Anthony (James Glyn) and Dean (Robert Vernon) have struck it big. They’ve got alien tech, they’ve got a plan and they’ve got a buyer. Ianto Jones (Gareth-David Lloyd)

One of the things I love the most about audio drama is how often you find yourself praising things you wouldn’t expect. Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s sound design is always impressive but this episode is a standout. Nothing is quite as unsettling as an abandoned multi-storey carpark at night and Hrycek-Robinson gives us the exact echoing nightmare factory we need. Roland Moore, Lisa Bowerman and the cast populate it.

Moore finds a lot to work with in Ianto’s younger, traumatised, furious days. Torchwood Cardiff’s finest had a lot to get over and Moore finds him in an interesting place; not only mostly over it but using that past damage as a force for good.

Mostly.

Gareth David-Lloyd is a performer who is both consistent and excellent and this story gives him a remarkably subtly path to walk. This is Ianto playing Ianto, using the man he was not long ago to diffuse a dangerous situation. It’s duplicitous and altruistic, but never quite both at the same time. This is Ianto working through some things, and using some things for work, and it’s an enormously entertaining and very fun listen.

Bowerman excels at stories like this and her subtle directorial style meshes with the excellent cast. In addition to David-Lloyd, James Glyn and Robert Vernon are excellent as differently doomed men tied together by a toxic friendship. Either of them could have been Ianto, and as the three are pursued around an infinite car park by Alex Hewitt’s monstrous Nightmare, all three realise that and all three struggle with it. But not all of them get to leave.

Verdict: Dark, witty work from a dark, witty team. This is another exceptional Torchwood release. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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