Sam’s an artist trying to make a living. Emil is her endlessly patient boyfriend who never fails to remind her just how patient he is. Bilis Manger is just a humble clock merchant. Who happens to have a sigil in his window that Sam finds very familiar…

This is Murray Melvin’s last appearance in the role and it’s one of those mildly unsettling moments that’s a perfect bow despite never being intended as one. Melvin is on top form throughout as Bilis dances with the grace of Fred Astaire on a knife edge of his own design.

There’s always been something of the ‘Plain Simple Garak’ figure to Bilis Manger and here we get that in full flow. He’s by turns hectoring and charming, exuberant and furious and he reveals more about himself than he ever has before. We get, if you pay close attention, a pretty definitive origin for Bilis here and it’s one that makes everything which preceded this story make sense. It also throws in an easter egg which implies, heavily, this story exists in the connective tissue between Torchwood and Doctor Who even as Bilis exists halfway between good and evil. He’s terrifying and charming at the exact same time and Melvin’s final performance is one of his very best.

This is also one of those production teams where everyone does fantastic work. Lisa Bowerman’s direction shifts gear as the story does and we never lose the tone, or the collision between Bilis and Sam’s world as the TV show did at several points. Bowerman gives her actors room and all three relationships blossom because of it.

There’s an electric scene between Bilis and Emil which reveals just how banal evil can be that’s going to stay with me a long time. There’s also a lot of passive aggression and controlling behaviour from Emil which walks right up to gaslighting and tells it everything’s fine. Bowerman is a needlepoint precise director, Ash Darby is a needlepoint precise writer and the cast are one of the strongest Big Finish have assembled in a long time. Gabrielle Brooks’ Sam would get on with Dark Season’s Marcie and Reet, a determined and increasingly pressured artist whose intellect unfold as the story does. Sam’s one of the most interesting characters the line has had in a long time, who knows exactly what she’s doing and is no one’s victim. and there’s a real sense, as this story ends, of her story perhaps not. Angus Imrie’s superbly beige Emil is just as good. Nice without the light reaching the eyes, Emil is deeply unsettling because Emil is familiar, and a little evil, and honestly doesn’t care. Top marks as ever to sound designer Toby Hrycek-Robinson too who takes us to city streets, a deeply unsettling ruin and Bilis’ shop with wit and subtlety.

This three spoked wheel of dysfunction that is these characters careens on fire through what feels like an M.R. James story and that’s intended very much as a compliment. Torchwood has always done folk horror well and this is really well done. The ending especially is a choice that works brilliantly, and leaves you in a place that you won’t expect. And you won’t be alone.

Verdict: Murray Melvin made a deeply strange role not only his own but one of the strengths of a series that has grown around him, richer and stranger for his presence. This is some of his best work and it’s been an honour to listen to him work. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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