Review: The Scarifyers 9: The King of Winter

When people freeze to death in mid-June, it’s clearly a case for MI13 – particularly when it becomes clear that there’s a threat to King and Country…

The inspired lunacy of The Scarifyers is at full tilt in their latest adventure, as Harry Crow and Professor Dunning deal with men in aprons and ancient rituals – as well as randy vicars, anachronistic paper weights, and an insufferable little bastard on a train. Part of the fun of this series is its complete reworking of history (that’s the excuse they’ll use when they’re charged with treasonable behaviour for the portrayal of the royal family in this anyway!) and its combination of comedy and high drama.

David Warner, Terry Molloy and the rest of the cast (including a number of female roles for Lisa Bowerman) have a ball with the material, although they’re never allowed to go too far over the top. The script cleverly plays with both the characters’ and the audience’s expectations – Paul Morris and Simon Barnard are well aware of how many scrapes and impossible situations they’ve written in the past!

This feels like the most plot-driven of the stories to date: there are still plenty of terrible puns and bad jokes, but the team’s work on other series for Big Finish seems to have rubbed off on The Scarifyers in a positive way.

Verdict: Another fun outing for Britain’s surprisingly successful secret agents. 8/10

Paul Simpson