy Davidson never expected to find himself naked, handcuffed to a bedstead. But then he never expected to find himself in the 1950s either…

When I was probably about 10 or 11 years old, I bought a book called Fabian of the Yard, which was the memoir of a Scotland Yard inspector whose beat had included Soho. It didn’t mince its words or try to disguise the truth of the way that that part of central London was in the post-Second World War period, with its descriptions of the gangs, the prostitution and the deep undercover gay life. I was dreading that this story might present a 21st century rewriting of history.

I needn’t have worried. James Goss has researched the period in great detail (as he points out, everything bar the alien menace is real), and it’s a no holds barred description of the homosexual experience during that time, with police raids on public conveniences, and the contempt in which so many people were held. Tom Price’s Andy Davidson is, to an extent, a modern eye on the period and Samuel Barnett’s Norton Folgate is as unapologetically ambivalent as he was in his first appearance. It’s a moderately straightforward and linear plot (with a rather major addition to the Who-niverse Earth history for the late 19th century!), that allows for social commentary as well as some great humour.

Verdict: A spotlight on some dark times. 9/10

Paul Simpson