Jackie Tyler is back! Following the events of the brilliant Doctor Who Short Trips: The Siege of Big Ben, we have the equally brilliant Flight Into Hull! It’s the return of Jackie Tyler in the alternate universe and the return of the meta-crisis tenth Doctor as well! Yes, Joe Lidster takes us back for another 30 minutes or so of superbly wrought dialogue, plenty of fun and an invasion to boot. Is it any good? Can it match the previous? You bet!

Flight Into Hull

Jackie is on a break and the last thing she needs it to be stuck on a Zeppelin with her least favourite Doctor. Of course events take their own course and (via the mechanism of telling her friend Beryl on the phone) we learn all about how Jackie saved the day, and managed several glasses of champagne as well. Recorded on the same day as the previous story, producer Ian Atkins and director Lisa Bowerman must have bad broad smiles on their faces after the recording. Camille Coduri is (inevitably) wonderful still as Jackie, and underneath a mad yet serious plot, there’s a real tear-jerker as she gets to explore just what exactly she thinks of the meta-crisis and the Tenth Doctor himself. David Tennant may not be in this recording, but his presence looms large, seen through the eyes of Jackie in a story that should make everyone cherish dinner ladies everywhere. There’s a rich complexity to Jackie’s character and Joe paints her with deft touches of dialogue, and I can only hope he got as much pleasure out of creating this as listeners must surely do when they listen.

If you’ve heard Big Ben, I assume you have a subscription (why wouldn’t you?) and therefore you will have enjoyed this story already. If not, what are you waiting for? Once again all involved show just how compelling this range can be.