Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: India Fisher, Anneka Wills, Terence Hardiman, Charlie Norfolk, David Dobson, Michael Maloney.
The intrepid travellers in the life of Charley Pollard have long been teased over the family history of the Edwardian Adventuress. There have been smatterings, the odd peek and the rare smidgen of information of how the young Charlotte Pollard grew to be the woman she has most definitely become and how it could bring about The Fall of the House of Pollard.
For the fans of Charley Pollard, it is the most intriguing of beginnings and ranks alongside the television version of Doctor Who’s latest companion, the erstwhile Clara Oswald, as being a woman who is very important to the Doctor’s past, future and present, so important that at times, the odd sentence comes along and the listener knows exactly where that fits in the linear time line of The Doctor.
The beginnings of Charley Pollard have always been there, just well hidden, concealed enough to let the mind imagine but never detract or deviate from the story at hand. The clues of her wealthy upbringing, her proud but strict father and admonishing mother and her two sisters, all the upsets, all the clashes and the love that exists have been lurking in the background like a camouflaged Dalek with personal hygiene issues.
Writer Matt Fitton, already one of the most eagerly looked forward to contributors to the Big Finish ark, takes over from Jonathan Barnes in the last two audio dramas in the Charlotte Pollard first season box set and takes the fleeing Charley, voiced as always by the impeccable India Fisher, all the way home to witness the fall out of her actions six years on.
Whilst she has been travelling, first with The Doctor, both the eighth and sixth respectively, and then being the human face of The Viyrans as they attempt to cleanse the Universe of all diseases and viruses; there has been the odd glimpse into the relationship of the Pollard family, notably between Charley and Lady Louisa, as the intrepid adventuress imagines certain conversations, especially when under times of stress of when her mind has been tampered with.
Matt Fitton seems to have had the most enormous fun in writing this particular episode and by bringing the incomparable Terence Hardiman as Lord Richard Pollard, a man whose life has been thrown into disarray since his daughter disappeared and presumed died on the Airship 101, and the allusion to the Mitford Sisters in one of Charley’s siblings flirting dangerously with Fascism, the script bounds along with valour and domestic intrigue and the final moments are heartbreakingly succinct and overwhelming.
Charlotte Pollard remains one of the most interesting and agile companions to ever step onto the floor of the Tardis and has full deserved this spin off. A gift to all Doctor Who audio fans!
The Fall of the House f Pollard is part of the Charlotte Pollard Season One box set.
Ian D. Hall