Doctor Who: The Raincloud Man

A follow-up to the excellent The Condemned, this doesn't manage to be quite so good, but is nonetheless an entertaining story. Once again we are in Manchester (look - it's not London! Or even Cardiff!), with the Doctor on the trail of a mysterious coin and Charley joining up with DI Menzies from the previous story to help solve an alien murder.

You'd think the latter would be more important, but, of course, the two do turn out to be linked, even if one suspects that this may be a further excuse to keep the companion apart from the increasingly suspicious Doctor for as long as possible. Still, there is rather a lot going on, and the story moves quite seamlessly from the streets of Manchester to an alien casino in Rio de Janeiro with a good mix of drama and humour in between.

The supporting cast is particularly strong and well-scripted in this one, with Anna Hope's DI Menzies being as much a star of the show as either of the regulars. Here, the weirder elements are not quite so effectively offset by the mundanity of Mancunian life, but the story never stops being believable even as it deals with more fantastic concepts - including the title character himself.