Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord Review - 8 Ups & 2 Downs

1. DOWN - There's Always A Twist At The End

Doctor Who The Devil's Chord Jinkx Monsoon Maestro
BBC Studios

The big song and dance number at the end of The Devil's Chord is a joyous, colourful celebration of having music back in the world. Which is why it's a shame that the lyrics are so poor.

Russell T Davies may be one of the greatest screenwriters of his generation, but his skills as a lyricist leave a lot to be desired. He may have got away with rhyming "baby bones" with "scones" in The Goblin Song last Christmas, but lightning rarely strikes twice.

Russell is clearly a fan of a rhyming couplet, but there are some absolute clangers in There's Always A Twist At The End:

"My friend, depend. Press send. Let's Bend"?

"Pretend, descend. Land's End, make do and mend"?

And let's not even get started on The Beatles' lyric: "We ain't no fools from Liverpool".

If Lennon and McCartney hadn't cracked the chord sequence to banish Maestro, then RTD's lyrics would have done the job instead.

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.