Press Round Up
Wednesday, 14 February 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive
Some stories you may have missed recently in the press ...
Comparisons between Doctor Who and ITV's new show Primeval have been cropping up in a variety of sources.Heat magazine said "... it's not a fair comparison - where Doctor Who is quirky, playful and very British, this glossy adventure is more in the American style, with spectacular effects, fancy locations and less larking about ... For all it's slickness, Primeval would be improved by the presence of a David Tennant or a Billie Piper. But what wouldn't?". Closermagazine commented that, "Doctor Who proved that decent sci-fi drama can be a huge family hit, so you can't blame ITV for wanting a piece of the action."
John Barrowman has been "celebrating the best of Broadway, Hollywood and the West End" by sitting in for Elaine Paige on Sunday 11 February on BBC Radio 2 at 1-3pm, and will be carrying on the presenting duties on the following Sunday, 18 February, at the same time. You can listen again for 7 days here. The first show included radio play forLove Don't Roam and discussion of Torchwood filming, as previously reported on the News Page.
Barrowman will be hosting The National Lottery: Saturday Draws on BBC1 at 9.25 on 24 February.
A short Q & A interview with Barrowman appeared in London Lite on 9 February.
A home-made Doctor Who time machine was the star attraction at a space-based literacy day on Saturday 20 January at the Langworthy Cornerstone, aimed at improving English. Doctor Who author Stephen Cole also attended, conducting a writing seminar and judging the winning entries in the story competition.
The Mirror has reported on the investigation of a BBC Wales executive for fraud in "A Doctor Who Swindle", claiming the executive "was in charge of a multi-million pound budget at the Cardiff HQ where Doctor Who is made" and is under investigation for a series of payments he authorised. Any Doctor Who link may be largely geographical, however, as the executive who resigned in April 2005 was head of operations for BBC Wales, and was responsible for technology, outside broadcasts, studios, post-production, facilities management, and BBC premises.
According to Sky Showbiz (A. Montini), Hugh Grant "got offered a role in the revived version of Doctor Who. Not sure what put him off the role - the hard work or the show being shot in Cardiff ... Either way he said no."
Many celebrities have been revealing their love of Doctor Who.
Take That singer Mark Owen told Sky Showbiz he would like to appear in Doctor Who, saying that "I never missed it and loved the show the first time around. I think there is room for us on the show to do a concert on another planet, but we would have to return, of course."
Inside Soap (3-9 February)also reveals that Carrie Grant (of BBC2's Safari School) says that the Doctor is the TV/movie character she would most like to be - "The idea that you could just go anywhere you wanted in the whole universe ... Oh yeah!"
The winner of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Connie Fisher, has been stating her case for a role in Doctor Who. According to Sky Showbiz, she said, "I never miss the show and think that it would be great for me as it's totally different from what people know me as."
Scottish designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan said that they would: "... love to be in Doctor Who - David Tennant is magnificent and we're big fans of Christopher Eccleston." source: Metro
British comedian Al Murray (currently hosting Al Murray's Happy Hour on ITV) comments on Doctor Who that his children "love it and I do, too. I think it's been the most amazing thing on TV in recent years." (Heat magazine, issue 412)
People
Marc Warren (Love and Monsters) and Yasmin Bannerman (The End of the World) both appeared in the first episode of the second series of Life on Mars, broadcast on BBC 1 on the 13 February. Written and co-created byMatthew Graham (Fear Her) and starring John Simm, episode 2 in the current series was written by Chris Chibnall(Torchwood).
Peter Davison is to star in a new BBC 2 comedy Fear, Stress and Anger.
David Tennant and Sarah Parish can be seen together in Recovery, a one-off 90-minute drama written by Tony Merchant, following a man who suffers a head injury, currently due to be transmitted on BBC 1 from 9pm on Sunday, 25 February. Tennant is due to appear as a guest for Clive Anderson on Radio 2 on the 25 February between 11am and 1pm. The show will be available online for the following 7 days here.
Meanwhile, readers of New Woman magazine have voted Tennant number 13 in it's 100 Hottest Men on the Planet poll. Last year, he came in at number 20.
Billie Piper is to star in the adaptation of Belle de Jour for Channel 4, according to BBC News. Piper is also to guest on The Charlotte Church Show, which screens on Friday, 23 February at 10pm on Channel 4 (UK). Piper was interviewed by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's Front Row on 13 February.
Christopher Eccleston made his first appearance as Claude in Heroes in January. The creator/producer of Heroes,Tim Kring, described how Eccleston became involved in the show in an interview at Crave Online: "I had seen his work mainly in Elizabeth and I had seen him in 28 Days Later. I knew who he was and I had originally wanted a British [actor]. I saw the character as a kind of Fagin kind of character. I wanted a big sort of sloppy Brit with a working class accent who is this curmudgeonly invisible guy, a real misanthrope. So the casting people said, "Well, Christopher Eccleston is actually living here now in America. He’s just moved here and he’s trying to get work here." So it was one of those fortuitous things where it was like, "Oh, I love that guy. Let’s go after him." By the time we had a part for him, he was really a fan of the show."
Eccleston is also due to start filming shortly on The Dark is Rising, an adaptation of the fantasy book by Susan Cooper.
Penelope Wilton appeared on the 14 February edition of Front Row (BBC Radio 4).
Mark Gatiss and Arabella Weir (who plays a female Doctor in the Doctor Who Unbound audio Exile by Nicholas Briggs from Big Finish) will be guest starring in Radio 4's Down the Line on 20 February.
Comparisons between Doctor Who and ITV's new show Primeval have been cropping up in a variety of sources.Heat magazine said "... it's not a fair comparison - where Doctor Who is quirky, playful and very British, this glossy adventure is more in the American style, with spectacular effects, fancy locations and less larking about ... For all it's slickness, Primeval would be improved by the presence of a David Tennant or a Billie Piper. But what wouldn't?". Closermagazine commented that, "Doctor Who proved that decent sci-fi drama can be a huge family hit, so you can't blame ITV for wanting a piece of the action."
John Barrowman has been "celebrating the best of Broadway, Hollywood and the West End" by sitting in for Elaine Paige on Sunday 11 February on BBC Radio 2 at 1-3pm, and will be carrying on the presenting duties on the following Sunday, 18 February, at the same time. You can listen again for 7 days here. The first show included radio play forLove Don't Roam and discussion of Torchwood filming, as previously reported on the News Page.
Barrowman will be hosting The National Lottery: Saturday Draws on BBC1 at 9.25 on 24 February.
A short Q & A interview with Barrowman appeared in London Lite on 9 February.
A home-made Doctor Who time machine was the star attraction at a space-based literacy day on Saturday 20 January at the Langworthy Cornerstone, aimed at improving English. Doctor Who author Stephen Cole also attended, conducting a writing seminar and judging the winning entries in the story competition.
The Mirror has reported on the investigation of a BBC Wales executive for fraud in "A Doctor Who Swindle", claiming the executive "was in charge of a multi-million pound budget at the Cardiff HQ where Doctor Who is made" and is under investigation for a series of payments he authorised. Any Doctor Who link may be largely geographical, however, as the executive who resigned in April 2005 was head of operations for BBC Wales, and was responsible for technology, outside broadcasts, studios, post-production, facilities management, and BBC premises.
According to Sky Showbiz (A. Montini), Hugh Grant "got offered a role in the revived version of Doctor Who. Not sure what put him off the role - the hard work or the show being shot in Cardiff ... Either way he said no."
Many celebrities have been revealing their love of Doctor Who.
Take That singer Mark Owen told Sky Showbiz he would like to appear in Doctor Who, saying that "I never missed it and loved the show the first time around. I think there is room for us on the show to do a concert on another planet, but we would have to return, of course."
Inside Soap (3-9 February)also reveals that Carrie Grant (of BBC2's Safari School) says that the Doctor is the TV/movie character she would most like to be - "The idea that you could just go anywhere you wanted in the whole universe ... Oh yeah!"
The winner of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Connie Fisher, has been stating her case for a role in Doctor Who. According to Sky Showbiz, she said, "I never miss the show and think that it would be great for me as it's totally different from what people know me as."
Scottish designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan said that they would: "... love to be in Doctor Who - David Tennant is magnificent and we're big fans of Christopher Eccleston." source: Metro
British comedian Al Murray (currently hosting Al Murray's Happy Hour on ITV) comments on Doctor Who that his children "love it and I do, too. I think it's been the most amazing thing on TV in recent years." (Heat magazine, issue 412)
People
Marc Warren (Love and Monsters) and Yasmin Bannerman (The End of the World) both appeared in the first episode of the second series of Life on Mars, broadcast on BBC 1 on the 13 February. Written and co-created byMatthew Graham (Fear Her) and starring John Simm, episode 2 in the current series was written by Chris Chibnall(Torchwood).
Peter Davison is to star in a new BBC 2 comedy Fear, Stress and Anger.
David Tennant and Sarah Parish can be seen together in Recovery, a one-off 90-minute drama written by Tony Merchant, following a man who suffers a head injury, currently due to be transmitted on BBC 1 from 9pm on Sunday, 25 February. Tennant is due to appear as a guest for Clive Anderson on Radio 2 on the 25 February between 11am and 1pm. The show will be available online for the following 7 days here.
Meanwhile, readers of New Woman magazine have voted Tennant number 13 in it's 100 Hottest Men on the Planet poll. Last year, he came in at number 20.
Billie Piper is to star in the adaptation of Belle de Jour for Channel 4, according to BBC News. Piper is also to guest on The Charlotte Church Show, which screens on Friday, 23 February at 10pm on Channel 4 (UK). Piper was interviewed by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's Front Row on 13 February.
Christopher Eccleston made his first appearance as Claude in Heroes in January. The creator/producer of Heroes,Tim Kring, described how Eccleston became involved in the show in an interview at Crave Online: "I had seen his work mainly in Elizabeth and I had seen him in 28 Days Later. I knew who he was and I had originally wanted a British [actor]. I saw the character as a kind of Fagin kind of character. I wanted a big sort of sloppy Brit with a working class accent who is this curmudgeonly invisible guy, a real misanthrope. So the casting people said, "Well, Christopher Eccleston is actually living here now in America. He’s just moved here and he’s trying to get work here." So it was one of those fortuitous things where it was like, "Oh, I love that guy. Let’s go after him." By the time we had a part for him, he was really a fan of the show."
Eccleston is also due to start filming shortly on The Dark is Rising, an adaptation of the fantasy book by Susan Cooper.
Penelope Wilton appeared on the 14 February edition of Front Row (BBC Radio 4).
Mark Gatiss and Arabella Weir (who plays a female Doctor in the Doctor Who Unbound audio Exile by Nicholas Briggs from Big Finish) will be guest starring in Radio 4's Down the Line on 20 February.
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