Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Blair McDonough, Anna Skellern, Lisa Bowerman, Patience Tomlinson, Clare Calbraith, Duncan McInnes, Angela Bruce, David Warner, Susannah Harker.

Change, even in the art of the bluff, can be one that leaves a chill ready to descend down the spine, the sense that the transformation you are about to encounter is going to be too much to either bare, or which will leave you with feelings of disappointment wrapped up in the embrace of the immediate let down.

The bluff will often rectify the situation, perhaps not completely, perhaps not forever, but it will leave you certainly bewildered and confused as to why the blind hand of change had to even be attempted, considered, allowed to fester in the imagination. Arguably we all wish to spice things up in our lives, explore the avenues that maybe temporarily open to us, but change is not always a fascination worth pursuing, unless it can lead to greatness.

Such is the effect of change that is introduced in the opening episode of the third series of Sapphire and Steel audio dramas, Second Sight, that for more half the production, the only balance in the play is to be found in the ever reliable Lisa Bowerman as Ruby, and Clare Calbraith’s reading of Polly, without this interaction, the first half of the drama could be considered amongst the least appealing of any production brought to life by Big Finish.

It is in the bluff itself that Second Sight is let down, the change in attitude, as well as appearance of the two main leads, could have been devastatingly brilliant if left in the hands of two actors of equal stature to David Warner and Susannah Harker, instead the bluff fails, and so to adds frustration to the drama which is only partially revived when the double blind is revealed.

Ultimately it could be argued that you need a moment of extraordinary madness in which to capture the ear of any listener, however, madness is only as brilliant as the situation you are in, if the moment hasn’t called for it, then Time won’t be amused. It is in that lack of amusement that Second Sight could be considered a let-down, and an unwitting nail in a coffin that nobody knew was being made.

Average at best, Second Sight should be left alone and only included in the listening of the series at large for continuity. 

Ian D. Hall