What’s the first thing people always say about "Chimes of Midnight"?

Well yes there is that. But there is another thing they say immediately after that.

It’s one of those Doctor Who clichés –Talons of Weng Chiang is like Sherlock Holmes because both are set in foggy Victorian London and the Doctor dresses up like Basil Rathbone. Being Doctor Who it can’t, however, be a "simple" murder mystery – there has to be an alien element to the story. Conan Doyle was not averse to trips of a fantastical nature but he kept them well away from Holmes and Watson. Once other people got their hands on Holmes they let rip. Holmes vs Frankenstein’s Monster, Holmes meeting HG Wells and having exciting adventures, Holmes being frozen and waking up in the twenty first century.

Chimes of Midnight isn’t really like Sapphire and Steel at all. There are weird things going on and the story has an atmosphere which almost qualifies as a character in its own right. But Sapphire and Steel was always deadly serious. It had a tiny cast is cramped locations. It was mysterious and gave no quarter. Those who watched every episode understood it about as well as those who didn’t realise it was on twice a week and so only saw every other episode. What Sapphire and Steel wasn’t was a darkly amusing play featuring a large cast and a story you could more or less follow.

Not PJ Hammond’s Sapphire and Steel anyway.

Hammond was Sapphire and Steel’s creator and writer for Adventures One to Four and Adventure Six. Adventure Five, however, was penned by Doctor Who writers Don Houghton and Anthony Read. It is this version of Sapphire and Steel which most closely resembles Chimes of Midnight. Adventure Five sees several generations of one family and its close friends move backwards in time with characters being killed as they move beyond their year of birth and others becoming their own ancestors. We see seventy year olds behaving like twenty somethings and all the while being unable to see beyond the fake reality. Similarly, the servants at Edward Grove don’t see what is happening to them. They accept everything that the fantasy presents them with and either adapt using what free will they have left or simply obey as puppets obey the puppeteer.

The best comparison of all – better than either incarnation of Sapphire and Steel – would be Ghostlight. Chimes of Midnight would sit very well in season twenty six. It’s one of the few Big Finish stories which could really be done justice by television’s set, budget and effects limitations.

The other thing people say about Chimes of Midnight is that it is the very best play Big Finish have yet produced. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with this – it’s certainly very good but the final episode is a bit of a let down. Unlike Shearman’s earlier story "The Holy Terror" it doesn’t have a clever twist which makes it all fit together.