In Review: Big Finish: Torchwood: Made You Look

Synopsis: In ‘Made You Look’ Talmouth is dying.

“It stalks you. It whispers. It wants you to turn around. It wants you to look. But if you do… If you see it…”

Talmouth is a lonely seaside town. No-one has heard from it for days. No-one who goes in comes out. Something has happened to Talmouth. Has it been taken over by aliens? Or is it something far, far worse?

Gwen Cooper’s come to Talmouth to find out. What’s happened has to be seen to be believed. But by the time you’ve seen it, you’re already dead.

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

Review: “Made You Look” was an exercise in atmospheric horror. Writer Guy Adams borrowed a page from Peter J. Hammond’s book. Matthew Gravelle’s Darkness was a marvelous cross between the Ghostmaker in “From Out Of The Rain” and Sutekh. He did Gabriel Woolf proud.

Gravelle didn’t carry the villainy on his own, however. Big Finish’s always top-notch audio effects were dialed to eleventy-one. My favorite manifestation of Talmouth’s terror was the mummy-drag of Darkness’s limbs. It was probably the closest listeners will ever get to Hammer horror for radio.

Because these kinds of stories tend to be driven by the Big Bad. Eve Myles and Marilyn Le Conte had the thankless job of conveying psychologically unraveling exposition. Fortunately, they had enough character beats to compensate for the tedium of plot requirements.

Overall, “Made You Look” was excellent. I did wonder, though, how Gwen thought she was going to contain Darkness. Unless Big Finish plans a sequel, I guess listeners should assume that hunger made it submissive enough to capture.

• You can purchase “Made You Look” Here

Written By: Guy Adams

Directed By: Scott Handcock

Cast

Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Matthew Gravelle (Darkness), Marilyn Le Conte (Mrs Rhodes), Ross Ford (James)

Produced by James Goss

Script edited by Steve Tribe