Coming eight years after Torchwood: Children of Earth aired, Ianto Jones is back in an all new Torchwood adventure from Big Finish.
The Office of Never Was sees Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), investigating an unusual empty office block in Cardiff that refuses to be forgotten. There have been stories about the building – strange lights, funny goings on, faces pressed up against the glass. Enough to get the locals worried. Enough to ask Torchwood to get involved…
It’s Friday night. Ianto Jones has better things to do with his time than look round a haunted building. But he goes anyway, and it turns out that The Office has been waiting for him.
Writer and producer James Goss told Big Finish about the story’s real-life origins:
“It’s partly inspired by a building I once worked in. It was accidentally blown up by the IRA and never really got over the shock. We were moved out of it, and it was eventually redeveloped. I went back there years later, and discovered the entire floor I worked on left pretty much intact – drawers still stuffed full of sachets and paper clips, and someone’s gym kit mouldering in the corner.
“The same nightwatchman was still on duty. He’d worked there for years while the building was empty, and he said it had nearly driven him mad. He’d become convinced the building was haunted – especially when he’d take the lift to go to a floor in the middle of the night, do a tour, and find the lift had gone. There was no-one else in the building. So who had called it…?”
Director Scott Handcock shares another far less real-life influence for Ianto Jones’ return:
“It was also partly borne out of our mutual love of the classic Avengers television series particularly an episode called ‘The Joker’ where Emma Peel finds herself summoned to a mysterious mansion and is subsequently terrorised by a sinister observer. As so often happens with James, I happened to say how much I’d love to tackle something with that kind of atmosphere on audio – and the next thing I knew, a script for The Office of Never Was had landed in my inbox! This is Ianto Jones as Emma Peel. Who could want for more?!”
You can buy Torchwood: The Office of Never Was from the Big Finish site for download for £7.99 or £9.99 on CD.