JAGO & LITEFOOT, SERIES 1

Thanks to the recent Big Finish sale, I’ve been listening to the first series of Jago & Litefoot over recent evenings.  There have been 10 series of Jago & Litefoot now (each series being a box-set of four adventures, with the 10th due out in October 2015).  Sadly, at £30/£35 per box-set, they’re prohibitively expensive unless you have a lot of disposable income.

The first box-set (series), recorded in 2010, was made available as a £15 download during Big Finish‘s recent sale and I took the opportunity to buy it.

The first story, The Bloodless Soldier, reintroduces the characters and gives us a couple of extra “regulars”.  These are Ellie, the bar maid at Jago’s favourite watering hole, and Sergeant Quick.  Sgt Quick is another returning character from The Talons of Weng-Chiang, at which time he was PC Quick, and still played by Conrad Asquith.

The Bloodless Soldier sees a monster stalking the streets and leads to tragedy for Ellie.  The plot isn’t very complicated and so it only really works if you’re wanting a return of Jago & Litefoot.  Although it’s been some 33 years since The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter sound exactly as they did back in the 70s.  The cheat that is audio enables us to imagine them as they were in their first story.  As such, it’s rather essential that you watch The Talons of Weng-Chiang at least once to become familiar with how the characters look, and react, and work together.  Without that, you’ll miss the main reason for listening.

The second story, The Bellova Devil, comes across a little like an episode of The Avengers.  Certainly the antics of “The Far-Off Travellers Club” wouldn’t seem out of place in a world that has “The Hellfire Club” (they’re not the same, but their set-up and hierarchy are similar).  This story opens well and begins with an intriguing mystery – how a man who was pronounced dead, and buried, days earlier can arrive on the mortuary slab for a second time.  This brings Litefoot into the mystery, and he uses Jago as a bit of a sounding board until their trail leads them to the club.

I’m part way into The Spirit Trap in which Jago exposes a medium for all her fakery and theatrical trickery, only for Ellie to still be swayed by the con (leading back to the tragedy of the first story).  I’ll add more as I finish up this story and the next.