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Doctor Who stars in new drama series

David Tennant as Arthur Eddington in Einstein and Eddington
  • Posted at 6:02pm
  • 18 November 2008
  • by PaulJones-RT
  • 5 comments

As Doctor Who fans will be aware, outgoing Doctor David Tennant has not left the Tardis behind just yet. He's set to star in five more specials, starting with this year's Christmas episode The Next Doctor. In it, Tennant comes face to face with a man also calling himself "the Doctor", played by David Morrissey…

But in the meantime, Tennant is swapping science-fiction for science fact in Einstein and Eddington. The one-off BBC1 drama charts the relationship between Albert Einstein (Andy Serkis) and British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (Tennant).

And continuing the Doctor Who theme, BBC1 has also filmed a modern day "re-imagining" of 1970s post-apocalypse epic Survivors. Not only was the original series penned by influential Doctor Who writer Terry Nation, but the updated version will feature Freema Agyeman - aka Doctor Who companion Martha Jones - as one of the survivors.

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  • Posted on 25 November 2008
  • at 11:35am
  • by LauraPledger-RT

Hi Graham,

I think the actor you're referring to is probably Anton Lesser - also currently on our screens as Mr Merdle in Little Dorrit.

  • Posted on 24 November 2008
  • at 10:32pm
  • by Graham Keith

Can someone put me out of my misery - who was the eponymous character actor in Einstein & Eddington with the squint in his eye?

  • Posted on 24 November 2008
  • at 11:56am
  • by juliebassett

Einstein and Eddington was suberbly made and acted (of course) but I don't think I'm being pedantic to say that it was badly researched or perhaps the writer didn't care if history was horribly falsified. I know the main criteria is for a story to be effective as a drama, and be built around meaningful conflict, but surely the challenge of writing historical drama is not to falsify facts known but to create a great story within the tight disclipline of known facts. The writer probably would have been better off inventing an antagonist rather than creating a 'Sir Oliver Lodge' who really had very little in common with Sir Oliver Lodge who really lived. Lodge was never a Cambridge don, (he was Chancellor of Birmingham University at this time and had previously worked at Liverpool University) he certainly wasn't a 'Victorian' dinosaur with a closed mind. In fact he's been partly written out of the history books due to his interest in metaphysical areas that still seem bizarre to some. He corresponded enthusiastically with Eddington and asked him many questions. Lodge was a casually dressed and friendly (the antithisis of 'Lodge' in the drama)a Socialist who numbered amongst his friends George Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beartrice Webb as well as actors and musicians; he supported women's sufferage and encouraged men and women students to mix at his university, and even to dance together, which was shocking to some. Lodge sailed to Australia during the first part of the war; there were German passengers on board and his party decided to treat them as any other civilised people should be treated. Not many people opposed the Great War (I think I am right in saying); Lodge wrote what could be described as propaganda pieces but wrote to a friend 'my heart isn't in it'. His biography by Jolly (which is not a hagiography by any means) states that he was known to be polite and charming to his opponents and refused to bring personal animosity into the discussion of conflicting ideas. He spoke German and had spent his honeymoon in Germany, travelling there in the 19th century and striking up friendships with German scientists. When he finally met Einstein in the early 30s he was pleased that the younger man gave him some of his time; Lodge's research days in physics were over by then as he was nearing the end of his life - he was by then more interested in being an 'exlainer' of science on a popular level. I think it's a shame that viewers who knew nothing about the history of science could be hoodwinked into thinking that this drama was 'scientific fact'. David Tenant's acting moved me to tears and all the others were superb, but the research behind the drama was dodgy. We could write a drama about Shakespeare in his 'lost years' (we don't know where he was or what he was doing) in which he is taken by a slaving ship and sold to a Turkish man o' war as a galley slave. But to make him a galley slave when we know he was living on the borders of the City of London in the house of a theatrical hat maker and writing plays for the London stage is lazy research. Or we could write a drama about Henry VIII 'Henry was a gentle person who was kind to the monks, married a Spanish princess, divorced her because he fell in love with somebody else and lived happily ever after with his new queen.' Except everybody would know that it was badly researched. Poor old Oliver Lodge. History (or what passes for it) hasn't been very kind to him. And a host of others who were just too unconventional for the times they lived in. Lodge wrote that his hypotheses were based on facts as he and others had observed them. If the facts are later found to be false, he wrote, we must base our hypotheses on the new facts. Or words to that effect - I'm not a scientist! To sum up: exellent writing, excellent acting, excellent visual design but spoiled for me by my knowledge of the history of science. Julie Carter, London

  • Posted on 24 November 2008
  • at 11:07am
  • by geordie lass

Loved it!!!!! Just when I was losing faith with the BBC and its dumbing down strategy in the BBC 1 morning news programme and with its obsession with reality programmes, along comes a masterpiece from the Drama department.Educational, entertaining, and stimulating, even my 12 year old son watched it and started asking questions about Darwin,Einstein and the First World War - and he's an avid X-Box fan!!

And no wonder David Tennant is leaving the much-loved Dr Who- He can do so much more-what a fantastic performance!More of the same kind of Drama please!!!

  • Posted on 22 November 2008
  • at 11:12pm
  • by Jo Moore

Einstein and Eddington was simply superb. I can't remember when I enjoyed a television drama so much. I did tune in for David Tennant but I was blown away by both his perfomance and that of Andy Serkis, the supporting cast, the script, the shots, everything. It was extremely moving and inspirational TV.

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