The Doctor, Romana and K9 arrive in 1930s London to return some overdue library books. They plan to take a rest after their recent adventures, but Romana detects a distress signal from the future and the Doctor is attacked by a suffocating green mist.
THE ENGLISH WAY OF DEATH
If you’re going to adapt old Gareth Roberts novels, and you’ve already done “The Romance of Crime,” you might as well move on to “The English Way of Death” – and so here we are, in an adaptation penned once again by John Dorney and featuring the entire season 17 cast. This story was released in a box set with “Romance,” and while it strikes a similar tone to its companion piece, it doesn’t prove quite as successful.
When I first read the novel, and later when I listened to stories like “The Auntie Matter,” I developed a similar complaint: I have a very hard time relating to period comedies satirizing the English class system. I understand the influence and importance of Wodehouse, but I really get nothing out of watching the stuffy upper crust pander ignorantly to one another. “The English Way of Death,” as the title implies, spends a good deal of its running time employing this style of humor. When the world is threatened with destruction because a man couldn’t bear the thought of his rose garden being destroyed, I get what they’re going for but at this point I’m mostly just shrugging my shoulders. Perhaps the best joke in the play is when an exasperated K9 loads a vocabulary bank based on 19th century literature and proceeds to talk about death rays and thunderbolts – it’s much broader but I preferred it to the endless satire otherwise on display.
Speaking of K9, John Leeson is at his best in this story, seeing the friendly computer running over a whole range of emotions. When K9 is possessed, it sounds as though the performance is switching between Leeson and Terrence Hardiman, but Leeson is so effective it’s hard to tell when – or even if – this happens. Much like “The Romance of Crime,” Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are also on top form: Baker clearly loves this material and Ward gets something new to try as we’ve never heard the embarrassed Romana at the denouement before. It once again raises the question of why the Fourth Doctor Adventures can’t be like this – yes, “The English Way of Death” is spread over four episodes but it’s not like this is brilliant, unassailable material. So why is this so vibrant when the 4DAs are so often dreary?
Despite the excellent performances, there are times when “The English Way of Death” grinds to a halt, and none are more significant than the extended episode 3 excursion to the future that serves as little more than a gigantic info-dump. They try to make it interesting with the aforementioned K9 possession and scenes of the Colonel (Tim Bentinck) bumbling around breaking things, but ultimately it’s just there for Romana to listen to a ton of exposition about what’s going on. Part of the problem is that the adaptation to audio naturally loses the novel’s narrative voice, and in novels like these that use elements of a Douglas Adams style, that voice can break up otherwise monotonous scenes. That can’t happen here, unfortunately – and the story is often so confusing that drawing the listener’s attention to the plot seems like a mistake.
The dialogue, though, is magnificent, and instantly reminded me of why the novel was so much fun to read. The “you’re not going to believe what’s going on” exchange between Percy (Richard Braine) and Romana is hilarious, as are the aforementioned scenes where Romana gets it wrong and the Doctor mocks her relentlessly. And then there are the zombies, who are so over the top with their hunger for “Brains!” that I was laughing out loud while listening.
On the production front, Nicholas Briggs directs again, and the performances and pacing are admirably done. Jamie Robertson’s sound design is effective as well. Overall, “The English Way of Death” is another successful release. It’s not quite as good as “The Romance of Crime” but it’s unquestionably entertaining. The lesson is clear: if you want good Tom Baker material from Big Finish, go for the box sets.
Recommended.
6/10