Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Thursday 12 July 2007

Cast Away!

Fans of time-travel cop drama “Life on Mars” should be counting their blessings! While “Doctor Who” fans have been lumbered with Catherine Tate for the whole of its fourth season in what feels like a lump-it-or-leave-it scenario, “Ashes to Ashes”, the sequel series to the two eight-episode seasons of “Life on Mars”, has fared rather better in the casting stakes. The lovely Keeley Hawes is to replace the dastardly John Simm alongside the abrupt Philip Glenister, reprising his role as no-nonsense DCI Gene Hunt from the original. Keeley is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Zoë Reynolds in MI5 drama “Spooks” which she left in 2004. She has, of course, starred in many other things, not least the notorious lesbian drama “Tipping the Velvet”. In “Ashes to Ashes”, Ms Hawes will play psychological profiler DI Alex Drake, an up-and-coming member of the police force in 2008, who finds herself trapped in 1981, eight years on from the previous series. Named after another David Bowie song, it will be broadcast on BBC1 in 2008. Roxy Music and The Human League will feature on the soundtrack which, to my ears, is preferable to the choice of tunes recently featured in “Doctor Who” but, more importantly, appropriate to the setting! “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, When I met you”!! Maybe I should switch allegiance? Only kidding, but it should be worth a look…

In casting news pertaining to the third “Doctor Who” Christmas Special, and greeted with more optimism by me than the inclusion of La Tate next year, Clive Swift is to appear in “Voyage of the Damned”. He has appeared in the series once before, opposite Colin Baker’s Doctor back in 1985, as Chief Embalmer Jobel, a bit of a ladies’ man lusting after Peri - the cad, in one of my all-time favourite stories “Revelation of the Daleks”. He’s, no doubt, best-known as Richard Bucket, put-upon husband of Hyacinth, in the dreadful BBC1 sitcom “Keeping Up Appearances”, though I prefer to remember him as the equally downtrodden Bishop Proudie in “The Barchester Chronicles”. My imagination has been working overtime at the thought of Mr Swift having a read-through with Kylie! Equally intriguing is the casting of Geoffrey Palmer as the Captain of the Titanic. Another good actor but I wonder if, at 80, he isn’t a little too old to be playing Edward Smith. He, like Clive, has worked on the classic series, though in his case twice and both times opposite Jon Pertwee. 37 years ago, he appeared in “Doctor Who and the Silurians”, by far the best of the pair, and resurfaced two years later in “The Mutants”. His son Charles directed the first two episodes and the Paul Cornell two-parter of the most recent series so it’s likely Geoffrey has watched it since he last took part himself! Like Clive Swift, Mr Palmer senior is probably also best-known for his sitcom work, notably in “Butterflies”, the excellent “Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin”, and opposite Dame Judi Dench in the appropriately titled, considering this latest role, “As Time Goes By”!

5 comments:

Steve said...

Keeley Hawes is an excellent choice. I also recall her being in a modern abdaption of MacBeth on the Beeb a couple of years ago and was really impressed with her. I think she'll make an excellent foil for Philip Glenister. She has a steel to her despite the soft and sultry outward appearance. I await Ashes To Ashes with a real sense of nervousness. Hope they don't blow it.

Paul said...

Don't get your hopes up about Voyage of the Damned, Tim. The current rumour is that this isn't THE Titanic but a different one.

What's the betting that, given RTD's penchant for ripping off the show's history, it'll be an Enlightenment style spaceship?

Which would explain Kylie's outfit (skirt above the knees?!) - and why she looks about as Edwardian as I do!

Also, as nice as it is to have Palmer and Swift, both fine actors, RTD is still writing the script. Which means those of us hoping for a dramatic, exciting tale for a cold winter's night should be so lucky (lucky, lucky, lucky). It will be, as usual, style over substance. Probably with a bit of Kylie's "Step Back in Time" thrown in as a supposed post-modern ironic wink.

I know I've become Mr Negative but can you really blame me?

TimeWarden said...

I saw Keeley in the Scottish Play too, Steve, and a couple of years earlier she appeared in "The Knight's Tale", one of "The Canterbury Tales" from the same production team. I also remember her in Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" as Rachel Verinder.

If "Voyage of the Damned" does feature a Starship Titanic, Paul, then I hope to see credit given to Douglas Adams seeing he has already used this idea! But, you're right... new "Doctor Who" is a failure purely because it tries to be knowingly post-modern.

I don't blame you at all for feeling the way you do. I feel the same way about the programme. Unlike the majority opinion, both media and public, I also feel the series as a whole has been tarnished, not elevated, by its poorly-executed reinvention!

Old Cheeser said...

"Ashes to Ashes" sounds fun and anything with an 80s music soundtrack gets my vote. So yet another character who gets transported back to then stuck in the past? What's the justification going to be this time? The denouement in "Life on Mars" wasn't exactly...clear cut.

I haven't seen much of Keeley Hawes although I did catch a bit of her in "Tipping The Lesbos" and she was good in that.

With regard to Dr Who, I hope very much that Paul's comment is wrong and it turns out to be the good old-fashioned Titanic itself - not some spaceship substitute! Oh dear you boys all sound rather cynical about it all...

TimeWarden said...

Cynical, or justifiably critical?