Lease of Life

"This is not just any old mould."

Writer: Aaron Lamont

Format: Audio

Released: March 2021

Series: Torchwood Monthly 48

Featuring: Owen

Synopsis

3 bed, 1 bath, shared house in a vibrant area with easy access to Cardiff city centre. Has a real lived-in feel. 

Note to interested parties: There is a small spreading mould issue, and an investigation is being undertaken on site. Those worried are advised to contact the Council's Mould Expert, Dr Owen Harper.

Verdict

Lease of Life was a great little story to continue my way through the Torchwood monthly range at Big Finish! There's been a real theme lately of everyday life with the likes of Coffee and Drive exploring things like coffee shops and taxi drivers, and this time was the turn of real estate. Given that Torchwood is set in Cardiff which is a much calmer and more normal life experience than the capital of London, I like that we can get stories like this one. It just feels real and authentic which is a big positive. I think the idea of a shared accommodation is actually petrifying in the real world. I did it for a couple of years as a university student and that just felt normal at the time. It's what you do for these three blurry years, but in actual real life? Nah, not for me. Seren was a really good character and I liked how she was a realtor and clearly just doing it for the money. She wasn't passionate about it but it was intriguing and actually quite fun to hear some of the lingo to make a bad element of a house sound like a positive. Owen caught onto that and the way he basically goaded Seren into showing her around their own house in the real estate agent way was impressive. The issues at hand sounded reminiscent of a lot of experiences I heard about during my university days with bad drains and growing mould. I thankfully didn't have to go through that, although the bins would often get a little extreme. I'm not a fan of bad drains and blaming the council seems like a typical thing to do, although I'd definitely be buying some drain unblocker and something that smelled nice to send down there! I certainly couldn't live in the conditions that Seren described. I wasn't a huge fan of Nye purely because he seemed like a bit of a dickhead. But I completely understood why and I'd probably be the same way if somebody like Owen was asking a lot of questions around my property. Ellie was a more likeable character and the problem of her going on a 6km run and spreading the alien fungus was a lot more serious than it sounds! The fact Owen was posing as a council expert on mould was baffling though and it was amusing for him to name drop Tosh as somebody more suited to the task. It was clear in his undertones that there were feelings for Tosh from Owen which was nice to hear. I thought this could have worked better if Owen was somewhere after the events of Dead Man Walking and really dive into how he was dead with the mould preferring easy to consume organic matter. That meant dead but I'm not sure how that would work for Owen! Ellie's casual nature when she returned from her run and was completely oblivious of everything was good and just enhanced the threat. I thought the whole real estate theme was taken too far for Seren's liking when it came to the communication with the alien fungus, and it would be something she would be stuck with. Literally. After accepting the contract without quite reading the small print, Seren would be stick in her shared accommodation for a very long time indeed. Sure, she was a homeowner now but is this what she really wanted? I felt heartbroken for her with her desire to go travelling in South America destroyed because she had a four day limit before she needed to be back at the house to keep things in check. A contract was a contract though and it was considered binding. The irony for her as a real estate agent. I liked how in showing a house in what was essentially the epilogue she gave up trying to sugarcoat houses and admitted the property she was showing was a shithole. If I was house hunting again that's certainly something I would appreciate! Overall, a very strong episode. 

Rating: 8/10