Goodbye Piccadilly

"All good art should speak to people."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: June 2018

Series: Torchwood Monthly 22

Featuring: Andy, Norton

Synopsis

Sgt Andy Davidson wakes up in the 1950s. He's changed to a bed, his clothes are missing and the building's on fire. Norton Folgate needs his help.

The streets of Soho are swarming with gangsters, rumours and betrayals. Somewhere out there is a mysterious alien artefact, and Andy and Norton have to get to it first. Because tonight they're going to save Torchwood.

Verdict

Goodbye Piccadilly was another fun adventure to continue along the monthly releases of Torchwood from Big Finish! This was a refreshing visit to the 1950s and Torchwood Soho as Andy and Norton Folgate were reunited for another intriguing romp. I thought the pace of this one was frantic and that really helped with the story being told, there was no messing around in the slightest. The immediate arrival of Andy saw him possessed with an alien key inside his mind just from looking at a piece of alien artwork. It was so obviously a ploy of Norton and his charismatic personality really does do well in shielding where his true interests and allegiances lie. He's a difficult character to read and that makes him exciting. His relationship with Andy here was marvellous and built well upon what was established in Ghost Machine with Folgate coming to the 2010s in a ghostly form, whereas here Andy had physically manifested himself in the 1950s. Getting a glimpse of this branch of Torchwood was brilliant and I also thought it was important to raise the difficulties of being gay at this point in time in history. It was a totally different world to what Andy was used to with the societal progress and for men to have sexual relations together, they could only really do so in dirty toilets and secret brothels with some of the police even on the pay roll. I enjoyed the meeting with Alejandro and the fact that both Andy and Norton were naked was quite the image! Norton clearly had some feelings towards the man and whilst his attempts to retrieve the alien message from Andy's head went in vain, there was definitely something more going on. Fat Kim, a quite deplorable name for a character by the way, served as a fun enemy for Norton to run away from and the moment at the end where she revealed she had been following them and wanted Andy because of what was in his head was very good. I would have perhaps liked more of the Vicar in this story given his role as Norton's boss and I'd be intrigued to learn more about the makeup of Torchwood here. Andy feigning as Norton's assessor was great stuff though and I imagine I'd get more of what I wanted in the Soho spinoff boxset. I thought the mysterious nature of the brothel and the alien dancer was good and the idea of it performing an alien sex show whilst others pleasured themselves really was quite something. This is where the adult nature of Torchwood really does shine and allows a little more realism, as that is definitely something that would happen in reality. I thought the pace of the conclusion in getting the key and message out of Andy's head was terrific and matched the feel and atmosphere of the audio as a whole which was important. Andy not getting the chance to question Norton about the true details of the circumstances he endured and whether it was his plan all along was fun, and leaves things open for more meetings in the future between the pair. That's definitely something I'd be on board with! Overall, a really strong audio! 

Rating: 8/10