The Adventures of Sexton Blake - Dirk Maggs (BBC Audio, £12.72) ***
“YOU damned interfering jackanapes!” snarls Professor Kew as our hero outwits him yet again, deftly side-stepping the clutching hand of death to solve another conundrum of evil.
Think the vocabulary’s overwrought? Well, pretty much everything about this parody is.
That includes Millington and Nash’s script, the breakneck pace, the throbbing musical accompaniment and the jokily overheated performances.
Director Maggs has a sizeable following for his “audio movie” treatments and this “plunge into peril” scuttles along in much the same vein. If you enjoyed Maggs’ treatment of Hitchhiker’s Guide, you’ll love this. But you might just wish he’d pause occasionally to draw breath.
