Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord ★★★★★

“My notation is Maestro… I am music” – Maestro

Storyline
In the 1920s, a music teacher inadvertently opens the gateway for a terrifying creature to enter our universe. The demonic Maestro will rob the world of melody, even of the Beatles’ greatest hits – as the Doctor and Ruby discover when they arrive in London 1963. Who can find the right chord to send Maestro back to oblivion?

First UK broadcast
Saturday 11 May 2024

Cast
The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa
Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson
Maestro – Jinkx Monsoon
Timothy Drake – Jeremy Limb
Henry Arbinger – Kit Rakusen
George Martin – Ed White
Paul McCartney – George Caple
John Lennon – Chris Mason
George Harrison – Philip Davies
Ringo Starr – James Hoyles
Cilla Black – Josie Sedgwick-Davies
Tea trolley lady – Sherinne Kayra Anderson
Studio producer – Chan Shoker
Tea lady – Susan Twist
Vinnie – Simon Jason-Smith
Elderly woman – Laura June Hudson
Shirley Ballas – Herself
Johannes Radebe – Himself
Murray Gold – Himself

Crew
Writer – Russell T Davies
Director – Ben Chessell
Music – Murray Gold
Producer – Chris May
Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson

RT review by Patrick Mulkern

Released/broadcast/dropped a semi-quaver after the disappointing Space Babies, The Devil’s Chord elevates Doctor Who back into the realms of delirium and genius.

No matter that not one note of the Beatles is heard. No matter that this Abbey Road is clearly nowhere near London NW8. No matter that the Fab Four look nothing like the originals but disturbingly like Ann Widdecombe’s discarded love-children. This is peak Russell T Davies. On astonishing top form. Doctor Who at its most audacious and highly entertaining.

Maestro is an extraordinary creation – jaw-droppingly OTT, scenery-devouring, a note-perfect performance from Jinkx Monsoon. Hilarious, savage company. A fun night out. A presence that only a Drag Queen Supreme with decades of experience could command. And such are Maestro's metaphysical powers, even the opening theme music can be controlled.

Maestro bursts from and recoils into pianos, hunts with a tuning fork, ensnares victims in reams of staves and clamps them in instruments. Maestro sucks music out of the world so that the Beatles and Cilla bleat out abysmal songs, and an orchestra staggers through Three Blind Mice.

The simple repetition of the giggle from The Giggle is chilling. If the Toymaker was “a living game”, his child Maestro is “the essence of music itself”, as Russell T Davies establishes a new pantheon of camp superbaddies. It’s vast and intriguing. He's the true maestro at work here.

Davies's free-rolling, witty script is well matched by a welter of brilliantly framed, comic-strip shots from director Ben Chessell. Any reservations about the leads lingering from Space Babies evaporate in this episode. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson skate across the screen. An immensely winning couple with great chemistry.

And what a challenge for Murray Gold. To render a world with a dearth of music, write a number of pieces reflecting that, and fighting against it – culminating in a joyful song-and-dance spectacular. There's Always a Twist at the End is like Glee does Sweet Charity – a triumph for all, from costume to choreography, but especially for the composer, who gets a blink-and-you'll-miss cameo at the piano.

There are lots of nods to the past. The fact that the 15th Doctor realises his Hartnell incarnation is living across town in Shoreditch at this moment with his granddaughter. We see a sweet cameo for (Laura) June Hudson, now acting, but of course better known among fans as costume designer to Tom Baker. And don't overlook that the actor/musician playing 1920s piano teacher Timothy Drake is Jeremy Limb. He's the son of Roger Limb, who composed music for eight 1980s Who serials, including fan favourite The Caves of Androzani.

We carry the past with us, but this re-energised version of Doctor Who is talking to the future.

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