In the previous instalment of Spiteful Puppet’s Hood, our team of not-so-merry men weren’t having the best of times, having had any chance of a normal life snatched away from them yet again. Hood is a take on the legend of Robin Hood with the notion that the myth has pretty much gotten everything wrong.

This time round, Phillip De Nicholay, aka The Sheriff of Nottingham, has been given an offer he literally can’t refuse. He must deliver a Royal pardon to Robin Hood and his band of rogues, but on one condition. He and Hood’s gang must travel to France to rescue a very important royal. Unfortunately for the team, this means somehow breaking into a castle that’s currently under siege.

Much of the drama centres on the Sherriff, performed by Lee Ingleby (who is better known as George from the BBC drama Our Zoo). At this point in the series, no one trusts the character and you can’t really blame them as he’s pretty much been responsible for the disaster which is their lives.  The full cast are present, and as the team go on their mission to foreign parts it’s the banter and character interaction that keeps the story moving. At this point, we know everybody’s secrets and it’s only a matter of time before it all comes spilling out.

King’s Command works because the listener has become firmly invested in everybody’s story to this point. It’s highly entertaining to know the heroes well enough to be able to see the path they could take but really aren’t going to. At this point the action pieces are smoothly done and exposition is pretty minimal for an audio drama.

Spiteful Puppet have done something rather clever with an old myth and have successfully breathed new life into characters that we are all rather to familiar with at this point. The Hood series is a great listen, though King’s Command is not the place to start. Start at the beginning and dive into a truly entertaining drama.

HOOD: KING’S COMMAND / AUTHOR: IAIN MEADOWS / STARRING: LEE INGLEBY / PUBLISHER: SPITEFUL PUPPET / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW