Cardiff has been hit by a mighty flood, with hundreds of casualties. All Bethan wants to do is find her son, Anthony… and get some answers.

Alexandria Riley’s opener for this box set continues the very strong run of Torchwood stories in the past few months. It’s an adult story, but not one that relies on excessive sexual references (the one that is there is so incredibly awkward, deliberately so, that you almost laugh out loud!) or swearing – although there’s four-letter words used in absolutely appropriate contexts. It’s a story about love and loss and how we all individually deal with grief – and of course, it being Torchwood, there’s some alien involvement, but not in the way that you’d expect.

I was about to say that we see the different members of Torchwood at work, but in fact at least two don’t appear at all – there’s quite a bit of time spent with both Colin and Tyler, and those characters have become so much part of the framework of what I now think of as ‘modern’ Torchwood that this feels right. We see everyone through the eyes of Bethan, the mother who’s lost her world, her son Anthony, and she’s a well drawn character, that for reasons which will be clear by the time you get to the end of the episode, I hope we don’t see again (the cut to the end theme is at precisely the right moment). Riley captures the obsessive nature of certain activities, and the extent of the self-deception that we all can practise in those circumstances – as well as the way in which those obsessions can help to cut through the crap that is thrown when you’re trying to get answers from officialdom.

Mina Anwar’s bravura performance as Bethan is matched by a nuanced one from Tracy Ann Oberman as Yvonne, in particular the final scene between the two women, in which we’re reminded about how much Yvonne herself has lost without a load of exposition. It’s sensitively directed by Scott Handcock, and credit to Steve Foxon’s sound design for keeping the listener firmly in Bethan’s point of view throughout the tale.

Verdict: As good as you’ve been hearing, this is an excellent piece of drama. 10/10

Paul Simpson

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