Bernice Summerfield 9.3 - The Adventure Of The Diogenes Damsel

I quite enjoy ‘historical’ stories, be it on screen, audio or in print, I like to learn about that particular time period and enjoy the story it spawns. The Bernice Summerfield range is no different from its parent (so to speak!) Doctor Who, in producing good historical stories. ‘The Time Ring Trilogy’, consisting the stories ‘Walking To Babylon’, ‘Birthright’ and ‘Just War’ are beautifully – and brilliantly, done (although to be fair the latter two are adaption’s of Doctor Who books!) I would recommend that you start your Bernice Summerfield education there, before going to listen to the other three in the first series (Oh No It Isn’t, Beyond The Sun and Dragon’s Wrath)

The latest offering is ‘The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel’, which sees Benny stuck in Victorian London (or as the Victorians called it – London) after her time ring malfunctions. She enlists the help of Mycroft Holmes, the brother of a famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. He employs Benny as his assistant and they investigate the movements of the mysterious ‘7 killer’, who murders people in the most bizarre ways. However, as Benny tries to help out, as well as work out a way to get back home, she is being watched by two strange men - a famed ‘collector of antiquities’ and his, to want for a better word, gofer!

I was a little bit disappointed that they included the Sherlock Holmes motif. What these historical do so well is that they always get history bang on. Sherlock Holmes was never real, so I didn’t understand why they played with it. Having Benny meet his brother, instead of Sherlock himself, was a nice touch though and its a break from the 'we'll do these really famous characters because we can' train of thought. Benny did meet Sherlock and Dr. Watson in a Doctor Who novel, so I suppose the writers are just keeping the continuity!

But once I got over that, I quite enjoyed it! David Warner played the very likeable Mycroft Holmes and seemed to have a good on-audio understanding with Lisa Bowerman’s Benny. The supporting cast, which includes Peter Miles, hold up the story well and its strange now not hearing the voice of Peter Summerfield (Thomas Grant), as he is only heard shouting ‘Mum’, very briefly!

As with any Benny audio, it’s a lot of fun and should be taken as so. There are plenty nods to the Time Lords and what is happening over at the collection but hopefully we can wait a while longer until this plot device is played out! We even have a guest appearance from another character from the Doctor Who range but whether or not this is set before or after the audios this character appears in, I don’t know!

4/5

Next Tine: We come to the end of a very short series, although thanks to the delay in July, it hasn’t been that short! ‘The Diet of Worms’ is the delightfully-named final story!