David Llewellyn’s Fallout

Audio For a much loved supporting character, PC Andy, or Sgt Andy as we must now call him always receives the short end of the narrative wedge on television’s Torchwood, often relegated to viewpoint character and exposition sponge. Admittedly he’s had the odd heroic moment, notably during Children of Earth's Day Five but he’s usually been the local law enforcement authority calling in the experts whenever something weird wanders into their jurisdiction.

David Llewellyn’s Fallout, the second in this special series of post Miracle Day audio adventures, seeks to redress the balance by putting Andy front and centre in an epic battle to save planet Earth from an evil alien focused on releasing a virus that will eradicate humanity from the face of the planet, while avoiding being shot by a secret agent working for Torchwood's Russian equivalent, The Committee for Extraterrestrial Research or KVI (previously of Llewellyn's novel Trace Memory). Yes, indeed, only on Torchwood.

And very amusing it is too. Llwellyn’s trick is to allow the story unfold like the kind of police procedural clogging up the schedules of ITV3, with a botched eBay sale resulting in a murder to which Andy and a colleague are called, the weirdness intruding slowly as the McGuffin, an alien egg not unlike the Skishtari spawn from Paul Magrs’s Serpent Crest series becomes target, and as with the previous audio, Army of One, we’re discovering the implications of the defunct institute's past decisions.

As the cover suggests, in a sweet scene Andy does tap Gwen for help, but with her stuck in the US, it’s his Welsh grit all of the way and Llewellyn really goes to town in giving him car chases, hand to hand combat and bit of potential romance with Yasmin within who’s deceased grandfather’s shed the egg sat for years. Everything’s kept in subtext, for once in Torchwood there’s no hanky-panky, but Andy’s clearly pleased to be the alpha male for once without Jack or even Rhys to stealing his thunder.

All of which is read with aplomb by Andy himself, Tom Price nipping in and out of Welsh accents, the Sgt emerging fully formed and just as loveable as on-screen, especially when piercing authority. We’re also treated to this Tom's Russian accent for obvious reasons, but it’s the voice he uses for the alien which demonstrates the actor’s flexibility, sounding unnervingly like Michael Maloney at his creepiest.

Torchwood: Fallout by David Llewellyn is out now from AudioGo. Review copy supplied.