Anne Hartman has retired to the Shropshire countryside – but her daughter has a little project she can help with…

There’s a beautiful melancholy bittersweetness to this story by Tim Foley that acts as a neat lead in to what was actually Yvonne Hartman’s first appearance in the Doctor Who universe, in the series 2 story Army of Ghosts. There’s a whole level that this tale works at that is completely over the heads of the characters, and if you don’t feel you need to rewatch the TV episode after listening, I’d be quite surprised.

Barbara Flynn is excellent casting as Anne, someone who, as her daughter points out, has been so strong throughout her life yet is different now. The story provides a look at the differences between generations, and the difficulties that people have with retirement (a central theme in the box set as a whole).

There are aliens, of course, in the form of a haunt, a plant that has some unusual properties – the sound effects used reminded me somewhat of a certain Krynoid, although hopefully even Yvonne would have more sense than to transplant one of those outside a Torchwood base! The strength of this script, though, is that the alien really is something of a McGuffin – it would work well as a character piece no matter what it was that Yvonne steered her mother towards.

The final scenes are very powerful and Steve Foxon’s sound design really brings the first of them to life in the mind’s eye. Much as I would love there to be more of Torchwood One, this does feel like a perfect capstone to its tales.

Verdict: Touching, well-observed and beautifully played by Barbara Flynn and Tracy Ann Oberman, this is a terrific conclusion to the set. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order Torchwood One: Latter Days from Big Finish