Hounded

1941 returns us to The Churchill Years boxsets and the second story of that first release. The first, The Oncoming Storm, set out the series’ structure and tone with Winston narrating events (often including those he isn’t actually present for) and a handful of guest characters around to flesh out the story. The Oncoming Storm also introduced Hetty Warner, Churchill’s private secretary who also serves as a pseudo-companion to the Doctor.

This story, Hounded, plays on Winston Churchill’s experience of depression which he often referred to as the ‘black dog’. It isn’t the nuanced take on mental illness that we’ve seen in a story such as Vincent and the Doctor. Rather it is an excuse to have a Hound of the Baskervilles-style runaround with a vicious, scary dog, a mysterious foreigner and a half-hearted plot to take control of Churchill.

Churchill is now Prime Minister (after having been Lord of the Admiralty in The Oncoming Storm) and, while residing at Chartwell, has seen a huge black dog. Hetty has decided something isn’t right and so writes a letter to the Doctor asking for help. There is some odd timey-wimey nonsense involving this letter being and not being sent at the same time which doesn’t really contribute anything to the narrative, but after being accused of being a spy, the Doctor finally convinces Churchill of his identity and is able to save the day and uncover the true plot behind the black dog’s appearance.

The black dog, it turns out, is actually a spirit attached to Kahn Tareen, a former fairground turn who was able to summon the black dog at will. There is only the most cursory of ‘scientific’ explanations given for the manifestation and, in fact, it rather comes across as something like a reverse Patronus (from Harry Potter) especially when, to defeat it, the Doctor tries to get Churchill to manifest his own black dog (and ends up creating one himself) from his own dark psyche.

I remember being underwhelmed by this story on first listen and, unfortunately, little has improved on the re-listen. The Doctor is extremely generic. This is partly due to Ian McNeice’s narration. In The Oncoming Storm he made some attempt to give the Doctor at the very least a Northern accent but here there is no attempt at all to reflect David Tennant’s performance. The script also doesn’t distinguish the character enough either meaning that, with the added obstacle of the odd narrative structure of these releases, there is a disconnect between the Doctor and the rest of the cast.

This especially has an impact on Hetty’s character. Emily Atack gamely does her best with what she’s given but her eventual sacrifice doesn’t feel earned within the script and comes from nowhere. The fact it is supposed to make Churchill angry enough to produce his own black dog but doesn’t hurts it even more, even if it does have the desired effect on the Doctor. The lack of chemistry between the Doctor and Hetty just makes the whole sacrifice a rather flat end to Hetty’s character.

It’s a shame that Hetty is killed off as I think it would have been fun to see her relationship with the Doctor (particularly across different incarnations) develop across the box sets. However, with them jumping around much more in his timeline after this story (the final one of the first box set is set in his retirement and the first one of the second box set, Young Winston, is set in his far distant youth) that may be why she is dispensed with in this second story).

The Churchill Years stories definitely work better when the Doctor’s role is kept to an absolute minimum (such as in Living History and Human Conflict) and Hounded, for me, is the least successful so far