“Welcome to the Traveller’s Halt. You’re in luck – we have one room left. My name is Bilis Manger. Let me show you to your room.”
“Welcome to the Traveller’s Halt. You’re in luck – we have one room left. My name is Bilis Manger. Let me show you to your room.”
TORCHWOOD: DEADBEAT ESCAPE
We get these Torchwood stories occasionally, individual scripts concerning none of the regular cast and exploring relationships between new or recurring characters. “Deadbeat Escape” by James Goss is one such story, about a traveler, Hywel Roberts (Gareth Pierce), who stops at a lonely inn in a rainstorm only to find it staffed by Bilis Manger. What follows is a wonderful tale: Hywel just wants to leave so he can visit his dying father, but gradually he learns that will never be possible. As he moves through the hotel, meeting the other guests, learning more about his predicament, Bilis is always there, hovering just out of shot, ever the infinitely patient, genial host. It works so well because we know that Bilis must be scheming underneath his calm exterior, but he never allows it to drop. Murray Melvin gives a fantastic performance, one of his best in the role, and Pierce is every bit a good match for him. The script works on a metaphorical level as well – the clock comparisons dominate, of course, but it’s also about Hywel’s depression and how he’s trapped in the corridors of his own mind. The ending is perhaps a bit abrupt, and the final revelation is much more grounded than the rest of the script, but that’s not really even a complaint, just an observation about how Goss wraps things up. This is the final entry in the fourth series of Torchwood audios, and the range is still every bit as strong as it was at the start. Fantastic stuff.
9/10