N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

I remember being slightly disappointed by From Out of the Rain back in 2008, most likely because I had set my expectations way too high — what with it being a Peter J. Hammond script.

And yes, while it might not be an all-conquering classic — with Ianto’s flask catch being a particularly naff note — this time around I enjoyed it immensely.

Your eyes are older than your face.”

Christina, From Out of the Rain

Of course, spooky old carnivals and spooky old films (from which spooky people emerge) might not be anything original — they’re not even new to Hammond fans, as viewers of Sapphire and Steel will attest — but I’m a sucker for them and even when you’ve seen it all before, they’re still, well, spooky!

And From Out of the Rain does a terrific job of setting this up — from the girl’s disappearance in the opening scene through those eerie shots of the carnival MC beckoning the viewer to come forward, to Ianto’s realisation that Jack is in the film and on to the later revelation that the MC and Pearl have gone missing from the film — there’s oodles of atmosphere here.

And while Jack perhaps doesn’t do the best job of explaining how exactly he was meant to be investigating them, the Night Travellers are a suitably eerie bunch — with the quiet horror of Pearl’s line “I want to drink her tears” and the literalism of The Ghost Maker’s “She will take your breath away” being perhaps the stand-outs.

From Out of the Rain, with its “hurdy-gurdy” music, hints at Jack’s past, and once again, like Small Worlds, that overall feeling of otherworldliness and othertimeliness — with the old cinema and abandoned lido locations helping here — may not be your typical Torchwood episode, but, with its also-not-quite-happy ending, it’s all the better for it.