We’re gonna need a
bigger handkerchief, says Tony.
Everything dies.
That’s been one of the
more stark lessons of New Who. Everything has its time, and everything ends.
In terms of Jago and
Litefoot, it’s fair to answer that assertion with another familiar line:
We don’t want to go.
Jago and Litefoot has been
perhaps the most unlikely runaway success Big Finish has ever had. Based around
two characters that appeared together in one Tom Baker story on screen, forty
years ago, it should have been an act
of faintly desperate one-off curiosity to bring Professor George Litefoot and
theatrical impresario extraordinaire, Henry Gordon Jago back together in the
audio universe.
But should-have-beens
reckon without the personalities of two of Britain’s most vivid character
actors, Trevor ‘Litefoot’ Baxter and Christopher ‘Jago’ Benjamin.
What started as a simple
Companion Chronicle, The Mahogany Murderers by Andy Lane, expanded to thirteen
box sets of adventures, amounting to an episode a week for a full calendar
year, as well as return engagements in stories alongside Tom Baker, the Doctor
who first brought them together, with Sixth Doctor Colin Baker for two side
adventures, and a special one-off that ushered New Who into Big Finish, Jago
& Litefoot and Strax. They’d fought vampires, Scorchies, alternative
timelines and the Master, and had adventures with Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan
Doyle and Bram Stoker. They’d even spent one box set in the Swinging Sixties.
Throughout it all,
Benjamin and Baxter together were indomitable, both in character and as
themselves. When we last heard them at the end of the thirteenth series of Jago
& Litefoot, they were either in an alternative dimension of airships and
steampunk, or their own London was being invaded by aliens that used that
technology. It all promised another rip-roaring adventure for the infernal
investigators.
They subsequently recorded
two extra special Short Trips, which came together to form The Jago &
Litefoot Revival by Jonathan Barnes, again blending Classic Who with New Who in
the surprises within each half of the story.
If you didn’t pick up the
Short Trips at the time, they’re here for you in Jago & Litefoot Forever.
Baxter’s half of the story, Act 1, is particularly poignant, as he once again
runs into the Doctor – but a Doctor who’s dying, and who’s popped round just to
see his old friend Professor Litefoot one last time, separate from Jago and
away from their familiar London setting. Their adventure, bathed in Grecian sunlight
but fraught with danger of the oddest and most esoteric kind, is a testament to
the perennial strength of Litefoot’s character. Act 2, with the action led by
Jago, tells a tale of the same time of separation, and a London visit by an entirely
different Doctor, a chase through the city’s stews by a galumphing monster of
the more straightforward variety, and a conclusion that lets both Jago and
Litefoot show their true mettle while saving if not the world, then certainly one
another, as they’d done time and time again across the thirteen box sets of
their adventures. The Jago & Litefoot Revival is sentimental in the best
sense, Barnes, Baxter and Benjamin working like pistons in a finely tuned
storytelling engine, meaning even though for the most part the investigators
are separated, there are strands that connect their adventures, pulled together
in a conclusion that gives them both their signature moment.
Probably though, it’s the
title story of this release, Jago & Litefoot Forever, by Paul Morris, that
will draw most listeners, since the sad death of Trevor Baxter before the
fourteenth set of Jago & Litefoot adventures was recorded.
The cliff-hanger of Series
13 hinted at new plotting complications in their next box set. Naturally, Series
14 seems unlikely now ever to be made, which means Jago & Litefoot Forever
has to swiftly dispense with the airship threat. What follows though is a
masterpiece of research and trawling through archives – Trevor Baxter of course
provided no new voice-work for this single story. Morris has created a story
that is Jago-led, with ample support from regulars Ellie Higson (Lisa Bowerman)
and Inspector Quick (Conrad Asquith), and occasional but important friends of
the pair, including Dr Luke Betterman (David Warner), and which uses archive
recordings of Baxter’s Litefoot lines spliced with incredible skill into the
drama, meaning Litefoot feels like a genuine living presence in the story, for
all he’s frequently missed and importantly absent for chunks of the action.
It’s a story which shows a world of Jago’s apparently diminishing function and
memory, occasionally prompted by reminders of some of the best adventures of
Jago and Litefoot. As the story unfolds, we fear it’s Jago in isolation who
will fade and become a shadow of his former self, and then vanish altogether
into invisible obscurity. Indeed, it comes close to the wire, threatening to
engulf fans of the pre-eminent Victorians in despondency as Jago, looking for
Litefoot and the memories of his glory days, seems bound to lose, to finally
fail alone where he would surely have succeeded with Litefoot by his side.
It would be criminal to
spoil the ending of this story for you, but suffice it to say, despondency is
in no sense the keynote on which the series comes to an end.
The ending of the Jago and
Litefoot adventures stands right up there alongside the ending of the
Sarah-Jane Adventures and the scene where the Eleventh Doctor learns of the
death of the Brigadier – it is touching, sniffle-worthy, heart-warming and
wonderful, with just a touch of humour to leaven the loss of Trevor Baxter.
If you’re any kind of fan
of Jago & Litefoot, you have to get their final adventures together. Jago
& Litefoot Forever is a testament to a brand that would never have been
were it not for the original skills of Robert Holmes and the sheer
personalities of its two lead actors. It’s a tribute not only to Baxter, but to
everyone who wrote on or worked on the Jago & Litefoot adventures over the
course of their run. And ultimately, it leaves you smiling, and free to dream
up your own continuing adventures for the pre-eminent Victorians. Get this release
and raise a glass in celebration: to Jago & Litefoot – Forever!
No comments:
Post a Comment