The Flickermen

"A mirror to another world."

Writers: Paul Morris & Simon Barnard

Format: Audio

Released: October 2016

Series: Jago & Litefoot 12.02

Featuring: Jago, Litefoot

Synopsis

Jago is rather scathing of the new art of cinematography. Even so, he accompanies Litefoot to see a demonstration at a fairground. But this is no ordinary film. Can creatures live inside the film – or even escape from it?

Ellie recalls childhood stories about the 'Flickermen', and elsewhere people start to flicker in and out of existence. By the end of their adventure, Jago and Litefoot will themselves be film stars. But what they see when the film of them is shown will give them both pause for thought...

Verdict

The Flickermen was another great episode to continue my way through the twelfth series of Jago & Litefoot! This was a fun concept and I must admit I wouldn't have had an episode about cinematography taking place in Victorian England on my bingo card for this spinoff range, but here we are! And it works really well. I loved how authentic this felt of the era as I really enjoyed hearing the reactions of seeing a video in play for the first time. It was fascinating and it's incredible to think really how extraordinary this would have been at the time. A moving image! The very idea. What I hadn't considered was that for Henry Gordon Jago this was actually something of a threat to his business in the theatre! It makes sense as cinemas now are incredibly popular and whilst the theatre does still do very strong business, the moving image is definitely superior in terms of popularity. Trying to place that in a Victorian setting though felt alien in a way that I really enjoyed. I thought hearing the tale of the Flickermen was intriguing and I almost wish this came about nine series earlier given that it was a tale shrouded locally and one Ellie recalled almost immediately. After twelve series it really does feel like we ought to have covered everything there is to cover in this area of London but it's no major issue. I really liked how stumped Litefoot was when called to give his verdict on another mysterious corpse and this one was literally flickering in and out of existence. That was a strong image to try and comprehend. I loved the continuation of the mysterious discussions between Ellie and the Older One and whilst I firmly don't think that she will actually kill Jago and Litefoot, I could almost be convinced by her performance here. She really did seem like she hated them and with the plan to meet up the following night, could she really attempt to murder them? Ravener being on hand to provide a close up and personal insight into her actions is probably going to be her downfall as he was reporting back that she hadn't acted as they had hoped for. It was good though that despite Ellie not following through, she may have an excuse with Ravener acknowledging the intelligence of the pair and how efficiently and ludicrously they dealt with the Flickermen. I thought that was fun and it was nice for them to have something akin to an admirer for their improvisation! The use of film in its infancy was really fun here and I think there's potential with the technology being so young and untested. Why couldn't creatures live there or even escape? It worked well that their intentions were actually nothing and they were kind of just in the way as creatures from another dimension. Hearing Litefoot try to explain his beliefs there was positive and I enjoyed how he grasped the concept. I thought it was also good to reference their encounters with the Doctor as experience of how just about anything is possible, but I would argue they've had plenty of their own without him too! Hearing Ellie lure a stranger into what he thought was a sexual encounter only for her to succumb to her vampiric impulses was excellent and I'm really excited to hear where things go from here with her. She's clearly struggling and delving back deeper into her old ways. Ravener is getting closer to Jago and Litefoot and I can't wait for the Old One to surely make a big impact. This is a really strong series so far and I'm loving the direction. Overall, a great listen! 

Rating: 8/10