Dispatched to investigate the most haunted street in post-war London, Torchwood Soho set up shop above the local brothel and get to work.

For Andy (Tom Price), still adjusting to life in the past, that means being an actual honest to God policeman. For Elizabeth (Dervla Kirwan), still figuring out what she wants, that means flirting with Mia (Saffron Coomber) the barmaid and keeping Andy and Norton within sight of the point. For Norton (Samuel Barnett) that means being tortured by government stooge Armitage (Greg Austin), getting local Doctor Salt drunk (Shai Matheson) enough to make sense and trying to get back in Gideon (Joe Shire)’s good books. For Gideon, it means trying to start a new life and trying, and failing, to protect it from Norton. Oh and the demons. And the ghosts. And the past…

James Goss and Scott Handock’s jamboree of horror is proof that Torchwood may be the most adaptable flavour of Doctor Who. The small cast, single episode stories are uniformly great as are the long-form stories but this full on serial approach may work best of all.

Goss’s scripts orbit the central concept, the terrifying, wounded street and its inhabitants, and drive the plot along through a dozen different viewpoints and each one provides something new. Greg Wise’s good-natured public school sadism is a good foil for Norton but also reveals a welcome human side to Torchwood; overwhelmed by World War 2 as much as everyone else. Coomber’s Mia spars wonderfully with Kirwan’s Elizabeth but there’s a reason behind it and a human connection that grounds and drives the story. Price’s Andy, the most fundamentally nice character in Torchwood history, even gets to use that to crack the case. His scenes with a couple living in a ruined house are especially great, Price balancing the wide-eyed blinking terror of a man so far out of his depth he is attempting to grow gills with the fundamental calm and kindness that is Andy to the core. Barnett’s Norton shines too, sparky and flighty in the exact way he needs to distract people. Also sparky and flighty because Norton has less impulse control than a caffeinated puppy and really is making it up as he goes along. Or at least wants you to think that… His scenes with Gideon are especially great and Barnett and Shire are an instinctively fun double act. Gideon may honestly be the most interesting of this most interesting incarnation of Torchwood too; his own man in every sense and whose very independence means he can’t quite walk away from a job this fun and this intensely dangerous.

The supporting cast are fantastic and Norah Lopez Holden as Tilly, along with Wise’s magnificently terrible Armitage are standouts for wildly different reasons. One is a woman who refuses to accept any of the narratives enforced on her. The other is a tool of the establishment convinced he’s a rebel. Each character we meet is this well-rounded and realized, each one a part of London’s oddest community. A community that as the story concludes, Norton, Elizabeth, Gideon and Andy find themselves very much on the side of. The ending here is lovely and entirely unexpected. You’ll think you know what it is because I’ve warned you but trust me, you won’t see it coming. The characters certainly don’t and their reactions are the final beat of a long, complex, compassionate walk down London’s oddest street.

Verdict: Blisteringly funny (‘What in the Mildred Pearce?!’ is a perfect line), gloriously icky, resolutely kind and Torchwood from hat to shoes. Great work, everyone. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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