Our first Christmassy adventure is, to be fair, not particularly Christmassy. I've been holding off listening to this Bernice box set due to it being set during the season of 'Advent' on the planet Legion (which is where Benny and her friends currently reside), thinking it might be fun to listen to it during our own season of advent.

A Handful of Dust finds Bernice and her new friends, Ruth and Jack heading off on an errand for a millionaire. On route they pick up a distress signal from a supposedly dead planet. On the planet Ruth and Benny find a young man and woman living in an isolated dome, whilst Jack meets the galaxy's equivalent of Most Haunted's Yvette Fielding.

It's a fun adventure with a good central mystery. The scenes on the deserted planet are effective, especially as Benny solves the riddle of the planet and its reputation for being haunted. However, what doesn't work so well is the errand Benny is carrying out before receiving the distress signal. It is presented as a subplot, but all of it, save for travelling on a rubbish ship, happens off screen. There's some stuff about the mysterious millionaire actually wanting Benny, Ruth and Jack to spy on his employees but it doesn't really add up, doesn't go anywhere and gets wrapped up with some rather simplistic dialogue (which more or less amounts to 'he changed his mind'). It only seems to be there to set up the final reveal which feels totally unnecessary because there are tonnes of other ways that could have been achieved.

The regulars are brilliant as always and Ayesha Antoine's Ruth and David Ames' Jack are great additions to the Bernice Summerfield cast. Jack's slippery, egotistic, selfish impishness bounces well off Benny and Ruth is effective in what is, basically, the companion role to Benny's 'Doctor'. The guest cast, on the other hand, are a little underwhelming and a couple don't quite sound comfortable with the dialogue. Ellen Salisbury, though, is fun as Vonna Byzantium although I'm not sure why she's played as so obviously Welsh and her constant 'beloveds' get a little wearing after a while.

But, all in all, a strong start to this box set

The first time I listened to this boxset, the comment I made was 'The Irverfield is one of the funniest names for a thing I have ever heard. The best thing about the boxset'. And I was right. And 'Irverfield' isn't even that funny.

This story calls for 'an archaeologist' to head to a planet that is alive or something and has two creepy dust children or something and there's also a paranormal hunter there too for some reason. It's remeniscent of Iris Wildthyme: High Spirits except at least that episode is actually funny. I feel like this episode tries for humour, and falls completely flat. All the characters were completely unengaging to me, and even Benny herself I felt was just plodding through the motions.

I think we were meant to feel sorry for the two planet children of dust or whatever they were, but honestly I was over them when we started with the naked jokes and totally tapped out by the end. And I think the conwoman paranormal videographer was supposed to be funny, but she was mostly just a bit irritating.

If I remember rightly, this boxset doesn't get any better either. Sigh.