Home Truths by: Simon Guerrier directed by: Lisa Bowerman: A Woman Waits to Tell Her Story

Home Truths is performed by Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom and Niall McGregor as Robert.  It was written by Simon Guerrier, directed by Lisa Bowerman, and released in November 2008 by Big Finish Productions.

 

On an island near Ely stands a house.  In this house sits an old woman waiting for visitors.  She will give them food and rest, and tell them a story.  This woman is long dead Sara Kingdom, whose dust spreads over the planet Kembel…

 

Home Truths tells two intertwining stories about this house in Ely in the future.  One set in the far future, the other in the past.  One about Sara Kingdom telling a night constable a story, the other about the Doctor, Steven, and Sara Kingdom solving a murder mystery.  Now I will not be spoiling the plot to this story as if I have to be brutally honest this is an audio that you should listen to blind with very little known about the story itself, but I will say one thing.  The plot is perfect.  It is only two episodes long as all the Companion Chronicles are, but it has the same amount of plot as a six part story.  The twist near the end will bring you to tears as everything falls into place and the story becomes a story about immortality.  It is a twist that will get in your mind and stay with you for a while.  The plot with the Doctor is pretty standard fare when talking about Doctor Who, but with enough twists to stay interesting and keeps the listener invested with the story working towards a conclusion that will make you weep.  Life and death come into question and you really don’t know just how things will be changing in the upcoming portions of the trilogy.

 

Jean Marsh is great narrating the story, and is able to capture her younger self extremely well.  The best portions of her narration come into the inflection in her voice as the way she tells the story and denotes the action, feels like a mother telling a child a bedtime story.  This adds to the atmosphere of the story putting it in an almost fantasy realm.  She voices the Doctor by doing an interesting impression of William Hartnell.  It isn’t nearly as good as Peter Purves or William Russell doing Hartnell, but Marsh is able to capture the character.  Steven doesn’t have too much dialogue in the story, but Marsh does well at performing his role as well.  Sara is telling the story to Robert who is a night constable sent to investigate the house as there are tales of ghost stories.  The audio devotes plenty of time to developing the setting by having about fifteen minutes of the story for Robert and Sara to just talk about what’s going on.  It shouldn’t be very engaging, but the writing from Simon Guerrier is what really keeps the audience interested in the proceedings.  A fairy tale is really what Lisa Bowerman is evoking in her striking direction of the audio as you can feel yourself sitting next to the fire and listening to an old woman tell you a story.

 

To summarize, despite this review remaining spoiler free Home Truths is something that everyone should really experience for themselves as they will have a real trip going through their minds as they listen to the unfolding mystery.  The acting makes the story feel personal and the direction evokes classic fantasy at its very best.  Guerrier understands the characters to a tee and keeps the story gong opening up sequel opportunities. 100/100