Bilis Manger has just been killed. So obviously, he wants a word with the other patrons of the 1980s restaurant where he’s just been killed…

David Llewellyn and Lisa Bowerman are names where, when I see them on a credits list, I know I’m in for a treat. This is no exception. Llewellyn has set a locked room mystery in 1970s London replete with flock wallpaper and polite, passive aggressive violence.

It’s so much fun.

The script is jet black espresso fuelled by Bilis Manger’s visceral, if not remotely righteous, disgust at the four ‘suspects’. Rosa Escoda’s fiery Felicity Templeton is an ambitious actress with a ruthless streak and enough self awareness to see it. Hugh Ross’ Oliver Barleycorn is a Hockney-esque artist whose studied nonchalance is all surface and who, like Felicity, is capable of feeling emotions other than avarice.

Beryl Finch and Gerald Spencer are less lucky.

Beryl, played with towering, seething, calculated malice by Cleo Sylvestre is a murderer, albeit for understandable reasons. Tony Turner’s Gerald’s just a sociopath with a press pass, hounding people to death in search of the story that’ll be forgotten by the time it’s wrapping people’s chips the next day. Beryl lives to keep living and God help anyone who stands in her way. Gerald just likes humiliating people for cash. The money’s great so what else matters?

The script plays like an episode of Tales of the Unexpected hopped the fences and got a taste for real meat. The direction gives it teeth, and Bowerman continues to be one of the best character directors Big Finish work with. The ending here, which sees Bilis decide to mete out something a little like justice, is taut like a knife to the throat and Bowerman keeps her cast in that moment and denies you the closure Bilis is enjoying until the very last moment possible. It’s a great taut script and a great taut job of direction and a cast that’s ridiculously strong at every level.

It’s also a cast anchored, of course, by Murray Melvin. Bilis Manger is one of this range’s great success stories and it’s a delight every time Melvin is unleashed. Bilis Manger is an urbane spider of a figure, an immaculately tailored human suit wrapped around unknowable motives and boundless rage.

Verdict: Bilis Manger is, in no way, someone you’d want to meet. But Murray Melvin and the rest of the cast and crew ensure spending time with him is tremendous, pitch black, fun. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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