Dead Plates

"I'm stone cold dead."

Writer: David Llewellyn

Format: Audio

Released: June 2022

Series: Torchwood Monthly 62

Featuring: Bilis

Synopsis

Bilis Manger has been murdered. And he's determined to find out who did it. Four people at dinner are the suspects, and they've each got murky secrets and at least one skeleton in the closet.

What is really on the menu at one of Soho's finest restaurants? And will any of the suspects make it out alive?

Verdict

Dead Plates was a fascinating and intriguing listen to continue my way through the Torchwood monthly range! I really enjoy the character of Bilis Manger and he is just so incredibly enigmatic. That makes for a really good listen because I just find myself enthralled by him which is a hugely positive quality. I am just so engaged in every word he says and that is a huge compliment to Murray Melvin as the actor also. Sure, the writing has to be there as it was here but the performance is absolutely pivotal to really bringing this character to life. This was a typically Bilis story in that he was literally begging to die and wanted a fourth of his corpses to help get some time villains off his trail. I thought that was quite spectacular and the method in which he was going about things here was just strange. That makes it all the better for me to be honest. I liked the Soho setting and being a few decades in the past was good because it just helps highlight the time span of Bilis as a character. What we saw on screen in Captain Jack Harkness/End of Days really is just a small example of him fleeting through time. He's also no stranger to dying which is really good fun, although I do wish we got a little bit more of a concrete answer as to how he was continuously surviving. I never felt that the other guests around the dinner table understood how he was surviving. I mean nearly all of them had killed him once by one means or another! Starting with some arsenic in the establishment was somewhat lowkey which was good, but the way he just then saunters in and is completely in control is perfectly Bilis. He's just brilliant. The way he quickly deduces that he has been poisoned by Beryl Finch was terrific and it said a lot about the company at the dinner table that they all just basically admitted to their murdering. Bilis admiring Beryl for the way she killed her husband and got away with it was really strong, and she just freely admitted to it as it was good for business! Felicity was another good character and I liked how she had help from Beryl in realising her theatre dream. Bilis was one step ahead there though too as he knew that her trap to cause the lead actress to fall down the stairs left some considerable tracks if you looked close enough. Oliver Barleycorn (great name by the way!) was also a strong character and I really liked tackling with him being involved in politics as the Shadow Home Secretary. That's a pretty significant position (unless you're Zia Yusuf) and I loved his insistence on saying fuck. It was said in such a posh voice that made it seem more powerful which was great. Touching upon journalism and exposing a homosexual affair was an interesting element of the plot and felt very 1970s with it staggeringly not being long at all since that was legalised. But there was still money to be made in exposing it! That was a little sad but unfortunately that's history and life. I thought Bilis goading his fellow dinner guests into stabbing him was brutal and I was actually put off by the effects for their gore which is brilliant! Going far like that makes it feel very Torchwood and I'm a fan of that. I thought the way things rounded out with Bilis setting his plan perfectly into motion was marvellous and it seemed to just be an endless cycle. The means by which he came by the knowledge could have been elaborated upon but I do like that there's some mystery and ambiguity because it suits Bilis. Overall, a really good listen to continue the range! I liked that it was a little different. It keeps things fresh. 

Rating: 8/10