Mark Gatiss’s New Adventures novel is the earliest of that range to have been adapted for audio and was riding high on our wish list.

First published in 1992, it was his first foray into the world of Doctor Who fiction and before he became known as one of The League of Gentlemen.

Bringing the TARDIS to the damp Yorkshire village of Crook Marsham in the late 1960s, we find the Seventh Doctor weary of his universal heroics; suffering a crisis of confidence, he is considering a temporary retirement or perhaps even a return to Gallifrey.

His companion Ace doubts he ever could stop his travels though, and soon they are drawn into investigating a series of grotesque deaths as the village becomes cut off from the outside world and people’s memories return to haunt them.

Immersed in the mystery is an elderly actor named Edmund Trevithick. Now residing in a retirement home, he was once famous as a heroic Professor in a 1950s BBC television drama called “Nightshade” and still has hopes of a revival, buoyed by a run of repeats.

An unashamed love letter to both Doctor Who and its televisual forebears, such as Quatermass (in whose mould Professor Nightshade is cast), the story serves up some good old-fashioned chills with alien transmissions from outer space and terrifying alien voices – evoking the earthbound feel of the Pertwee and early Tom Baker eras.

As well as the Doctor’s malaise, there is a healthy dose of character development for Ace too; falling for Robin, the lad from the village pub who suffers a bereavement, she actively considers leaving the Doctor to remain with him.

Whereas other adaptations have been, to our knowledge, pretty faithful to the source material, this version of ‘Nightshade’ moves the furniture around by dropping characters and streamlining the tale to fit into two hours of audio drama.

As we recall, Ace’s relationship with the Doctor was far more antagonistic in the original because she was building towards a temporary departure from the TARDIS in the subsequent ‘Love and War’. Instead of building to the book’s conclusion, this version opts for an alternate, but rather fitting ending instead.

Both the principals, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, are on cracking form here, with the Doctor irascible and melancholic while Ace is in the first flush of attraction. In supporting roles, Edward Harrison amuses as the snide Dr Hawthorne (though divested of his overt racism from the original), and John Castle’s Trevithick easily convinces as the retired actor reminiscing about bygone days.

With some superbly authentic music and sound design from Blair Mowat and Iain Meadows, we were transported back to the later years of the television show and also convinced by the fifties period feel of the Nightshade excerpts too. In fact, perhaps Big Finish could grant us a spin-off drama starring Castle as Professor Nightshade?

Extras: Approximately ten minutes of interviews with cast and crew, including adaptor Kyle C. Szikora on the transition from book to audio play.

Released in April 2016 by Big Finish.

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