Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Sarah Smart, Robin Pearce, Richard Earl, Neil Stuke, Lizzie Roper.

Whoever said reading was good for you had never came across the fear that radiates the characters in novels that never get read, the terror that appears when The Crooked Man comes a calling.

Perhaps one of the saddest sights in the world to a bibliophile is the heart-wrenching moment when they see someone sell a vast collection of books to make room for something else or somebody new in the house. Especially upsetting when they see them getting nowhere near the value of what they had been led to believe those books were worth. Who decides what a character is worth and what happens when the forgotten, sometimes painstakingly drawn out characters, decide that they need to be able to live?

This act leads The Doctor and Leela to investigate the goings-on in a small sea-side town as the lines between fact and fiction become blurred and smashed.

What John Dorney does excellently well in the episode is to draw the line between fiction in Doctor Who and the situation that millions in the country and perhaps billions round the world feel all the time. That their story is not being heard, they may as well be characters from a penny dreadful, the dust jacket torn and frayed and the pages bent back and not looked after for prosperity. In a world where popularity it seems is everything, those whose voice is just as important, whose ideas are constantly neglected because they don’t have enough people believe in the gold dust that surrounds others, are allowed, almost dictated, to become nothing more than a footnote in the history of humanity. It might seem like a good Doctor Who story but John Dorney’s script is so much darker than could be alluded to with the good cheer that surrounds Tom Baker and the ever fabulous Louise Jameson.

With Sarah Smart making a welcome appearance in a Doctor Who audio the family of those crossing easily between the television series and the audio dramas just got that little bit bigger and whilst not as strong a part as she had in The Rebel Flesh episode of series six, the thought of the young woman using her imagination to conjure up someone perfect is one that strikes at the heart and the protection of someone so vulnerable. Neil Stuke though makes an invaluable villain and in a roundabout way you cannot help but feel that given the benefit of film, then this particular audio would have made a fine addition to Matt Smith’s or David Tennant’s tenure as The Doctor. The Crooked Man has all the harks of being one of those particular characters that drives an episode completely for an episode and the 40 minute rush into the unknown would have been an enjoyable rush.

The Crooked Man is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall