‘Baker’s End: Tatty Bogle’ reviewed

Tatty Bogle is chock full of twists, turns, shocks reveals, evil children, bloody precipitation and human sacrifices!

A GUIDE TO THE VILLAGE OF HAPPENSTANCE

A few terms to know:

Tatty Bogle:
  1. A Scottish name for a scarecrow.
  2. A festival in the village of Happenstance.
  3. The third entry in the 'Baker's End' series written by Paul Magrs.
Tom Baker: A retired octogenarian actor who has faked his death, built a sky-high book tower and runs around in a large cat suit. Will 'meow' if agitated.

Suzy Goshawk: Former co-star of Tom's. Concerned, loyal and sounds an awful lot like actress Katy Manning. Our trusty narrator and last lone thread of sanity.

Mrs. Frimbly: Tom's long-suffering housekeeper. Sarcastic and rough around the edges. Has been to known to run around with some odd individuals. Really keeps the fires burning at village events.

Reverend Ailing: The quasi-blasphemous village priest. God help him.

Eric: A cabbage. Good fellow, him. Known him since he was a wee sprout.

Hell: A warm locale where all your best friends end up vacationing.

Fudgeknocking: Oh, dear. Well, umm....something a gentleman wouldn't do or say in public.

And now for your regularly scheduled reviewing…

Well, it seems you DID buy the next fudgeknocking episode! You poor, poor bastard. You had your chance to get away and yet here you are. Buckle up.

‘Tatty Bogle’ is chock full of twists, turns, shocks reveals, evil children, bloody precipitation (literally) and human sacrifices. (Oof. That turned nasty quick, didn’t it?)

There’s really not a whole lot to say that hasn’t been said before. It is marvelous. Never have I listened to a piece of work that can with, one sentence, scare me, confuse me, make me cackle with glee and provide a little food for thought. Which is all due to the writer and the actors’ performances.

Paul Magrs is the father of this baby and he writes perfectly for his troupe of regulars that it all comes together in a beautiful symphony of….madness. Hysterical, quintessentially English madness.

Tom Baker positively shines in the role of himself (which is a hard feat to do, since SPOILER ALERT this is an audio drama). Katy Manning as ever plays adorable and trusty sidekick to perfection. Susan Jameson is perhaps the biggest surprise of this audio, as she and her character finally get to let loose a bit. She even has a baby, and biblically that’s ‘let-loosing’ as you can get.  Don’t worry. This will all make sense later. Most of it.

One day, I feel someone will be teaching ‘Baker’s End’ in classes highlighting it as an excellent use of the English language. One that furthers it’s evolution whilst having a lot of fun and there’s no point of doing anything if it isn’t fun.

Highly recommended for fans of quirky comedy, ‘Doctor Who’, audio drama, wordplay and camp shenanigans.

The only true problem with this is that it ends on a mumblecrusting cliffhanger.

Paul Magrs needs to be sanctioned. Seriously. But only after he writes the next 34 ‘Baker’s End’ episodes.


❉ ‘Baker’s End: Tatty Bogle’ is released on CD and download on March 3rd 2017, and is available from www.bafflegab.co.uk or Amazon.

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