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

“Wouldn’t you just die without Mahler?”

“Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Or lady.”

Wire, The Idiot’s Lantern

Whenever I see Maureen Lipman, I’m reminded of her as Trish blasting out old Gustav as she answers the door to Julie Walters in Educating Rita. It’s perhaps unfair to reduce Lipman’s long and varied career to this one line, especially as she’s really rather good in The Idiot’s Lantern too. Even though she’s only seen on an old tellybox, her plummy-voiced old Beeb continuity announcer take on The Wire works really well here.

The nod to Coronation Street (in naming the street Florizel Street, the show’s working title) is a nice one and, as you’d expect from a fellow of The League of Gentlemen there’s some witty dialogue — “You’ll be glued to your screen” sticks out!

And the faceless victims of The Wire are suitably creepy.

“It’s close down, I’m afraid, and no epilogue.”

Doctor, The Idiot’s Lantern

But I’m docking it a point for the return of the arrogant, self-righteous, shouty Doctor. His “No power on this Earth that can stop me” line is an example of the kind of overblown pomposity that quickly becomes irritating, although in a story set at a time of celebrating royal pagentry, perhaps overblown pomposity isn’t so out of place.

Nevertheless The Idiot’s Lantern remains a solid, albeit unspectacular, entry, and is something of a bounceback after the disappointing Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel, although I do wonder how tempted they were to call it The Faceless Ones.