In London, Norton, Andy and Lizbeth try to get a hearing – but are they too late?

The penultimate episode of James Goss’ Torchwood Soho adventure picks up directly from the cliffhanger to episode 3, with Andy and Norton on a train up to London filled with the possessed of Ashenden, all of whom are more than willing to share their status – and only some quick thinking on Norton’s part (giving him the benefit of the doubt) saves Andy. That doesn’t mean our time-displaced copper is in for an easy time – while both Lizbeth and Norton have their ways in and around the corridors of power (inevitably involving someone whom Norton has hold over), Andy can’t join them. As they’re encountering officialdom at its most sedentary, he’s realising that things are considerably worse than he’d guessed – and that they were before he and Lizbeth took their trip to Ashenden. In the end he only has one course of action…

Goss is at his most biting in the scenes for Norton and Lizbeth – it seems as if certain people who really should be better at resisting have given in, and there’s a portrayal of one key politician and his advisor that sounds like a horror take on Yes, Minister.

Verdict: Continuing to ramp up the stakes, I’m wondering how things can be sorted in just 27 more minutes… 8/10

Paul Simpson

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