One of the smartest decisions the Big Finish production company ever made was to further extend its Doctor Who audio releases by creating its range of Companion Chronicles talking books. And one of their finest releases from that range was The Mahogany Murderers, featuring theatre manager Henry Gordon Jago and police pathologist Professor George Litefoot.
They originally made their (sole) TV appearance in the 1977 Victorian extravaganza, The Talons of Weng-Chiang by Robert Holmes, a story which is seen by most fans as one of the very best, if not the best, Doctor Who adventures. It was a six-part season finale that climaxed the first three years of Tom Baker’s tenure in the role, with the actor at the height of his popularity.
The duo of upperclass gentleman Professor Litefoot with the voluble cockney showman Henry Gordon Jago was immediately recognised as being a winning combination and there was apparently even talk of a spin off comedy TV series at the time. Cut to over thirty years later … And perhaps the second best idea Big Finish has ever had!
For this listener little has matched the delight of Jago and Litefoot being spun off into their own series of fantastical ‘infernal investigations’ set in the Baghdad on the Thames atmosphere of Late Victorian London, reuniting Benjamin and Baxter as the fruity duo – these releases are amongst the cream of Big Finish’s output. There is lots of variety, including one series set in the 1960s and another that introduced Arthur Conan Doyle as a sidekick. Lisa Bowerman directed pretty much all the episodes and also played Ellie, a most exceptional barmaid, with Conrad Asquith very welcome in his return as Quick from the original production of Talons. In the main the series was script-edited by Justin Richards and the fabulous theme tune was by Jamie Robertson.
The series concluded much too soon with its thirteenth season, following the death of Trevor Baxter in July 2017. A 14th season had been planned and scripted but was cancelled rather than face re-casting the role of Litefoot. It did however emerge in 2021 with the scripts adapted as single-narrator audio books, with Benjamin and Bowerman performing two of the four adventures. The series of proper full-cast audio productions did however get a special send-off with the one-off release, Jago and Litefoot Forever, released in May 2018, that used pre-existing recordings of Baxter in a new story. Benjamin has since played Jago twice more: first in the sixth season of the Diary of River Song spin-off starring Alex Kingston, released in August 2019, for another story by Paul Morris that brought the story full circle and back to the era of The Talons of Weng-Chiang. To this one we can now add an additional adventure by Morris, Merry Christmas, Mr Jago, set in the same era, this one part of the Paternoster Gang series, released in October 2020. If one includes the 2021 audio book series, that brings the total to 68 adventures, all approximately one-hour each, with the one-off Jago & Litefoot & Strax release standing out as a two-hour adventure.
To purchase the sets from Big Finish, and you really, really should, visit the company’s website here: bigfinish.com/collections/v/jago-litefoot-infernal-investigators
Roughly in order of release, here are the Jago and Litefoot adventures (with links to my reviews where relevant):
Companion Chronicles
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- The Mahogany Murderers by Andy Lane
Season 1
- The Bloodless Soldier by Justin Richards
- The Bellova Devil by Alan Barnes
- The Spirit Trap by Jonathan Morris
- The Similarity Engine by Andy Lane
Season 2
- Litefoot and Sanders by Justin Richards
- The Necropolis Express by Mark Morris
- The Theatre of Dreams by Jonathan Morris
- The Ruthven Inheritance by Andy Lane
Season 3
- Dead Men’s Tales by Justin Richards
- The Man at the End of the Garden by Matthew Sweet
- Swan Song by John Dorney
- Chronoclasm by Andy Lane
Season 4
- Jago in Love by Nigel Fairs
- Beautiful Things by John Dorney
- The Lonely Clock by Matthew Sweet
- The Hourglass Killers by Justin Richards
Doctor Who Specials
Doctor Who: Voyage to Venus by Jonathan Morris
Doctor Who: Voyage to the New World by Matthew Sweet
Doctor Who: The Justice of Jalxar by John Dorney
The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure: Stage Fright by Matt Fitton
Doctor Who: The Beast of Kravenos by Justin Richards
Season 5
- The Age of Revolution by Jonathan Morris
- The Case of the Gluttonous Guru by Marc Platt
- The Bloodchild Codex by Colin Brake
- The Last Act by Justin Richards
Season 6
- The Skeleton Quay by Jonathan Morris
- Return of the Repressed by Matthew Sweet
- Military Intelligence by George Mann
- The Trial of George Litefoot by Justin Richards
Season 7
- The Monstrous Menagerie by Jonathan Morris
- The Night of 1000 Stars by James Goss
- Murder at Moorsey Manor by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris
- The Wax Princess by Justin Richards
Season 8
- Encore of the Scorchies by James Goss
- The Backwards Men by Andy Lane
- Jago & Litefoot & Patsy by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris
- Higson & Quick by Justin Richards
Season 9
