Governments have to play war games, sometimes, and today it’s Tosh’s turn. She’s the Torchwood representative for a training exercise taking place far below London. A training exercise that’s going to get more real than anyone is prepared for.

Writer Tom Black’s background in immersive theatre gives this script a nasty gleam in its eye and a rhythm that only ever speeds up. Tatjana Nardone as the Simulation is the Games Master for a D&D night in hell, delivering each line and new challenge with carefully tuned levels of neutral glee. There is, of course, more going on here than anyone thinks and Nardone is key to it working. She places each one of Black’s script’s cards on the table, methodically, carefully showing this group of dysfunctional civil servants what dysfunction truly means. Nardone is superb, and director Scott Handcock smartly gives her performance room to be the structure everyone else hangs off.

That isn’t to run down the other performances. This is a standout cast in a series full of them. Jolade Obasola is superb as Jasmine, a junior minister whose ambition isn’t quite matched by her process. Ed White is excellent as up and comer Gerard Marsh who has both eyes on the prize and Greg Wise is superb as Frank Reece, embodying the sort of upper class blowhard complacency that’s inhabited this country’s political organs for centuries. All of them are deeply familiar and deeply unlikeable, by design. And all of them are put through absolute hell. Black’s script ratchets the tension up and the focus down, giving each one of them a moment in the spotlight with a massive price tag. It’s an incredible marriage of script and performance and it catapults everyone out past expectations into a story that starts familiar and ends unique, angry and wickedly smart.

I’ve not mentioned Naoko Mori yet, and that’s on purpose. Mori’s work as Tosh on the show, and in these audio dramas, has always been exceptional. She brings not just a considered intelligence to the role but also an awareness of how people see Tosh, and how Tosh uses that. Original Torchwood was renowned for many things. Subtlety was none of them. But Mori’s subtle, nuanced work here firmly establishes Tosh as the smartest member of Torchwood Three and one with a very interesting past and connections. Along with Lou Morgan’s exemplary The Vigil, this is one of the best Tosh stories we’ve had and I’d love to see Mori back for more.

Verdict: Clever, bleak, very funny and packed with standout performances. Excellence is what the Torchwood line does best, and it’s done it again here. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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