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The Dead Line

3RD JULY 2009

(45-MINUTE EPISODE)

The third and final of this week’s Torchwood radio plays is the least ambitious, at least in terms of scope and grandeur. In terms of the character story though, The Dead Line by Phil Ford is most probably the most satisfying of the three dramas, and here’s why.

Between listening to The Dead Line on Friday and writing this review, I read director Kate McAll’s insightful blog about the convoluted (to say the least) logistics involved in trying to record a clutch of radio dramas starring the likes of John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, and even Kai Owen. As I had suspected when listening to Asylum (the first of the three plays to be broadcast), Barrowman’s availability in particular was an issue; McAll’s request to have him for six days was apparently met by the response “How about one and a half?” from his agent. Inevitably then, Captain Jack’s involvement in Asylum was somewhat curtailed, and his role in The Dead Line is even smaller still. But as they say, crisis leads to inspiration, and with this play Ford turns what could have been a negative into a big, shiny plus by using Jack’s absence to explore some of Ianto’s greatest fears.

“There’s something alien buzzing through the Cardiff phone system…”

As the drama itself is borne out of sound, the crux of Ford’s story is perfectly attuned to the medium through which is told. In 2010 (time has marched on since Golden Age, bringing Torchwood’s ‘present’ back up to speed with Doctor Who’s), an electromagnetic virus tears through Cardiff’s telephone system, attacking the brains of those who answer the call of a telephone number that was deactivated in 1976, and leaving them in a vegetative state.

The idea is executed with the writer’s typical aplomb; the traffic collisions I thought were a particularly effective way of demonstrating just how prevalent mobile telephones are in our society, and just what carnage could be wrought were they to be… carriers.  Even so, there is still little to set this notion apart from the surfeit of techno-fear stories that there are out there clogging up the genre, and so I was pleased to find that what really sets The Dead

Line apart is its delicate handling of the much more intimate character story.

Scheduling problems aside, these three plays have still managed to each cater for one of regulars, and The Dead Line gives David-Lloyd his chance to shine. On television, even during the series’ second season Ianto seemed to be out there on the periphery, and so it

is brilliant to be able to listen to a story constructed around his intriguing character; more

so than ever when he has to face the array of torments that he does here. And David-Lloyd gives an astonishing performance; his sober tones are perhaps even more effective in this medium than they are on television.

As Jack is for all intents and purposes immortal, Ianto never thought that he would have to face the problem of losing him to death. But of course – and I must confess that I had never considered this previously – just because Jack is immortal, it doesn’t automatically follow that he can’t be permanently incapacitated. And so when Jack telephones the mysterious number and is lost to a trance-like state, for the first time Ianto has to face the possibility

of having to lose him in the most cruel and unexpected of ways.

And on top of that, Ford throws Dona Croll’s Stella into the mix – an old flame of Jack’s, there to serve as a reminder to Ianto that even if Jack does survive his coma, ultimately

he can never be as important to Jack as Jack is to him because Jack’s life is so incomp-arably longer than his. He will always be “…just a blip in time.”

Nevertheless, despite the ostensibly grim tone of the play, Ford manages to inject the proceedings with a fair bit of levity, usually via Gwen’s long-suffering husband, Rhys -

“You rang me on the phone to tell me not to use the phone?” This play may not rival the monstrous hilarity of Ford’s television episode, Something Borrowed, but it is strewn

with enough little flourishes of comedy to keep this one on the lighter side of heavy.

“You never will be just a blip in time, Ianto. Not for me.”

Moreover, against all the odds, the story’s resolution is actually rather heartening as Ianto realises that, just maybe, he is more important to Jack that the legion of lovers that he has followed. That said, it is alarmingly anomalous for a ‘season’ of Torchwood to end on such an upbeat riff, which really makes me wonder just how bleak things are likely to get in next week’s Children of Earth mini-series!

All told then, The Dead Line is most definitely an audio drama that I would recommend, together with the two plays that have preceded it. Even taking into account the few minor quibbles that I’ve had, the standard of this whole ‘season’ has been exceptional; so much

so, in fact, that if I didn’t know better I would say that it had been produced by Big Finish Productions (and I can’t think of any higher praise to bestow on these three special audio dramas than that!) I’m just glad that Barrowman could squeeze the recordings in between

his Saturday night television show and the start of his nationwide concert tour!

The trappings of success…

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2009

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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