Even Greater London is a vast conurbation sprawling over the entirety of the southern half of England, ruled over by “the unholy mixture of flesh and machine that most people still agreed was, on balance, Queen Victoria.” When Inspector Fleet investigates the murder of a prominent scientist, events soon take a turn for the weird. Joined by plucky and stubborn young journalist Clara Entwhistle, the pair are plunged headlong into a conspiracy threatening the city’s very future.
With the Victorian sci-fi concept of steampunk relying heavily on visuals, it doesn’t easily lend itself to audio drama, but Victoriocity is written with such deft skill that the imagery of Even Greater London becomes seared into your mind’s eye with perfect clarity. As the story develops we are pulled ever further into the mad metropolis, its eccentricity revealed in increasingly surreal scenarios, almost as though the city itself is consciously aware of its own farcical nature and revels in the listener’s bemused reactions.
Fleet could very easily have fallen into a caricature of a jaded detective who has seen it all before, but he expresses enough surprise and wonder at each new revelation of the mechanical phantasmagoria that this weird and wonderful city has to offer that you feel there is still hope for him. Likewise, Clara had the potential to come off as irritatingly precocious, but instead strikes a perfect balance between wide-eyed idealism and implacable determination, her girlish enthusiasm never overruling her survival instincts. The dialogue of the pair bounces off each other in perfectly timed delivery, their dual witticisms an instant double act as endearing as it is engaging.
The dry humour delivered with deadpan delivery by characters and narrator is highly reminiscent of Terry Pratchett, in particular the script’s verbal intellect and rapid-fire word play. Snatches of dialogue are structured in such a way that craftily justifies descriptions of a scene without sounding crowbarred in, each depiction expanding the detail of the setting and forever augmenting itself with the hidden secrets each shadowy corner and darkened alleyway might be hiding.
The whole series of six episodes can be finished in three and a half hours, the swiftly developing story giving it the feel of a dramatised novella, and a post-credits stinger at the end of each part encourages you to keep listening even as you’re tempted to try to take a break from the addictive humour.
A tale of stoic absurdity laced with mystery, murder, mad science and mayhem, Victoriocity is as inventive as a Babbage difference engine and so funny it’ll make you choke on your tea and crumpets. You will not be disappointed.
VICTORIOCITY / DIRECTOR: NATHAN PETER GRASSI / WRITER: CHRIS SUGDEN, JEN SUGDEN / STARRING: TOM CROWLEY, LAYLA KATIB, PETER RAE, CHRIS SUGDEN, NICHOLAS COLLETT / PUBLISHER: INDEPENDENT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
