Since 2017, Big Finish has been exploring the world of Torchwood One. Located at Canary Wharf, this series features the exploits of Yvonne Hartman, Ianto Jones, and Tommy Pierce. Alex Hewitt recently sat down with co-writers of the upcoming fifth boxset, James Goss and Joseph Lidster, for an exclusive preview of the all-new episodes.
This new volume contains three brand-new adventures, all set on consecutive Mondays. The boxset opens with Dinner for Yvonne, written by James from a story by himself and Joe.
James explains, “three Mondays at Torchwood! The first one is answering the question, ‘does Yvonne Hartman actually have a life outside Torchwood?’ It turns out that she lives on a very, very nice street somewhere in north London and she has very nice neighbours and they all have Monday night supper club. It’s Yvonne’s turn to host and all the neighbours are coming round. They have no idea what her job is and they don’t care because they’re very, very north London and self-obsessed.”
When Ianto and Tommy turn up at Yvonne’s door, however, things take a different turn. James continues, “Yvonne’s like, ‘no, no! I have a life outside work! A work-life balance is very important!’ She’s Yvonne Hartman. She can save the world and serve up four courses and a cheeseboard. It’s a very simple story about Yvonne trying to have a normal life. Obviously as it goes on, you realise Yvonne cannot have a normal life. You almost think at the end of the day she just walks over to a stationery cupboard and closes herself in because the character is such a sociopath.”
On sociopathy, Joe adds, “she may be a sociopath but I’m very pro-Yvonne. Dinner for Yvonne is a chance to ask, ‘how human can you make Yvonne? Can she have just five minutes where she’s a normal human being with Ianto and Tommy?’” A big part of this story is the relationship Yvonne has with her neighbours, who she desperately tries to view as her friends. James explains, “she makes so much about how she has these friends but the entire play is about her realising her friends are the people she works with, which is what’s really sad.” Joe adds, “except her friends are brilliant, because they’re Ianto and Tommy!”
James concludes, “she’s worked really hard at making her neighbours her friends. But they all think she works for the DVLA, so they look down on her because they don’t realise that she saves the world.
The second story in the boxset, also by James, is By Royal Appointment, which sees Torchwood granted a new royal liaison. James explains, “Joe’s established that Yvonne has tea with Liz at least once a week. If Torchwood really did exist, there would be a royal liaison whose job it would be to oversee Torchwood. Someone very lovely called Poppy has been appointed, and she turns up on Monday and is like, ‘I’m the royal liaison, show me around, I’m your boss.’ It’s an outsider who goes on a learning curve and realises this is crazy and insane. The questions are: is Poppy as nice as she seems? Is Yvonne as efficient as she seems? Are the two of them playing a game the whole time?”
The final story in the boxset is Joe’s Nerves, which sees Ianto and Tommy forced to take a road trip together. Joe explains, “Ianto and Tommy have to take a canister of alien nerve gas on a drive to a holding facility. They meet people on the way, and it’s all about character. It’s basically about Tommy and Ianto exploring who they are. Across this whole boxset there is a sense of these characters exploring who they are in relation to Torchwood. That sort of came across because Yvonne was clearly a villain in the TV series.”
Though initially a villain, Yvonne has developed into a protagonist over the past four boxsets of Torchwood One, and Joe continues, “I think the combination of her, Tommy, and Ianto is glorious. They’re so much fun to spend time with. You get the sense that Yvonne has become this person who is absolutely obsessed with her job and everything, but she’s still a human being.”
Nerves takes a closer dive into the relationship between Tommy and Ianto, and Joe explains, “There’s a bit where we realise that Tommy’s a fair age. I reckon he joined Torchwood with Lizbeth. There’s a moment in mine where he gets incapacitated, and it was a chance to give him a proper moment where that’s his worst fear because he’s old. There is a real fear of getting old. He’s 70, and at what point when you’re in your 70s do you want to stop being in deadly danger all the time? The other thing is how young Ianto is.”
James concludes, “everyone was genuinely moved in the studio. Nerves is a very special script.”
Many thanks to James and Joe for their time. Torchwood One: I Hate Mondays releases this Wednesday 8th May from Big Finish. All this month, the first boxset in the range, Before the Fall is available for 50% off.
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