Survivors Series 7 continues to advance the show’s timeline. This time, it does so past the point where Greg Preston died, which is as brave as it as complicated. How do you tell a story where one of your main characters is already dead?

Simple. You get Simon Clark to write it.

That story, ‘Legacy’ is the second one here. Prior to that, we get an Abby solo story, ‘Journey’s End’, where she finally gets answers about Peter.

Sort of.

Running down her final lead on his whereabouts, she encounters Sonia played by Katherine Rose Morley. Sonia is a fiercely independent teenager who is the only survivor of her village. She’s done brilliantly but is increasingly frightened of the men who are searching the village for her…

This is a story about two families, and it holds surprises for both of them. Abby’s search for her son is front and centre and Carolyn Seymour is given some of the rawest, most emotionally crushing she’s ever done here. She’s amazing in the role too, showing us the untidiness and horror of grief in a manner that’s realistic, tragic and grounded.

Seymour is astounding in the role, and Morley is an excellent companion. Her story becomes a mirror of Abby’s, as she and Abraham (played by Brian Protheroe) orbit one another. It’s spiky, untidy, gripping stuff and it’s excellently played by everybody. For me, at least, the story is ultimately hurt a little by the wider needs of the show but it’s still a great opener and a fiercely impressive tour de force from Seymour and a great script from Roland Moore.

Simon Clark’s ‘Legacy’ is up next and does the near impossible; makes Greg a character in a story set after his death. Opening with Ruth and Jenny on a train to the village of Retworth, it then pulls back and shows us exactly who is on the train, why the train is working and why it’s going to Retworth.

The answer to all of this is, of course, Greg.

Cutting between a flashback to the first contact between Greg and the village and the present day, it’s a story that manages to eulogise the character without being blind to his flaws. McCulloch has never been less than impressive in the role and he’s particularly great here. Greg’s two-fisted optimism and practicality is one of the show’s biggest strengths and seeing him from the outside, and as a finite presence, actually throws that into starker relief.

Lucy Fleming, like Carolyn Seymour in the last story, is handed a gift of a script here and makes it her own. Her rage at Greg being constantly driven away by his own altruism is tangible and entirely understandable. It also doesn’t disappear when she meets the people he’s helped and the world he’s helped build. The end result is a story that’s complex, world-changing and at the same time very personal. Greg was, in many ways, a lousy husband and partner. But the same things that drove him away drove him to make the world a better place. That world is his legacy and the story closes with Jenny getting a modicum of peace from it. Excellent guest turns once again here, especially Harry Myers as engine driver Neville and Graham Seed as the villainous Barstow.

‘Old Friends’ by Matt Fitton, up next, is quite possibly the best single episode of this series to date. Jackie, played by Louise Jameson, has retreated entirely within herself. The world she sees is inhabited by her dead friends, and she knows it. But it’s more peaceful, more hopeful, than the real world. Until Evelyn and Ruth arrive…

This is a story about death and life and how we break and what happens afterwards. A third massively strong central performance lands here with Louise Jameson doing amazing work as Jackie. It’s one of the most nuanced, and careful, explorations of PTSD and mental health I’ve ever heard. Jackie knows she’s broken. She knows that Daniel (a very welcome return by John Banks) is dead. But it’s safer, kinder here.

The genius of the script is that Daniel knows he’s a hallucination too. Fitton’s entire script revolves around how much is too much, what happens when we simply cannot forgive ourselves anymore, and it explores this complex and knotty issue with compassion and strength. Jameson is extraordinarily good in the main role but the entire episode is a perfect summation of everything that makes Survivors work. Good people in a bad situation doing their best to adapt, but not be changed by it.

‘Reconnection’ by Christopher Hatherall closes the season out with a literal bang. Jenny and Abby run into each other again at very different, yet very similar times in their lives. Jenny is grieving Greg, Abby is consumed with grief at the apparent loss of Peter. As the two women meet, and clash, the story unfolds against a canvas of loss, rebuilding, a power station being brought back online and the ugly face of ’70s nationalism and sexism.

Lucy Fleming and Carolyn Seymour excel here and Hatherall’s script gives them a chance to explore the different ways they’ve coped with loss. The fact they do, and do so ranged against a group of nationalistic thugs, could feel cheap. Instead, much like the rest of the series it feeds into the two twin narratives this show is starting to develop; survival and healing. Humanity has survived, things are very, very different. But we’re still here and the opportunity to do better this time is one worth fighting for. Both the leads here learn, and do that, this episode and the season finishes on a uniquely hopeful and extremely well-earned note. Especially as there are hints of even more massive things to come in season 8…

Verdict: Survivors is a crown jewel of the Big Finish line. While this season perhaps requires a little more knowledge of the original show than previous ones it’s still some of the best audio drama available right now. Endlessly gripping, fiercely emotionally honest and charting territory all it’s own with each passing season, Survivors really is something special. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart