The Grey Mare

"It's not normal to freeze to death in your own house."

Writers: Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle

Format: Audio

Released: December 2021

Series: Torchwood Monthly 57

Featuring: Ianto

Synopsis

"Listen. Mari Lwyd. White as moonlight. Rattle-bagged and broken backed. Steed of winter who the pale men carry.

"Who are those that squire you? Slow and ceaseless, yard by yard, house by house, and door by door."

The Mari Lwyd is a fine Welsh Christmas Tradition – the skeleton of a horse roams the streets, begging to be let in for food and warmth. Once she knocks, only the most cunning can send her away.

Ianto Jones has come to a remote village for a quiet Christmas. But the Mari Lwyd has come knocking. And she's real.

Verdict

The Grey Mare was another excellent Torchwood monthly adventure! This range continues to impress and showcase numerous of the main characters in their own light. It's also wonderfully Welsh and as a patriotic Welshman that might be a big part of its appeal. I love hearing the Welsh language spoken in audio drama and unfortunately I'm not fluent, but I definitely know more than poor old Ianto did here! I thought that was fun to play with when it came to Mrs Watkins teasing him about being from Cardiff which despite being the capital city of our nation, it is not the most Welsh-speaking of cities. Far from it in fact. You've got to go quite far west and north to reach that part of the country, and whilst the remote village here wasn't named it did have a sense of being located somewhere along those lines. I was a little sad for Ianto that he was wanting to spend Christmas alone and remotely, but he was going through some things. He was waiting for Jack to make the first move in calling him and that coming at the end of the episode was a nice way to finish. After a hugely eventful Christmas he got his happy ending. I thought the concept behind the Mari Lwyd was terrific and I loved how eery the episode felt. The remote setting certainly aided that and I was impressed with how well the atmosphere was captured. It felt dark and clearly at night which was good and I do think the cover art has a part to play there. The description of the Mari Lwyd was pretty disturbing with it being a horse skeleton and just the image of one of those roaming the streets was fantastic! Talk about scary. I liked how the legend was just local custom to the likes of Mrs Watkins and Daniel. The latter was a strong character and it was good to see how much he was essentially broken gradually as the episode went on. He was almost laughing at the idea of Ianto and Watkins being scared of the Mari Lwyd but not all that long later he was shooting at it with desperation and fear. He was angered by them using the dead as puppets and why wouldn't he be? Especially when one was his uncle. How must he have looked a year on now as an animated corpse? Ianto was on hand to provide expertise though throughout and I liked how strong he was being despite clearly also being scared. The whole idea of the owner of the house needing to give permission to let the Mari in was intriguing and Watkins became quite vulnerable there. She was still reeling a little from the death of her husband and with that being the house Ianto was sub-letting made it a little more eery. All of his stuff was still in the loft so Watkins felt comfortable in the house which is why she wanted some of Ianto's brandy and kept popping by. In hindsight that was rather sweet for the old woman. I did though relate so much to Ianto questioning what she wanted and clearly trying to get rid of her. I thought Watkins playing the main role in sending the Mari packing was superb and a really strong and powerful emotionally charged moment. She told the Mari Lwyd everything that it wasn't and really impacted her to such the extent that Ianto was confident it would never return. Daniel dying was another massive moment that felt devastating and certainly enhanced the threat, but his death was avenged. Overall, a fantastic listen! 

Rating: 9/10