Alex Hewitt looks back at August’s Torchwood Monthly Range release – the final story of the series to feature Murray Melvin as Bilis Manger.

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After the sad news of his passing in April of this year, it was a bittersweet surprise that Murray Melvin returned in Big Finish‘s Torchwood range one last time.

With nothing about the story revealed before the day of release, Ash Darby‘s Sigil tells the story of Sam, a woman who saw a statue in Bilis’s shop with the same Sigil that she’s been obsessed by her whole life. Sam is played by Gabrielle Brooks in what is her first Big Finish role. Brooks gives Sam a distinct personality, skilfully portraying multiple layers to her character and – importantly – creating a believable relationship with Angus Imrie‘s Emil.

Emil and Sam have a brilliantly rocky relationship, and Imrie is excellent at performing Emil’s more frustrated moments. He is able to capture both the character’s love and annoyance at Sam simultaneously, which adds an interesting dimension to the relationship. If there’s one problem with this story, it’s that Emil isn’t as fleshed out as Sam, and given that the pair of them and Bilis are the only characters in the story, this is noticeable. However, director Lisa Bowerman has shown once again that she’s an expert when it comes to ensuring actors have depth in their performances even when it’s not entirely there in the script.

Murray Melvin as Bilis is, as expected, a joy. You can almost hear the grin on his face when he gets to perform a particularly nasty monologue. Darby gives us some more backstory to the twisting and turning life of Bilis, and there’s a point in this episode where the narrative takes an interesting and unexpected turn that is executed phenomenally well. Again, it’s clear that Melvin was having a delight recording this story.

Sigil is an interesting departure from usual Torchwood stories as the only tie to Torchwood is Bilis himself, but this allows for an episode that explores ideas about folklore, the value of art (and artists), and gives us scenes that feel like direct homages to Hitchcock – all wrapped up in a final scene that is wonderfully suited to Bilis’s character as a send-off for him from the Torchwood range.

Murray Melvin will return as Bilis Manger one final time in The War Master: Rogue Encounters. This, along with Melvin’s other work for Big Finish, is available from https://bigfinish.com/.