Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Christopher Ecclestone, Billie Piper, Harki Bhambra, Camille Coduri, Dan Starkey, Mandi Symonds.
Ghosts and legends are not just born in palaces and grand houses, hauntings are not confined to estates where a single dwelling lords over all it surveys, they are formed in the most modern of aspects, on council estates where the only horrors initially imagined was how it was acceptable to house people in such cramped quarters in such a small area; offering a sense of community, but of little value to their everyday lives.
Ghosts and legends are formed from the sense of loss, and perhaps there are few sights that offer such an unbalance in the mind that leads to the feeling of another at the edge of existence than that of urban decay, of the emptiness of a street due for demolition, of a block tower emptied of laughter and togetherness…this is were darkness can creep in unchecked, where legends take form.
The Last Days Of The Powell Estate, written by Timothy X Atack, sees the ninth incarnation of The Doctor and Rose pulled into investigate the chaos and fear that surrounds the modern folklore of Mr. Fingers which haunts and murders on the decaying and crumbling former housing project to which the Tylers, Jackie and Rose called home, and to which the man in the blue box has become a frequent visitor.
Timothy X Atack’s script is a necessary reminder that not everything in our lives can be explained away in the rational calmness of daylight, that the touch on your shoulder you felt is more than just a whisper on the wind, that the shiver down your spine is not just a sign of nerves flaring, it’s a warning, a cautionary advice from the brain and soul to not look behind you, to ignore that which taps your body as if being caught by surprise by an old friend. Such moments are to be avoided, less you are visited by the ghouls and images that wish to take your life.
The Last Days Of The Powell Estate is an eerie, unnerving tale, one that delves into the unnatural with precision, one that captures the heart of the neo gothic in much the same way that for example the Tom Baker serial of The Horror Of Fang Rock was able to do, simply, astutely, pushing the listener into the realm of discomfort and achieving that with style and excellent communication between the cast.
A cracking story that deals with the ever-continuing bond between Doctor and companion as friends rather than colleagues, framed against the backdrop of evil that stalks our empty streets and houses.
Ian D. Hall