In 2014, I listened to To The Death for the first time. Stay with me here, this is relevant. Technically, my first exposure to the Monk was The Time Meddler a few years prior, but he didn't make much impact on me then. To The Death, however... astute readers will understand from these clues why I, as a Lucie Miller lover first and person second, have a real grudge against the Monk and always will forever. Between this and the fact that I don't care much for Churchill stories, I was having some trepidation going into this one.

Rufus Hound is a wonderful Monk. He's effortlessly charming, a little sly and slimy and smug but without being overbearing and annoying. He sparkles in every scene. In fact, he's certainly the best part of this episode. I'm not entirely certain why he wanted Churchill to win the election, but him going head to head with the Doctor is effortlessly funny. The actual plot of stealing bombs and paintings and political intrigue and spaceships, I found to be a little dry, but the side characters are all well realised. I wasn't actively annoyed by any of them.

But the plot... lots is happening and it's not disengaging, but I just didn't find myself caring very strongly about any of it. As I say, it's worth it for the Monk, but as far as stories that I would rate highly, this is not one of them. Better than the last, but not one of the jewels of the MR

World War Two is over and Churchill is running for re-election. The 7th Doctor arrives to visit his old friend and discovers an old enemy is meddling in Churchill’s election campaign. And German spies are still at large in London.

It’s the Meddling Monk up to his old meddling tricks and superbly played by Big Finish’s current Monk of choice, Rufus Hound. The rather fun conceit of this story is that the Monk is attempting to get Churchill re-elected so, as far as Churchill is concerned, his new campaign advisor is an absolute boon. Only the Doctor knows that Churchill is destined to lose the election and that history must continue on its correct path.

To add to this problem, a German spy is using a stranded alien brother and sister to his own ends.

Subterfuge’s success rests almost entirely on the shoulders of Rufus Hound. His Monk is a marvellous creation and leans into elements of the character just like the different actors do with the Doctor. Whereas Peter Butterworth leant into the more gentle comedy, and Graeme Garden into a more ‘Cambridge’ humour, Hound takes the ‘Carry On’ association of Butterworth and gives the Monk more than an edge of Sid James and a far more ‘saucy’ humour. It’s not the ‘material’ that is saucy, but more an element of ‘oo-er’ in how Hound performs it and it really works.

Ian McNiece returns as Churchill and is as solid as always but he didn’t make as much as an impact as he has in other stories. It is interesting to see a Churchill who must convince the British public to re-elect him, but that is pretty much the only thing that involves him here. The irony of knowing that he must lose adds a bit more interest and there is some good stuff at the end where he loses his belief in the Doctor because of the latter’s determination to keep history on track.

McCoy is good in this story as is Brian Capron as the spy cum art thief and there is convincing support from the the sibling stranded aliens.

The pace of the story is good and there is enough incident to keep the listener engaged, with a couple of good cliffhangers but, overall, this is a story which is easy to forget a few weeks later.