Paradise Towers

After the mess that was Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers is certainly an improvement, due in no small part to Stephen Wyatt's script. Wyatt tells a tale of an entire society that has grown in a giant tower block, but uses that setting to explore how a society that has had a large section of it surgically removed survives and adapts. The adults have gone off to fight in a war, leaving the others behind. The old ('rezzies') seem to have reverted into a very genteel cannibalism. The girls form gangs ('kangs') and the Caretakers seem to have developed into a fascistic police force. Paradise Towers itself was designed by Kroagnon, 'The Great Architect', who loved his creations so much, he saw their use by anyone else as desecrating his work. The hiding of the living brain of Kroagnon in the basement is a bit odd, plotwise, but I suppose that the story needed a villain. Nevertheless, Wyatt's script is full of great lines and an inventive use of language: 'alleviators', 'brain quarters', 'taken to the cleaners' and the like show a real love and interest in semantics.

The production makes good use of studio sets and is well directed by Nicholas Mallett with some great set design and camera work. True, the cleaning robots and the pool robot, which fulfil the 'monster' functions, are hardly very threatening, but they do not pay a large part in the story. Keff McCullough again shows that subtlety is a wholly alien concept to him, with another brash score.

The acting is variable- while there are no bad performances, Mallett doesn't seem to be able to get his performers to gel. We have some nice unshowy performances by Julie Brennon and Annabel Yuresha as the two main Kangs, but Howard Cooke's performance as Pex is heading very close to bad kids TV. Richard Briers is an actor of tremendous ability but, while his performance as the Chief Caretaker is rather good, his performance as Kroagnon is a bit dodgy. However, Sylvester McCoy is starting to really find his feet as the Doctor- his talent for obfuscation really coming to the fore. Bonnie Langford is actually quite watchable in this, which is refreshing.

It is this uncertain tone which is Paradise Towers biggest disadvantage- we have the disturbing sight of the gnawed bones on the plate, but caretakers who look like The Village People. Paradise Towers is clearly a step in the right direction, but it still has one foot in Time and the Rani territory.

NEXT: Delta and the Bannermen