Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Colin Baker, Adrian Lukis, Tim Bentinck, Alan Cox, Blake Ritson, George Rainsford, Camilla Power, Sophie Aldred, Philip Mulryne, Kieran Bew, Richard Franklin.
With the murder of his fiancé Peggy still haunting him, Doctor David Keel finds himself further embroiled in the plans of the mysterious John Steed and his attempt to bring down the latest in organised crime in London in the second story re-made by Big Finish’s The Avengers: The Lost Episodes.
Brought To Book sees the world of criminal protection and gambling come to the fore in the second of four stories that make up the first batch of Volume One and it has all the hall marks of being a tale that could so easily be transferred to today’s 21st Century. In a world that has more than lost its way over the last few years and people’s desperation has become to the point of breaking, the daily news, the 24 hour churning out of repetitive spin and counter spin, people’s lives have somehow become a commodity of the state and forgotten, almost left to rot. When this happens, the criminal element becomes fully aware and starts to eat in to what little is left. In the end it all boils down to money.
Brought To Book also sees the return of Adrian Lukis as the hit-man Spicer and in many ways the final confrontation between Keel and the man who destroyed his life is perhaps tame in the way that television would do it today, this is not a bad thing, more real in a way as how many really would take the ultimate revenge afforded by film and some of more self-serving television adventure or crime dramas of today. Anthony Howell captures the moment very well and whilst on television it may well have had the added sense of desperation, of horror at what the Doctor was about to do the villain of the piece, on audio such things are left to the power of the imagination of the audience. It works well because it was originally scripted well and has been added to greatly by those whose stock in trade is to make excellent audio drama.
Two episodes in and in its fair to say that anybody listening to the The Avengers would be captivated for the dramatic way in which these stories have been re-told.
Brought To Book is available to purchase as the collected stories in Volume One: The Avengers, The Lost Episodes. Volume One: The Avengers, The Lost Episodes is available from Worlds Apart, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall