Someone wants Dorothy McShane dead. But the CEO of A Charitable Earth is very, very hard to kill. Especially when Mr Colchester is her travelling companion…

Just go listen to this. If you’re remotely a fan of Ace, Torchwood or any action double act made in the last forty years you’re going to have a ton of fun with this. Aldred is so good, right from the jump here, at showing us both how far Ace has come and how much she’s still everyone’s favourite baseball bat enthusiast just in a better suit. Ace never stopped saving the world. She just started having less fun doing it, and her long dark night of the soul here is realizing just that. The threat is almost incidental. Dorothy realizing she didn’t leave her old self behind and can and should re-connect with those issues is where the dramatic and emotional weight lies.

In fact, the core of the story is exactly that. To Mr Colchester’s disgust, at one point they have to take a bus. In the space of one scene, Dorothy shows him, and herself, how her work has touched everyone they’re riding with. It’s a beautiful moment, nuanced and kind and it sets up the mutually beneficial antagonism that Dorothy and Colchester enjoy. She’s saving the world. He’s protecting her from it.

This is my introduction to Mr Colchester and he makes a hell of a first impression. Clayton plays Colchester as laconic but never crumpled, a man whose suit and reflexes are always immaculate but whose ethics and ability to believe in others have taken a hell of a beating. He feels like a very different kind of Torchwood officer, one of Smiley’s people on Gwen Cooper’s patch, and that combination of familiarity and novelty really makes him sing as a character. Pairing him with Dorothy is a masterstroke too; the seen-it-all spy and the seen-it-all philanthropist, taking turns in charge, having more fun than they’d dare to admit and realizing how similar they are.

The rest of the cast and the crisp direction from Steven Kavuma impress too, especially a wonderfully Bodysnatchers-esque conversation between Safiyya Ingar’s Elena and Dorothy. Also this is the first motorbike chase on audio I’ve ever heard that works, courtesy of Toby Hrycek-Robinson. Hats off to all.

The one issue here is, perhaps, the tradecraft. There’s one twist too money, one extra ‘OR DID I?!’ that the story would be stronger without, at least for me. But that’s a minor quibble.

Verdict: This is a masterclass in acting, wry action, idealism and the sort of dark, bloody-nosed fun that Torchwood does so well. Saving the world can’t be done alone but together? I wouldn’t bet against these two. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart

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