Christmas may have come and gone, but there’s still time for some spooky, festive Torchwood! Harvey Edwards reviews the final Torchwood story of the year: The Grey Mare!
The Grey Mare is the final Torchwood release of 2021 for Big Finish – a year that’s seen a number of very strong releases for the range – and is written by Big Finish newcomers Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle. Based on the Welsh folk tradition of the Mari Lwyd, the story imagines what would happen if the Mari (a person dressed up with a horse’s skull, as depicted in Sean Longmore‘s brilliant cover art) was a real, living being.
We join Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) as he goes to spend Christmas on his own, away from distraction, allowing himself some alone time. However, soon after he arrives at the holiday home he’s renting, he and the house’s owner are disturbed by the Mari Lwyd. The pacing in the early scenes leaves a little to be desired, but once the story really gets going, these issues are ironed out. The story is filled with disturbing imagery, and there’s an excellent build-up of tension throughout, aided by Richard Fox and Lauren Yason‘s excellently chilling sound design, and with Blair Mowat‘s music in particular standing out in this release.
The performances from the cast are superb as ever, well-directed by Lisa Bowerman, but the resolution to the story could be a little tidier. That said, The Grey Mare is a great, chilling ghost story that provides brilliant Christmas listening, and rounds off the 2021 Torchwood releases very nicely. I hope Mooney and Pringle get opportunities to write more for this range, as they clearly have a lot of potential.
Torchwood: The Grey Mare is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com
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