A for Ashenden

After leaving Andy and Norton on a train surrounded by possessed people at the end of the previous episode, we jump back some time for this flashback instalment, which demonstrates how James Goss has allowed the listener to use their own attitudes to Norton to read things into what happened prior to the series beginning (or maybe that’s just me?) We divert a little from the Quatermass roots evident elsewhere in the series to pay homage to Fred Hoyle’s A for Andromeda for certain elements, although Goss gives them a distinct twist – inevitable when you throw Lizbeth Hayhoe and Norton Folgate into the mix, as well as 60 years of perspective on what was going on at the time. We also finally get to hear more from Joe Shire’s Gideon, and the reasons why there’s tension – to put it mildly – between them in the earlier episodes.

Daniel Brocklebank and Laura Riseborough guest as the Professor and his “assistant” (the former named after the composer of the Sapphire & Steel theme?), and there’s some sparkling dialogue and discussion between them and Dervla Kirwan and Samuel Barnett, with the latter in particular forced into an admission I thought we might never hear!

Verdict: Very important backstory that puts a new spin on events to date. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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