Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Louise Jameson, Conrad Asquith, Lisa Bowerman, Joanna Bacon, Eden Monteath, Joanna Monro, Duncan Wisbey.

There are some tales, supposedly written for the benefit of children that are really for the attention of adult world. Red Riding Hood, a tale of heroism perhaps in the hands of a small child or really the precautionary story and veiled warning to a woman not to let any old wolf take her virtue. Whatever the fairy-tale, whatever its meaning, the chance for children to be told instructive tales by adults somehow slows down the learning of the moral in the story and makes adults forget the unseen world in which children’s fears are played out.

The Man At The End Of The Garden sees the intrepid adventurers and amateur detectives Jago and Litefoot, along with the fourth Doctor’s much loved companion Leela, on the search for another rip in time. This time the rip is centred around a little girl called Clara and the man that sleeps unchecked at the bottom of the garden, a Rumplestiltkin-like figure who has exacted a promise on Clara’s mum and, who when the promise is not kept, because little children forget such things and believe them later to be dreams, live to regret their poor memory.

Not only is Matthew Sweet’s tale a nice, almost wholesome tale of promises exacted under dubious circumstances but it the one story in all the Jago and Litefoot series so far that could have also been placed under the banner of Big Finish’s other spectral time series, Sapphire and Steel. It is the kind of writing that sits well on the ears and whilst not being overly demanding, it is still a tale that is entertaining and a great way to while away the hour.

Although the story doesn’t dwell on the growing relationship between Leela and her two Victorian gentlemen, it does deviate along a path in which the hero of the story is not just Eden Monteath as Clara but also the memory of the power of children’s literature.

Some promises made by children are honour bound to be forgotten, others though should be remembered, should be recalled and kept close less something else, something terrible arises from the bottom of the garden, something that should remain under the ash.

The Man At The End Of The Garden is available as part of Jago & Litefoot Series Three from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall