Big Finish Torchwood: Dead Plates – Review

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?

Torchwood contains adult material and may not be suitable for younger listeners.

With just two televised episodes under his belt, you wouldn’t be wrong to think that the character of Bilis Manger would’ve gotten lost in the sea of all the creepy baddies that the Torchwood TV series had to offer, on the contrary, Bilis is arguably one of Torchwood’s greatest attributes and has gone down as a firm favourite amongst fans.

This is of course all down to Murry Melvin’s spine-chilling performance in the role, Melvin has the eerie ability to flit between portraying a sweet elderly man to a mysterious, sadistic, and devilish villain who always leaves the listener craving to know more.

Dead Plates is Murry Melvin’s fourth outing in Big Finish’s Torchwood monthly range, previously starring in Curios, Dead Man’s Switch and Deadbeat Escape, respectively.

The story boats a large cast consisting of Murray Melvin (Bilis Manger), Rosa Escoda (Felicity Templeton), Hugh Ross (Oliver Barleycorn) and Cleo Sylvestre (Beryl Finch), Tony Turner (Gerald Spencer), Dylan Jones (Tom) and Jack Forsyth-Noble (Policeman).

Dead Plates was written by David Llewellyn, directed by Lisa Bowerman, and produced by James Goss, with music by Blair Mowat and sound design by Toby Hrycek-Robinson.

It’s 1970s Soho and as four friends gather in their local pub to celebrate Flic’s ‘big break’, everybody’s favourite malevolent enigma known only as Bilis Manger invites himself to dinner, what could go wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot! Dark secrets are revealed, (Secrets never stay secrets for long when Bilis is around) lives are changed forever and poor old Bilis just wants someone to murder him. Yes, you read that right.

David Llewellyn has penned an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery with a Torchwood twist. As Bilis is murdered in front of his fellow dinner guests, there is a knock at the door, presuming the caller would be an amateur sleuth come to investigate, the diners are stunned to find Bilis standing in the doorway, ready to solve his own murder. As dark and harrowing tales are revealed, it soon becomes clear that no one is as innocent as they seem and Bilis intends to use that to his advantage.

Dead Plates is probably as dark and violent as the Torchwood monthly range has gotten so far, with the retelling of the diner’s despicable deeds each describing a different way to commit murder, whether it be suffocation, suicide or stabbing (the sound design of which sent chills up my spine) making this story about as “unsuitable for younger listeners” as the monthly range has dared to go before.

The whole cast of Dead Plates is firing on all cylinders, Murray Melvin slips back into the role of Bilis Manger effortlessly, his performance exudes suave and charm with a voice I could easily listen to for hours on end. Another standout for me is veteran actress Cleo Sylvestre, portraying the calculating and manipulative Beryl Finch. You can hear that Sylvestre is relishing the role of Beryl as she sows the seeds for each of the nefarious acts carried out by the other diners, even justifying destroying a man’s life just because “he probably deserved it”

As much as I enjoyed this story, I do feel that out of all of the Bilis Manger stories we’ve been treated to so far, Dead Plates might be my least favourite, I felt the story at times buckled under its own weight with the constant switching back and forth between stories and places getting a little confusing at times and felt a little jarring to the story.

I also felt that the frequent ‘F-bombs dropped in by Oliver Barleycorn were quite forced and didn’t add anything to the story apart from reiterating to the listener that it’s an adult story. This, however, is not to say I didn’t enjoy this story, it’s just that each of the previous Bilis Manger releases has been near perfection, Dead Plates just falls a little short.

In Closing

Overall Dead Plates is a well-rounded release with excellent characterisation from David Llewellyn, (which isn’t particularly easy to do with such a large cast) subtle direction by Lisa Bowerman that keeps the story moving along at a good pace and an excellent cast of actors with Murray Melvin shining through as the cherry on the cake. It’s a strong adventure filled with deliciously dark twists and turns and some laugh-out-loud moments.

7/10

Torchwood: Dead Plates is available now, priced from £8.99 on the Big Finish website.