Devil’s Advocate is a full-cast Blake’s 7 story continuing the crew’s search for Dayna.

This month it is the turn of Steve Lyons to move the series arc forward while also giving listeners an enjoyable story in its own right. This he does with admirable skill.

At first the story is a standard Avon (Paul Darrow) and Vila (Michael Keating) repartee as they break into a space station’s computer systems seeking intelligence on Dayna’s movements. There is a bit of shooting, running and escaping but all this is diversion.

The real story is Del Tarrant (Steven Pacey), also on the space station and encountering an ex-girlfriend, Pelora (Simone Lahbib from Bad Girls). What’s more, Pelora is still with her boss, the President (Hugh Fraser) now on the run from Servalan having been deposed.

The plot thickens; the President is taken on board the Liberator and we find many of the crew have every reason to want him dead, including Del Grant (Tom Chadbon). Steve Lyons weaves all these threads into a satisfying story very much in the style of the TV series and provides for a satisfying hour’s listen.

Lisa Bowerman (as ever) directs this with aplomb bringing terrific performances from everyone, balancing the characters well and Lahbib oozes character threatening to outshine Fraser’s President a few times; no mean feat as Hugh Fraser already made the role stand out in an earlier audio.

Not only does Devil’s Advocate work well as a story, it even adds to the series arc and points the way to next month’s series conclusion in a way that doesn’t feel bolted on. Both Steven Lyons and Cavan Scott, the series producer, need credit for this.

Extras: 11 minutes of well-crafted extras from several of those involved in this release and interesting to any fan.

Released on Tuesday 10 March 2015 by Big Finish Productions Ltd.

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