How composer Sam Watts took The Traitors to the Proms – and got his break on The Sarah Jane Adventures
As The Traitors brings its masked mischief to the Proms, composer Sam Watts says it’s essential to keep mixing popular and classical.
This article was first published in Radio Times magazine in July 2025. Add The Traitors or BBC Proms 2025 to your watchlist. The First Night of the Proms is on Friday 18 July. There are many first nights at the BBC Proms – whether you’re a debut performer, an audience member visiting the Royal Albert Hall for the first time, or a composer anxiously premiering an untried and untested new work. Sam Watts is one of this season’s newcomers. You may not have heard of him, but if you’re a fan of The Traitors – and we are in our millions – his music will already be instantly recognisable. “I’m very excited,” he says. “Since the success of the first series, I said we should be pushing for a Prom. So at the end of last year when producer Sarah Fay told me it was happening, I was thrilled.” The Traitors Prom is being staged twice on Saturday 26 July and promises to be one of this year’s biggies. Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, it aims to capture the intensity of the hit BBC1 reality show, its themes of treachery and murder reflected in a playlist of classical pieces and pop tracks; even a blend of both. It follows in the wake of previous Proms dedicated to major BBC series: Life Story a decade ago, Strictly in 2016, and numerous Doctor Who extravaganzas. The Traitors is riding a crest of popularity, having won Baftas and NTAs and, crucially for the BBC, it’s a ratings success with upwards of ten million glued to series three earlier this year. For the uninitiated, The Traitors is filmed in the spectacular setting of Ardross Castle in the Highlands and unfolds like a grand-scale version of wink murder. “Faithful” competitors must identify and banish the murderous Traitors in their midst, in a quest to bag £120,000. Originating in the Netherlands, The Traitors is produced in the UK and US by Studio Lambert Scotland, while parent company All3Media has licensed the format to almost 30 territories. Watts is working flat out translating his Traitors score for the live performance. “I’m in the middle of remixing all the electronic elements for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to play along with. We’ve completely reworked the music and reorchestrated it. The audience will hear music they’re familiar with but played in a way it never has been before. Quite a project!” Originally from Yorkshire, Watts now lives in Edmonton with his Canadian husband, the writer Mick Schubert (no relation to Franz). But he intends to be at the Albert Hall on the day. “It’s a whirlwind. I land on the Friday and fly back on Sunday, so Saturday will be full on with the technical rehearsal in the morning then the two concerts.” He may even make an appearance on stage, but quite how remains under wraps – as are several surprises in the Traitors tradition. Having studied music at Nottingham University, Watts was blessed with encouraging mentors. “One of my composition professors was the wonderful Mervyn Cooke, who is an expert on film music and very good friends with the composer George Fenton.” Watts wrote his dissertation on Fenton’s music for The Blue Planet (BBC1 2001), and the next thing he knew, Fenton was hiring him as his assistant on the movies Hitch, Bewitched and Mrs Henderson Presents. In 2006, to Watts’s delight, Fenton invited him to compose music for the BBC’s Planet Earth. Now 43, Watts looks back on the “youth and exuberance” that turbocharged his career. The next crucial step was born of his admiration for Russell T Davies and his work on shows such as Queer as Folk (“hugely influential for me”) and of course Doctor Who. “I wrote to Russell in the old-fashioned way with an actual letter and enclosed a CD. And I was very lucky that he didn’t just throw it in the bin. He actually decided to listen.” “Sam was one of the luckiest moments of my career,” Davies tells RT. “In the heights of Doctor Who back in 2006, everyone in the world sent me their CV. I didn’t have time for them all, sorry! But one night, at midnight, I plucked a letter off the pile at random, and there was a CD. I put it on to play… And the next day, I walked into work to tell them we had our composer for The Sarah Jane Adventures!” This was the 2007 Who spin-off starring Elisabeth Sladen that ran for five years. “I love Sam’s work. It’s clever, nimble, witty, full-blooded and, best of all, you can sing along. He’s a lovely man and I’m so delighted by his success.” Watts was invited to send in a demo to The Traitors team in 2021. All he had to go on was the original Dutch version. Not normally a fan of reality shows, he was “completely hooked, which was a good sign”. He composed the theme (blending menace and excitement), cues for key moments such as the missions and Round Table denouement. His music has now been sold as part of the package to other territories. “It’s on about 12 versions – I’ve lost track. As well as the UK and US, it’s used in Australia, Poland, Sweden, and both the Canadian series, because we have English-speaking and French-speaking versions.” This autumn it will be heard on the highly anticipated The Celebrity Traitors. Before emigrating, Watts was a devoted Prommer. “I’ve always loved the BBC Proms and the fact that they’re continually pushing and changing and have started to include film and TV music. I also love that they’ve stuck to the original remit, to get more people listening to classical music. We need to show it’s not some snobby elitist thing. It’s essentially for everyone. Because we put people like Bach and Mozart on pedestals, we can forget that theirs was the popular music of the time.”
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. There are many first nights at the BBC Proms – whether you’re a debut performer, an audience member visiting the Royal Albert Hall for the first time, or a composer anxiously premiering an untried and untested new work. Sam Watts is one of this season’s newcomers. You may not have heard of him, but if you’re a fan of The Traitors – and we are in our millions – his music will already be instantly recognisable. “I’m very excited,” he says. “Since the success of the first series, I said we should be pushing for a Prom. So at the end of last year when producer Sarah Fay told me it was happening, I was thrilled.” The Traitors Prom is being staged twice on Saturday 26 July and promises to be one of this year’s biggies. Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, it aims to capture the intensity of the hit BBC1 reality show, its themes of treachery and murder reflected in a playlist of classical pieces and pop tracks; even a blend of both. It follows in the wake of previous Proms dedicated to major BBC series: Life Story a decade ago, Strictly in 2016, and numerous Doctor Who extravaganzas. The Traitors is riding a crest of popularity, having won Baftas and NTAs and, crucially for the BBC, it’s a ratings success with upwards of ten million glued to series three earlier this year. For the uninitiated, The Traitors is filmed in the spectacular setting of Ardross Castle in the Highlands and unfolds like a grand-scale version of wink murder. “Faithful” competitors must identify and banish the murderous Traitors in their midst, in a quest to bag £120,000. Originating in the Netherlands, The Traitors is produced in the UK and US by Studio Lambert Scotland, while parent company All3Media has licensed the format to almost 30 territories. Watts is working flat out translating his Traitors score for the live performance. “I’m in the middle of remixing all the electronic elements for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to play along with. We’ve completely reworked the music and reorchestrated it. The audience will hear music they’re familiar with but played in a way it never has been before. Quite a project!” Originally from Yorkshire, Watts now lives in Edmonton with his Canadian husband, the writer Mick Schubert (no relation to Franz). But he intends to be at the Albert Hall on the day. “It’s a whirlwind. I land on the Friday and fly back on Sunday, so Saturday will be full on with the technical rehearsal in the morning then the two concerts.” He may even make an appearance on stage, but quite how remains under wraps – as are several surprises in the Traitors tradition. Having studied music at Nottingham University, Watts was blessed with encouraging mentors. “One of my composition professors was the wonderful Mervyn Cooke, who is an expert on film music and very good friends with the composer George Fenton.” Watts wrote his dissertation on Fenton’s music for The Blue Planet (BBC1 2001), and the next thing he knew, Fenton was hiring him as his assistant on the movies Hitch, Bewitched and Mrs Henderson Presents. In 2006, to Watts’s delight, Fenton invited him to compose music for the BBC’s Planet Earth. Now 43, Watts looks back on the “youth and exuberance” that turbocharged his career. The next crucial step was born of his admiration for Russell T Davies and his work on shows such as Queer as Folk (“hugely influential for me”) and of course Doctor Who. “I wrote to Russell in the old-fashioned way with an actual letter and enclosed a CD. And I was very lucky that he didn’t just throw it in the bin. He actually decided to listen.” “Sam was one of the luckiest moments of my career,” Davies tells RT. “In the heights of Doctor Who back in 2006, everyone in the world sent me their CV. I didn’t have time for them all, sorry! But one night, at midnight, I plucked a letter off the pile at random, and there was a CD. I put it on to play... And the next day, I walked into work to tell them we had our composer for The Sarah Jane Adventures!” This was the 2007 Who spin-off starring Elisabeth Sladen that ran for five years. “I love Sam’s work. It’s clever, nimble, witty, full-blooded and, best of all, you can sing along. He’s a lovely man and I’m so delighted by his success.” Watts was invited to send in a demo to The Traitors team in 2021. All he had to go on was the original Dutch version. Not normally a fan of reality shows, he was “completely hooked, which was a good sign”. He composed the theme (blending menace and excitement), cues for key moments such as the missions and Round Table denouement. His music has now been sold as part of the package to other territories. “It’s on about 12 versions – I’ve lost track. As well as the UK and US, it’s used in Australia, Poland, Sweden, and both the Canadian series, because we have English-speaking and French-speaking versions.” This autumn it will be heard on the highly anticipated The Celebrity Traitors. Before emigrating, Watts was a devoted Prommer. “I’ve always loved the BBC Proms and the fact that they’re continually pushing and changing and have started to include film and TV music. I also love that they’ve stuck to the original remit, to get more people listening to classical music. We need to show it’s not some snobby elitist thing. It’s essentially for everyone. Because we put people like Bach and Mozart on pedestals, we can forget that theirs was the popular music of the time.” The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who: Wish World / The Reality War ★★★
It's goodbye Ncuti Gatwa and hello (again) Billie Piper in a convoluted but entertaining finale.
Story 319 Series 15/Series 2 – Episodes 7 & 8 “Once reality is broken on a scale as vast as this, I can see underneath…” – the Rani Storyline In Bavaria 1865, the Rani steals a baby destined to become Desiderium, the god of wishes. The Doctor and Belinda wake up in an alternate-reality version of Earth 2025 as a married couple with a toddler called Poppy. All humanity is now living a lie and in fear of displaying doubt. This Wish World has been willed into existence by the treacherous Conrad, using the baby’s powers, hidden away in the Bone Palace – the base of the two Ranis. It’s part of a grand scheme to magnify the power of doubt and crack reality apart – releasing Omega, the creator of the Time Lords, from the Underverse. The creature is uncontrollable and devours the new Rani. In a battle to get reality back on track, the Doctor restores his UNIT friends to normality and tries to save his new daughter. His actions ultimately trigger another regeneration where his new appearance seems to have the face of Rose Tyler… First UK broadcasts Saturday 24 May 2025 Saturday 31 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa The Doctor – Jodie Whittaker Billie Piper Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson The Rani – Archie Panjabi Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Melanie Bush –Bonnie Langford Anita Benn – Steph de Whalley Susan Foreman – Carole Ann Ford Shirley Bingham – Ruth Madeley Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney Conrad Clark – Jonah Hauer-King Colonel Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Susan Triad – Susan Twist Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Rogue – Jonathan Groff Otto Zufall – Atilla Akinci Violett Zufall – Leni Adams Poppy – Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps Lakshmi Chandra – Nila Aalia Devika Babu – Josephine Lloyd-Welcome Val Balham – Hermon Berhane Winnie Petheridge – Sam Lawton Brian Dale – Joshua J Parker The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of Omega – Nicholas Briggs Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Alex Sanjiv Pillai Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern “Oh, hello!” Billie Piper – beaming, radiant, back to blonde, miraculously not looking 20 years older than her debut as Rose Tyler – is the new face of Doctor Who. It’s delightful that this two-decade run comes to a stop – or rather an ellipsis – with the very first face we saw in 2005, who was crucial to the success of the relaunch. On screen Piper is credited under “Introducing” – superfluous for a Doctor Who legend who needs no introduction, and it’s telling in what it does not say. Few failed to notice that “as the Doctor” was carefully omitted from the TV credits and the wording of the BBC publicity blurbs. So, it’s another massive tease (hopefully not as tedious as The Next Doctor red-herring with David Morrissey in 2008) and will keep fans dangling while the future of Doctor Who is thrashed out. Another woman Doctor? Will it all end here? Stay tuned… Much as I love it, what we now call “classic” Doctor Who often looks like a misogynist’s playground, with so few roles for women, beyond the underwritten parts for the Time Lord’s companions. Such was the stale air prevalent in sci-fi (and much other drama) in those far-gone days. Now, it has shifted to the other extreme. Not one but two Ranis. UNIT’s personnel are predominantly female: Kate, Shirley, Mel, Susan Triad. Rose Noble identifies as non-binary; presents as female. There’s a glimpse of ancient granddaughter Susan. The new-daughter-but-not-really Poppy who, frankly, it’s hard to care about. A welcome return for Anita from the Time Hotel. Only women feature in Ruby’s background, and likewise Belinda’s menfolk are not deemed screen-worthy. Even the returning Doctors this season and the “regenerated Doctor” are female. It’s a positive move but, in this bulging finale, results in too many women, too little screen time. Each has their moment, but you just imagine them all waiting around on set for their one line. The corollary is that the programme is in danger of emasculation and echoing the heterophobic mindset of so much modern drama. Whither the ordinary straight man? (I am not among their number.) But this finale offers little more than the twisted, wasted Conrad and UNIT’s underused Colonel Ibrahim. The bigger concerns, perhaps, are that Doctor Who is often just too darn convoluted. The Rani duo’s scheme involving babies, wishes, magical kisses, rupturing reality and releasing an ancient god becomes incomprehensible, or at best indigestible. The reliance on nostalgia, churning up the trappings of the past, is also like watching and waiting for an overloaded spin cycle to finish. Old hits often equal old hat. It should be fan-pleasing, but fans are a fickle crowd – with eruptions on a spectrum from unbridled ecstasy to pyroclastic rage. Generally, I found this muddled two-parter entertaining. I’m peculiarly pleased to see Jodie Whittaker back after three years, engaging with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. The two Ranis are a comical pair. Impressive Archie Panjabi rocks the vibe of the amoral alien scientist, while Anita Dobson is impeccable, even if I prefer her showing steel to being subservient to her other self. The Panjabi Rani being gobbled by the Omega-ogre is highly amusing, as is the Dobson Rani’s abrupt adieu. “So much for the two Ranis. It’s goodnight from me!” Praise must go to the design work on the Bone Palace. The vast sky-dominating exterior seems to be a homage to Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture Maman, a giant steel spider that was the focus of Tate Modern’s opening in 2000. The interior is gorgeous, with the skeletal detail and the strange “clone-type classiform” Seekers PVC-bonded into their consoles. The Doctor’s skyride on the Rani’s bike is a highlight of this visually stunning production. But it’s goodnight from Gatwa too. He has dazzled with energy and charisma, and brought heightened emotion and a refreshing queer edge to the Time Lord. He’s not the shortest-lived Doctor but has come and gone in under two years. Such a demanding programme, with an uncertain future, cannot hope to retain a thrusting talent who is still building his career. Is it also goodbye to Doctor Who? Surely, it requires a rest and a reset. If and when it returns, it should take from its past what made the series tick in the first place. Doctor Who was avant-garde in concept, sound and design, and was forged by a team of creatives in their 20s and 30s, looking to a weird and wonderful future. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story and the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest ★★★★★
A magnificent spin on Eurovision sprinkled with the stuff of legends.
Story 318 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 6 “Did I just fly through space on a confetti cannon? Camp!” – the Doctor Storyline Welcome to the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest in the year 2925. The Doctor and Belinda are delighted when the Tardis lands in the Harmony Arena space station but, as the entertainment commences, the show is sabotaged and the audience are expelled into space. The hijackers are led by Kid, a vengeful Hellion, whose home world Hellia was pillaged for poppy honey by the corporation promoting the contest. He plans to transmit a delta wave to wipe out the three trillion viewers. The Doctor intercedes with considerable rage, but is having strange visions of his granddaughter Susan. Mrs Flood is revealed to be the Doctor’s Time Lord adversary the Rani. She bi-generates and both incarnations follow the Doctor and Belinda back to Earth... First UK broadcast Saturday 17 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Susan – Carole Ann Ford Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson The Rani – Archie Panjabi Rylan Graham Norton Kid – Freddie Fox Mike Gabbastone – Kadiff Kirwan Gary Gabbastone – Charlie Condou Cora Saint Bavier – Miriam-Teak Lee Sabine – Julie Dray Nina Maxwell – Kiruna Stamell Wynn Aura-Kin – Iona Anderson Len Kazah – Akemnji Ndifornyen Liz Lizardine – Christina Rotondo Jeddy Kine – Abdul Seesay Runner – Imogen Kingsley Smith Crew Writer – Juno Dawson Director – Ben A Williams Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern I can’t stick Rylan, not for love or money. An instant turn-off on air. But he’s actually very good in Doctor Who and it made me like him. That’s how strong and persuasive this episode is. Graham Norton I love, and his hologram form here is a lovely answer to the two occasions when he popped up unwanted (thanks to BBC Presentation) in earlier programmes. Now he’s a harbinger of the cataclysm that befalls Earth in 2025. So far, so Eurovision with these two. I was half expecting the ghosts of Terry Wogan and Katie Boyle to manifest. This futuristic, interstellar spin on Eurovision is simply magnificent. From the epic stadium lightshow to the hordes of squealing fans, to snatches of quirky songs in the final to the soaring anthem that Cora sings. Even if the intercut reactions to the gawping cast edge it towards mawkish, Miriam-Teak Lee belts her song out of the arena. Winner of the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for & Juliet, she’s great casting here; and perhaps the new songwriting partnership of Russell T Davies, Juno Dawson and Murray Gold should be representing Royaume Uni. The burst of Bucks Fizz’s 1981 winning entry Making Your Mind Up, when the expelled crowds are being saved, is a total hoot. This is a return to peak RTD, channelled through Dawson, who gets sole writing credit. The joy of this episode is that it is, rightly, as camp as… well, Eurovision… but it is also a gripping adventure, simple to follow, with winning and believable characters. Freddie Fox is superb as the fanatical villain “Kid”, a horned beast from the planet Hellia. His motivation and vengeful nature are also clear. Kadiff Kirwan and Charlie Condou are lovely as Mike and Gary, the couple who stop bickering to make a valuable contribution and go weak at the knees in the presence of the Time Lord. Best of all, Ncuti Gatwa really is the Doctor here, fully formed and multi-faceted. Mercurial, in that he’s warm and fun-loving on arrival at the Harmony Arena, but also ice-cold when blasting painful retribution into the squirming Kid. He also dazzles everyone he meets with total conviction. Star quality. This is Gatwa’s finest episode yet. And then we come to Susan. Beautifully filmed, dream-like glimpses of Carole Ann Ford, one of the original stars of Doctor Who in 1963 and 64, now in her 80s. After all the red herrings last year with Susan Twist, how magical to have Susan back in Doctor Who, entering the Doctor’s mind and calling him “Grandfather”. I’ve grown tired of the sausage factory of mystery women in recent times, but Susan is the original enigma at the birth of Doctor Who. The stuff of legends. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Doctor's trip to a Nigerian barber shop is in need of more than just a trim.
Story 317 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 5 “You must tell a story, Doctor. You must feed it. It is always hungry” – the Barber Storyline The Doctor lands in Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 to revisit his old friend Omo who runs a barber shop, but Omo and some of his regular customers have gone missing. The premises have been taken over by a sinister Barber, who is transporting them across space on the back of a giant spider, part of an engine fuelled by storytelling. First UK broadcast Saturday 10 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Omo Esosa – Sule Rimi The Barber – Ariyon Bakare Abena – Michelle Asante Rashid Abubakar – Stefan Adegbola Tunde Adebayo – Jordan Adene Obioma Okoli – Michael Balogun Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Paramedic – Simon Bailey Consultant – Adrian Pang Patient – Tessa Bell-Briggs Market seller – Inua Ellams Security guard – Funmi James Poppy – Sienna Robyn Mavanga-Phipps The Doctor – Jo Martin Crew Writer – Inua Ellams Director – Makalla McPherson Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Doctor Who as experimental theatre. Not a bad idea. You can’t fault the ambition, but the execution... Oh dear. Were this a play put on by one of the more avant-garde playhouses around the country, even the most receptive audience members might start creeping out before the interval. Playwright Inua Ellams had a hit on his hands in 2017 with Barber Shop Chronicles, launched at the National Theatre in London, then remounted around the world to acclaim. The Story & the Engine is a brother to that, in that its action is largely constrained to a barber shop whose customers share stories. The leap is to give it a Doctor Who spin so that the storytelling fuels gods and monsters, with the shop somehow still in Lagos but also on a journey through space on the back of a gigantic spider. Delirious and nonsensical barely cover the spectacle here, and, fatally, it’s hard to fathom what is going on – in actuality or allegory. The contained drama is never for a moment am-dram but it wavers between flaccid and overwrought – despite Murray Gold’s efforts to weave a magical spell. The sense of fable is helped by artistic touches, including shimmering graphics as visual aids. More could have been made of these, displayed full screen. Best is the tale told by Abena about her womenfolk’s cunning strategy of braiding maps into hair to outfox their oppressors. And the Doctor’s new hairdo mapping a maze to reach the heart of the story engine is a clever idea. The glimpses of old Doctors may help snoozing fans twitch back to life, but these are throwaway – even Jo Martin’s in-the-flesh cameo as the “fugitive” Doctor. We were hardly going to get Colin Baker’s Doctor coming into Omo’s for a fresh perm, but she is wasted. A full-on match between Jo Martin and Ncuti Gatwa would be welcome. It is vitally important to have wider racial representation on screen. Ellams’s episode fulfils that aim and hands the Doctor a milieu where he feels he fits in. “It’s the first time I’ve had this Black body... Here in Africa, in that barber shop, I’m accepted,” he tells Belinda. He thrives in the buzz of the bazaar and feels he’s among his people. It’s a delightful moment for Gatwa’s Doctor. It is, however, disingenuous to present Nigeria as some idyll. Significantly, the queer aspect of this incarnation is for once dialled down. He’s not calling any other chaps “Honey” or “Babes” in Lagos. The Sex Education storyline where young Eric (Gatwa) witnessed the difficulties of being gay in Nigeria remains fresh in the memory. The country is no Happy Place for gay, lesbian and trans people. They are criminalised by the state for being who they are, with a maximum penalty of death by stoning. Maybe one message a week is enough for Doctor Who, and there will be gaiety galore in the next episode, but it is a cardinal omission in The Story & the Engine. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ruby Sunday meets a very different kind of monster.
Story 316 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 4 “I think I’m in shock. Like PTSD. Because what happened last year was not normal” – Ruby Storyline Ruby, now 20, is adjusting to life after her Tardis travels. She agrees to talk on a podcast with Conrad Clark, who encountered the Doctor as a child and has been obsessed ever since. He and Ruby start dating, but when they go away for a country break, it transpires that he has been deceiving her. Conrad is the figurehead of Think Tank, an organisation intent on exposing what they see as the lies perpetuated by UNIT about the alien threat to our planet. Kate is tested to the limit and unleashes the monstrous Shreek on him. First UK broadcast Saturday 3 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Conrad Clark – Jonah Hauer-King Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Shirley Anne-Bingham – Ruth Madeley Louise Miller – Faye McKeever Col Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Moira Clark – Kirsty Hoiles Young Conrad – Benjamin Chivers Jordan Lang – Kareem Alexander Elsa – Madison Stock Sparky – Paddy Stafford Jack – Blake Anderson Michelle – Aoife Gaston Alfie – Paul Jerricho Derek – Michael Woodford Audrey – Tina Gray Trinity Wells – Lachele Carl The Shreek – Gethin Alderman The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Influencers – Selorm Adonu, Calypso Cragg, James Craven As themselves: Reeta Chakrabarti, Alex Jones, Joel Dommett Crew Writer – Pete McTighe Director – Peter Hoar Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Activism can often be characterised by self-righteousness and delusion – whether we sympathise with a cause or not – and Pete McTighe’s script captures that edge tartly. Fans and regular viewers know the fiction of Doctor Who to be completely true. UNIT has been thwarting alien invasions almost yearly since the 1960s. That is true, isn’t it? So we reject and loathe Conrad Clark and his Think Tank, who are clearly wrong. They are, aren’t they? Lucky Day is another diverting spin on this season’s theme of: what is reality? What is fiction? What in fiction is reality? One thing’s for sure: no one messes with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Only a fool traduces her organisation and insults her Brigadier father’s legacy. It’s another strong performance from Jemma Redgrave, who’s become a series stalwart since her 2012 debut opposite Matt Smith. Millie Gibson demonstrates once again, as in last year’s 73 Yards, that she can hold focus in a story as the companion alone. While Jonah Hauer-King is also excellent as the duplicitous Conrad Clark – he can play wet and adoring podcaster just as convincingly as the deluded, hostile activist. “It has been a chore getting to know you.” He’s vile. Some of Ruby and Conrad’s stumbling courtship conversations don’t quite land, and the Shreek, while well realised, joins the swollen ranks of forgettable monster of the week. But as a holding-pattern episode, presumably shot while Ncuti Gatwa was elsewhere, Lucky Day keeps the season’s momentum ticking along, and the young Conrad’s sighting of the Tardis and subsequent obsession recall Elton Pope (Marc Warren) in another Doctor-lite episode, Love & Monsters. What’s especially rewarding is that when we do see the Doctor, as he materialises his Tardis around Conrad, Gatwa glows with charisma and righteousness (here fighting “cowards who weaponise lies”), while we can only despise Conrad’s unshifting smugness. Surely, we’ve not seen the last of this nasty piece of work. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Rose Ayling-Ellis gives us a riveting, nightmarish Aliss in Terrorland.
Story 315 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 3 “There’s something behind me all the time” – Aliss Storyline Some 500,000 years in the future on the planet 67-67, all contact has been lost with the mining colony of Base 15. The Doctor and Belinda assist the band of troopers investigating the scene. The colonists are found dead, either by gunfire or with their bones shattered – all bar one survivor, Aliss. She is the host of a vile, unseen force that the Doctor encountered long ago when 67-67 was called Midnight. Can Aliss be freed? And why has no one heard of Earth or the human race? First UK broadcast Saturday 26 April 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Aliss Fenly – Rose Ayling-Ellis Shaya Costallion – Caoilfhionn Dunne Cassio Palin-Paleen – Christopher Chung Mo Gilliben – Bethany Antonia Hanno Yeft – Annabel Brook Kai Sabba – Gaz Choudhry Callo Rence – Luke Rhodri Albie Bethick – Gary Pillai Sal Van Hyten – Frankie Lipman Albie Bethick – Gary Pillai Ulric Dazen – Jermaine Dominique Val Vivo – Amy Tyger Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson It Has No Name – Paul Kasey Crew Writers – Russell T Davies, Sharma Angel-Walfall Director – Amanda Brotchie Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Sometimes when Doctor Who echoes itself, it sings. The plunging mineshaft looks like the massive rim into an abyss in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (2006), and the spacesuited troopers being picked off by an unseen menace recalls Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008) or, going even further back, Earthshock (1982). Meanwhile, The Well itself is a form of sequel to another highly popular 2008 episode, Midnight – and arguably superior. This is core Doctor Who when everything comes together: a rattling script, from the moment the Doctor and Belinda are jettisoned into space (Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu have fast become an effective and empathic pair leading the show); and taut direction that keeps up the unrelenting pace, creating unease and jump scares. The Well also benefits from grim and grimy design on a cinematic scale, an unusually creepy score from Murray Gold, and quick characterisation matched by sharp casting that helps bring short-lived people to life – a forte of Russell T Davies, collaborating here with Sharma Angel-Walfall. Whether you saw Rose Ayling-Ellis as Frankie in EastEnders between 2020 and 2022, followed her progress to winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2021, or are completely new to her, she delivers an instantly appealing blend of vulnerability and resolve as the sole survivor on planet 67-67. You can’t help but root for her and hope she can free herself of the subliminal horror that lurks behind her at “midnight”. It's one of those Doctor Who concepts that are really very silly, not to say inexpensive, but also nightmarish and riveting when played with conviction. Ayling-Ellis and everyone else are giving us Aliss in Terrorland. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Scooby-Doo meets Sapphire & Steel in this animated adventure.
Story 314 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 2 "We’re going 3D. And remember, whatever you do, don’t make me laugh." – Mr Ring-a-Ding Storyline Miami, 1952: at the Palazzo picture house, cartoon character Mr Ring-a-Ding bursts out of the screen and terrorises the audience, who all subsequently vanish. Months later, the Doctor and Belinda investigate the mystery and discover that Mr Ring-a-Ding is the embodiment of Lux, the god of light, and one of the sinister Pantheon. After he converts the time travellers into cartoons, they must use their wits to break back into reality. First UK broadcast Saturday 19 April 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Mr Ring-a-Ding – Alan Cumming Reginald Pye – Linus Roache Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Tommy Lee – Cassius Hackforth Husband – Ryan Speakman Sunshine Sally – Millie O’Connell Renée Lowenstein – Lucy Thackeray Logan Cheever – Lewis Cornay Helen Pye – Jane Hancock Hassan Chowdry – Samir Arrian Lizzie Abel – Bronté Barbé Robyn Gossage – Steph Lacey Policeman – William Meredith Newsreader – Ian Shaw Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Amanda Brotchie Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Doctor Who is often at its curious best when it transcends dimensions. Week in, week out, we witness that with the Police Box/Tardis, but when the writer’s imagination stretches even further with, say, the Land of Fiction in The Mind Robber (1968) or the dimension-straddling force in Flatline (2014), the Doctor and the viewers are obliged to think beyond the box. Lux achieves this superbly. It takes the trappings of cinema projection and celluloid, and capitalises on Disney funds for lustrous animation (actually delivered by British VFX company Framestore), to create an original and increasingly disturbing threat in Mr Ring-a-Ding. He’s like a mix of the Cat in the Hat and an annoying Doctor we haven’t met yet. The entire middle sequence, where the Time Lord and Belinda are flattened into 2D cartoons but then emote their way back towards their 3D reality, is cleverly realised. The Doctor has long existed in cartoon form on the printed page, but these moments in Lux chime neatly with the variable modern-day attempts to animate the missing 1960s Who episodes. Fourth-wall breaking is tricky territory but Russell T Davies masters it here – several times over. The cartoon Mr Ring-a-Ding emerges from the cinema screen and becomes "real". The Doctor and Belinda manipulate and speed up the film frames that constrain them, eventually pushing through a TV screen into the living room of their "biggest fans". It’s an audacious stroke and wittily self-reflexive. When the Doctor asks, "Go on then, what’s your favourite adventure?", his fans say, "Blink, every time." "Not the one with the Goblins?" "Blink!" they insist. Belinda’s disdain for the basic premise of Steven Moffat's classic is hilarious. Even if the outcome of this "bubble" is mawkish, it sets up the quandary: who is real and what is fiction? A theme we’ll no doubt return to this season. Doctor Who has been getting a lot of stick for raising ISSUES! When handled with subtlety, there should be no objection. So praise for Belinda’s awareness (as a nurse) of the fate that will befall matinee idol Rock Hudson decades later. It should also curl the toes of sentient viewers to realise that, had this adventure not taken place in the dead of night, thanks to racial segregation, the Tardis duo wouldn’t be free agents to visit the diner and cinema in 1950s Miami. There’s joy in the dark in Lux. "Honey, I’m Velma," the Doctor tells Belinda ("Fred") as they channel Scooby-Doo to check up on an old caretaker in a haunted cinema. But as they explore the mysteries of light, alternate dimensions and missing persons trapped on celluloid, the vibe veers more towards ITV’s old supernatural series, Sapphire and Steel. With more such material, Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu could become an elemental pairing. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
If you’re up for a bit of flash-bang-wallop cartoonery, then maybe this episode works for you.
Story 313 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 1 "We need you as our queen" – Robot Storyline In London 2008, Belinda Chandra has a star named after her by her boyfriend Alan. In 2025, robots from Missbelindachandra One, a world orbiting that star, want her as their queen. Before the Doctor can intercede, Belinda is abducted by the robots in a space rocket. He pursues in the Tardis, but a time fracture means he arrives on the planet six months early. A plan is hatched with the subjugated locals, the Missbelindachandrakind, to prevent her becoming the bride of the controlling AI Generator. It contains a golden being who, it transpires, is the robotised remains of her former boyfriend Alan. He is vanquished by the force of the time fracture, and peace is restored between the people and robots. The Doctor promises to return Belinda home but the Tardis is bounced away. Could Earth have been destroyed...? First UK broadcast Saturday 12 April 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Alan Budd – Jonny Green Manny – Max Parker Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Kirby Blake – Thalía Dudek Stefan Haines – Jeffin Kunjumon Tombo – Tom Storey Sasha 55 – Evelyn Miller Scoley – Caleb Hughes Shago – Nadine Higgin Prime Minister – William Ellis Receptionist – Belinda Owusu Voice of the robots – Nicholas Briggs Robots – Stephen Love, Robert Strange, Charles Sandford, Lucas Edwards Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Peter Hoar Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern If you’re up for a bit of flash-bang-wallop cartoonery, then maybe this episode works for you. A retro rocket reaching a faraway star remarkably quickly… shiny robots vaporising their victims in mid-air… a gorgeously gold-plated semi-human villain… the cute (only mildly annoying) busybody hoover ("Polish! Polish!") that could put a Dyson to shame… juddery time-distortion effects… and vestiges of iconic Earth design (a black cab, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty) tumbling through space… Some beautiful visuals have been created. If, though, you’re looking for something novel and meaty to sink your teeth into, you’ll be disappointed. This season opener – at just eight episodes it’s barely worthy of "season" status – is reminiscent of Smith and Jones from 2007. I know that’s a long time ago, but in both episodes the Doctor’s new companion (trainee doctor Martha then, nurse Belinda now) is seen working in a spotless hospital and is soon abducted by marauding aliens. Lumbering, top-heavy, headless robots have featured several times in Doctor Who in living memory. Belinda is the latest in a long line of "mystery women" that the Doctor will have to unravel. From River Song and Amy Pond, via Clara and Missy, to Ruby and her hooded mother, almost every regular female character has had "enigma" stitched into her upholstery. And yet again our diaries are marked with a dooms-date (this time 24th May 2025) that handily coincides with the transmission of the two-part finale. Varada Sethu is fine as Belinda, even if lacking the immediate Wow! factor of, say, Billie Piper and Catherine Tate as soon as they walked on set. "Bel" may take a few weeks to bed in, but then we only have a few short weeks. In the same vein, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor barely feels like someone we’ve had time to get a handle on. He bounces with energy and wafts charisma but lacks gravitas. He cries – again – but does not communicate the emotion. I’m not sensing Time Lord vibes from Gatwa. His revelation "It’s not AI. It’s AL" thuds on arrival, as does Belinda’s explanation for any cloth-brained viewers of her former boyfriend: "You’ve taken coercive control and made it complete control of the whole planet." Gawd, well, here’s a bad ’un for our times and no mistake. We meet quite a few people in the episode but there are no real persons of interest, unless you count Mrs Flood. Another mystery woman, yes, but anything with Anita Dobson is gold. Even a brief cameo of her standing in a backyard in a housecoat, hair blown wild by rocket engines. I half wish the cameras had followed her indoors. La Flood’s domestic activities are more intriguing than events on other worlds. An abiding image from The Robot Revolution is the x-ray blanket – expensive but thin material revealing big hearts at work but not much else going on internally. Read more: Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Steven Moffat scares people for a living. The fan-turned-mastermind talks to Patrick Mulkern about misogyny, Missy and the past, present and future of Doctor Who
This article was published in RT in December 2015 and is part of our digital Doctor Who anniversary bookazine — click here to download it for free. There’s a telling photo of Steven as a boy in 1973 absorbed in a Doctor Who paperback. Can he paint a picture of the young Master Moffat back home in Paisley? “This is going to be so ‘stereotypical Doctor Who fan’. Quiet. Bullied at school. Very bookish. I liked anything magical. I loved the Narnia books and entirely missed the Christian allegory.” Today he’s a crazily busy man, a top dog in British TV drama, running both Doctor Who and Sherlock, global hits and cash cows for the BBC. He’s just bagged a lifetime achievement trophy at the British Screenwriters’ Awards, to add to the Emmy and five Baftas on his groaning mantelpiece. It’s six years since Russell T Davies handed him the Tardis key and he says, “I’m gobsmacked by how much Doctor Who I’ve written – an insane amount.” The well of ideas isn’t about to run dry any time soon, but the current series saw a shaky start with a dip in the ratings. An un-child-friendly time slot and being up against The X Factor and the Rugby World Cup on ITV didn’t help, but Moffat concedes, “That wasn’t our best-run launch. This isn’t a new Doctor year, an anniversary or new companion year. It’s dangerous when you don’t have that special extra bit to launch a show with. And our ratings went up with episode five.” Meet Moffat for the first time and he might seem saturnine, taciturn, a tad unapproachable. I’ve known him long enough to discern that, however high his profile, he’s shy at heart. “Not at heart,” he laughs. “At every level a shy person. But hey, I’m 54. I’ve got the hang of it.” He doesn’t let it interfere with the job. “I’m relaxed about getting up on stage and talking to a crowd and might even make them laugh. This, my son tells me, is typical of introverts. But stick me in a room with a bunch of people I don’t know and I go, ‘Oh God!’ and try to hide behind Sue.” His wife, Sue Vertue, is a fellow exec on Sherlock. They live in south-west London with their sons Joshua, 16, and Louis, 13. His father, Bill, was a primary-school headmaster in Renfrewshire. For a while, Steven emulated his dad. With a degree in English and philosophy from Glasgow University, he began work as an English teacher at a high school in Greenock. “I feel fraudulent. I didn’t complete three full school years. My father was passionate about teaching, and if you are, it’s one of the most fascinating jobs in the world. But I was frustrated. I wasn’t especially bad at teaching; I was good with the kids and reasonably popular. But it’s not what I wanted to do – not that I ever imagined I’d get to do what I wanted to do.” He’s never lost his passion for storytelling or scary Doctor Who. “It was the only programme in the history of children’s TV that was unsuitable for children. That’s why we loved it.” Another fixation is Sherlock Holmes: “Arthur Conan Doyle’s storytelling is amazing. It’s pure, brisk and to the point. People don’t talk about that enough. He’s been obscured by his own creation.” Asked to list screenwriters he admires, he rattles off William Goldman, Quentin Tarantino, Aaron Sorkin and Neil Simon. “I wouldn’t be grand enough to call them influences, though.” Naming no names but “some things you see on TV are so bad, you think you shouldn’t write for a week in case you’re contaminated. In case it’s got into your head. The sheer rubbishness of the dialogue and story construction. You have to detox. But you read a script by Russell [T Davies] and suddenly everything makes sense in an immaculate, clean way. I read [Davies’s Channel 4 drama] Cucumber years ago for the simple reason I was stuck on Doctor Who, having a miserable time rewriting someone’s script. And all I was doing covertly was saying, ‘Russell, could you send me some good writing so I can remember what it’s like?’ “The single most intractable trouble that bites us in the arse on Doctor Who is getting 12 scripts together that are good and makeable, with the right amount of CGI and prosthetics. That’s the No 1. That’s why this is a well-paid job.” Regular Who writers Toby Whithouse, Chris Chibnall and Mark Gatiss submit “incredibly polished first drafts. It’s like having a day off.” Are colleagues free to tell the top dog when his own scripts aren’t working? “Yeah, and they do all the time. You want to know if your joke’s not funny before you stand in front of your audience. If I haven’t had enough notes, I’ll send a script to Mark or Russell for feedback. Ben Stephenson [departing BBC drama chief] sent me his notes for the 50th anniversary special and helpfully numbered them 1 to 50. Within the bubble of Doctor Who or Sherlock everyone’s polite and honest. There’s not much in the way of sycophancy. I’m not regarded as a figure of awesome power and significance. I’m the man who forgets to eat and has to be fed when he arrives at the office, the man who forgets his reading glasses.” Moffat prefers to write at home and has houses in London and Cardiff, where Doctor Who films. “But the reality is I can be writing in a room at the studios – where I don’t even have an office – or on the train.” It’s hard to shut out distractions: “If you’ve got two kids and a whole life going on, two TV series in production, there isn’t anywhere to hide. If you hide, the problems stack up. It’s like an air traffic controller taking a couple of days off.” He admits sometimes he’s stuck for inspiration. “No magic will occur, so you have to force it out. When I was writing comedy, I used to say, ‘Stare out the window until you make yourself laugh.’ With Doctor Who, it’s stare out the window until you surprise yourself and think, ‘Oh that would be creepy.’” How does he get inside the mind of a superior intellect like Sherlock or the Doctor? “I take it seriously as a problem because you have to simulate genius while not being one. I try to work out what the Doctor is really up to and never tell you what it is.” Between them, Moffat and Peter Capaldi have let the Time Lord mellow this year. “I was watching Peter on the World Tour [2014] with his shades on, waving to the crowds and being such a rocker. That’s what he once was, rocking round Glasgow in his younger days when the whole world wanted him. I wanted to see that in his Doctor. My big note this year was, ‘You’re the raddled old rocker.’ If you want to play your electric guitar on top of a tank, you damn well do it.” Michelle Gomez has been a hit as Missy, the female Master; and they go way back, to when her husband Jack Davenport starred in Coupling (Moffat’s BBC2 sitcom). “She recalls – and I do not – when we were all out in Montreux in 2001 and Coupling won the Silver Rose. We all partied, so drunk we could hardly speak, and I said, ‘I swear I’m gonna make Doctor Who one day.’ I like the fact that this conversation took place between the future showrunner and future Master.” Moffat’s Who always favours strong, enigmatic women (including Alex Kingston’s River Song and Maisie Williams as Ashildr). “I’m married to a very powerful woman,” he offers, opaquely. So why do The Guardian and online forums accuse him of misogyny? “It’s a complicated issue. I never quite know how to respond. The general point being made by these people is correct. We need better female role models on screen. Maybe this is my dimwittery but I do not understand why Doctor Who of all shows is singled out as misogynist. I’m sure I’m to the left of a lot of my detractors.” Clara (Jenna Coleman) is leaving this series after three years spanning Matt Smith and Capaldi, and Moffat is keen to show the impact it has on the Time Lord. “Doctor Who does that form of bereavement rather well. We have an emotionally engaged hero and those women he knows are not like James Bond girls. They don’t just disappear between movies. When the Doctor ends a friendship, it tears him apart.” He’s only just starting to consider her successor and has in mind “specific ideas but not a specific actress. A new companion gives us the chance to relaunch the show. And we’ve got a really cool new idea about how to do that.” He’s signing up for another year and is knee-deep in plans for series ten but won’t be drawn on when it will go into production, let alone air. After six years running Who, he’s vague about his own regeneration and insists he won’t leave until the right person emerges to pass the baton to. “That’s an issue I’m actively engaged in. Everything is difficult in Doctor Who, including leaving. I’d never leave it in the lurch because it means too much to me. Let’s not pretend it’s not a big problem. But there will be a solution.” For now, he’s happy in his dream job. If he could time-travel, what would he tell his bookish 11-year-old self? “I think he’d be alarmed at me turning up from the future. Since it all worked out well, I’d probably forbear from saying anything.”
Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Coughlan shine in Steven Moffat's Christmas special – with more than one new star
Story 312 Christmas Special 2024 “A hotel but instead of rooms, time portals? Package deals for all of history’s biggest hits. No wonder there was no room at the inn” – the Doctor Storyline London, Christmas 4042: the Doctor arrives at the Time Hotel, which has portals to hotel rooms and lodgings throughout Earth history. In 2024, a woman called Joy is spending Christmas alone at the Sandringham Hotel in London, but she gets manacled to a deadly suitcase. It contains a star seed that requires millions of years to grow and is key to a plot by the Villengard corporation to destroy Earth. The Time Lord must save Joy but he gets stuck in London for a year, befriending hotel receptionist Anita. Ultimately, after a trip to prehistoric times with the Doctor, Joy is transformed by the energy into a benign star. First UK broadcast Wednesday 25 December 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Joy Almondo – Nicola Coughlan Trev Simpkins –Joel Fry Anita Benn – Steph de Whalley Hotel manager – Jonathan Aris Hilda Flockhart – Julia Watson Basil Flockhart – Peter Benedict Sylvia Trench – Niamh Marie Smith Edmund Hillary – Phil Baxter Tenzing Norgay – Samuel Sherpa-Moore Receptionist – Ruchi Rai Mr Single – Joshua Leese Angela Grace – Fiona Marr Barman – Liam Prince-Donnelly Joy’s mum – Fiona Scott Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Crew Writer – Steven Moffat Director – Alex Sanjiv Pillai Music – Murray Gold Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Steven Moffat RT review by Patrick Mulkern Time really does fly. It wasn’t so long ago that Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Coughlan were among the stand-out stars in two of Netflix’s biggest hits – Sex Education and Bridgerton – and here they are now, confidently fronting the Doctor Who Christmas special. Though both shine effortlessly as individuals, Steven Moffat’s time-twisting plot doesn’t allow them many moments to sparkle as a duo. Unexpectedly, he lets more chemistry develop between Gatwa’s Doctor and hotel receptionist Anita, played winningly by relative newcomer Steph de Whalley, who escaped all the advance publicity hoopla. She is his true friend and companion in this special. The Time Lord is obliged to spend a whole year with Anita at the Sandringham Hotel, earning his keep and enjoying his sojourn. He admits, “I don’t usually live like this, one day after the other. I always wondered what it would be like.” This Doctor has perhaps forgotten some of his previous Christmas adventures. Matt Smith’s Doctor spent many decades defending the planet Trenzalore in The Time of the Doctor (2013), and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor was shacked up with River Song for 25 years in The Husbands of River Song (2015). No matter: this lengthy hotel booking in 2024 allows Gatwa to show his heart and his flare for comedy. And Anita would be welcome back any time. The sequence where the Doctor taunts Joy, calling her a “sad sack”, forcing her to drop her smile and unbottle her rage is uncomfortable viewing but pointed writing. It culminates by thrusting us back four years to the pandemic, to the point in 2020 when the prospect of spending Christmas together was dangled but then cancelled by the Tory government, when many weren’t able to spend time with their loved ones, whether they were hearty or dying in hospital, as Joy’s mum was. This is the one stand-out, truly emotive scene in this story – in a period of Who when most of the emotion is surface and sound. We’re always on solid ground with Steven Moffat as a storyteller, even as he whisks viewers off their feet for a madcap spectacle, twiddling with time and locales. The heart of Joy to the World, though, is his portrait of four lonely people at Christmas – the Doctor, Anita, Joy and her dying mum. His final flourish – transforming Joy into a benign celestial force, indeed the Star of Bethlehem – is a cheeky, radiant reminder of what Christmas is all about. But maybe Steph de Whalley is another new star too.
What became of the child star of The Box of Delights?
Devin Stanfield found stardom difficult in 1984 – now, 40 years later, he looks back with pride at the BBC classic, co-starring Patrick Troughton.
The BBC’s adaptation of The Box of Delights has become a cult classic since it first aired in the run-up to Christmas in 1984. Based on John Masefield’s 1935 fantasy novel, the six-part serial tells of the adventures of schoolboy Kay Harker, who is entrusted with a magical box that he must protect from evil forces. With pioneering visual effects, the production won three BAFTAs. Now, for its 40th anniversary, The Box of Delights is being released in new Blu-ray and DVD editions on Monday 25th November. It will also be repeated on BBC Four from Saturday 7th December. The series starred famous actors such as Doctor Who’s Patrick Troughton as a kindly magician, and Robert Stephens and Patricia Quinn as the villains. But what became of the boy star, Devin Stanfield, whose face lit up the cover of Radio Times but who gave up acting soon afterwards? RT: What's it been like revisiting The Box of Delights after 40 years? Devin Stanfield: It’s been an odd experience. I’d put the whole thing to bed and moved on with my life and hadn't really given it a great deal of thought, to be honest. It's just kind of a childhood chapter. So revisiting it was very interesting. I've said no to almost every request for publicity or interviews over the years. RT: Chris Chapman has produced a new feature-length doc for the Blu-ray/DVD – Time and Tide: The Making of The Box of Delights. How did you get involved with that? Devin Stanfield: When Chris phoned me about doing something, I said that I’d already done the 20th anniversary. Back then I’d met Renny Rye [the director of The Box of Delights] at Pinewood and we shot a little interview for a DVD extra. I didn't have much to add to that. But then when Chris said he’d actually like to get me and Renny out on location, I thought... well, I have a huge amount of respect and love for Renny, so I said, "OK, I'll do that." Really, it was just a chance to spend the weekend with Renny and catch up over a few glasses of wine and talk – and oh God, did we talk! Probably more than Chris would’ve liked. Couldn't shut us up in the end, so yes, that was lovely. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/11/2024-Devin-Stanfield-and-director-Renny-Rye-with-the-box-at-Arley-Station-0c5d216.jpg" width="4032" height="3024" alt="Devin Stanfield and director Renny Rye at Arley Station in 2024 with one of the original box props. Photographed by Chris Chapman" title="2024 Devin Stanfield and director Renny Rye with the box at Arley Station" /> RT: What parts of the country did that take you to? Devin Stanfield: We filmed a good deal of it around Hereford and the Wye Valley. That's where the book’s set and where Masefield lived at one point in his life. So we were at the Severn Valley Railway, we went to Eastnor Castle and Hereford Cathedral. And the house where we shot Seekings [Kay’s home], which is a beautiful architectural oddity somewhere in the countryside. So yes, it was an evocative trip down memory lane. I think maybe walking those paths again as a grown-up – having left all the baggage of childhood stardom behind – was quite cathartic. RT: Chris says he interviewed about 30 people – cast and crew – who were involved in the 1984 production. Devin Stanfield: He even interviewed my mother! It was the high point of her year, I'm sure. Yes, they dug up a lot of people. Obviously, some of the older cast are now sadly dead, but he got nearly all the key cast and technical people. RT: What was it like acting alongside Patrick Troughton as a child? Devin Stanfield: I'd been on camera before and had just played the best friend in Chucky for Thames Television, but I'd largely been acting against other children. I hadn't had a lead role or chunky scenes. So the first time I realised what I was up against was quite early in the shoot on The Box of Delights. Patrick and I were at the train station and we did that very close-up scene. I can still remember to this day the intensity of him, how suddenly he came alive as this almost mesmeric presence. The twinkle in his eyes. I was never a good actor of any kind and a lot of what you're seeing in those scenes is my reaction – it's pretty much genuine. I was so lucky to have those actors because they did all the heavy lifting, and a lot of the time I was wrapped up and carried by them. They were so giving and so patient, and they allowed me to feel my way into the right emotions. They carried me along, basically. They were all very helpful to a very inexperienced and largely talentless little boy. RT: What age were you at that time? Devin Stanfield: I had my 13th birthday on set, so I was 12 quite early into the shoot. RT: What are your chief memories of making the series? Devin Stanfield: It was a very big thing to take on. It was a year of my life. It got extended too because I got chicken pox, there was a strike and there were technical difficulties, snow, all kind of things. So it took a lot more of my time than I was anticipating and a lot of it was me working alone, or working to nothing on chromakey [in a blue screen studio for special effects]. Or working in the freezing cold in snow and canals in the dark, or in the studio in a Norfolk suit, sweating constantly. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/11/RT-1984-Box-of-Delights-Devin-Stanfield-and-Patrick-Troughton-in-bluescreen-studio-7ef43b6.jpg" width="3822" height="2754" alt="Devin Stanfield and Patrick Troughton in a bluescreen studio for The Box of delights in 1984. Photographed for Radio Times by Don Smith" title="RT 1984 Box of Delights Devin Stanfield and Patrick Troughton in bluescreen studio" /> The other kids came in and out and did odd scenes, but I think I was in 95 per cent of the shots. It was a relentless schedule. Quite hard work. It felt like a job, though I realise I was lucky to be doing it. Looking back recently, I appreciate the opportunity it gave me to work with such extraordinary people – more on the technical side than the actors. RT: So that steered you away from acting? Devin Stanfield: I grew up in a theatrical family. My grandfather Leslie Sands was quite famous as a playwright and actor, and my mother was an actress and my father was a production manager. So I was never really enraptured by the business. I knew it was a s**t thing to do, and I wasn't particularly keen to get into that line of work, because I didn't feel I was talented. I now realise that while I was on set all that time, I was watching legends like Renny Rye and an absolutely stellar team at work behind the cameras. The very best the BBC had. The actors basically sat in their caravans for 90 per cent of the time, then got hauled out and told to do something, and then went back again. Whereas the people actually driving it and making the decisions were at the heart of it all, and also the last ones up in the bar drinking and having fun. Whether consciously or unconsciously, being exposed to that had an effect on my later career. For years, I was a technical director and a production manager in theatre and television. Now I run production for one of the UK's major scenic companies, putting together big things like X Factor. We did the set for the BBC's Olympics and just finished Coriolanus for the National Theatre and The Elixir of Love at the Coliseum. So quite large-scale, prestigious stuff. RT: In 1984, Radio Times gave The Box of Delights a haunting cover with you as the focus. How did it feel as a child to have your face plastered on every newsstand? Devin Stanfield: Total nightmare! I'm a relatively private person and have no desire for fame or celebrity. So I was very visible. And I didn't go to a private school. I went to a very normal comprehensive. So I was a target with that haircut, and as soon as I turned 15/16 I grew my hair as long as I could and turned suitably rebellious. I was keen to shake that off. RT: So you were you teased by your schoolmates? Devin Stanfield: Horribly. I don't think child stardom is a particularly healthy thing. In the end it probably did me more good than harm, but it could definitely be quite a difficult thing to live with to be recognised not just at school but in the street. RT: Your family must have been proud, though. You said your mum is pleased to be on Chris’s new documentary. Devin Stanfield: Yes. And when Chris started asking me what I’d got in the way of memorabilia and photographs, he was under the impression that the box was lost. That none had survived. But they’d given me one at the end of the shoot, and it’s been at my mum’s ever since. I collected the box so that Chris could film it. He was quite taken aback that it was just shoved in a rucksack. "It’s not even wrapped!" It had suffered worse on set. He told me that it's probably worth quite a bit now. RT: The Box of Delights is still very popular – some people love it so much they watch it every year. Devin Stanfield: Coming at it now as a grown-up and being less defensive about it, I'm touched and surprised by how it has endured and by the loyalty of the fanbase. It's lovely that it means so much to them. I'm proud and pleased to have been involved in something that has clearly given so many people so much happiness and pleasure. The Box of Delights will air on BBC Four on Saturday 7th December from 7:10pm. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Archers cast pay tribute to June Spencer
Actors Louiza Patikas, Pat Gallimore and David Troughton share their memories of the BBC radio legend.
June Spencer played Peggy in the pilot episode of The Archers in 1950, and still had an active role in the long-running BBC radio serial until 2022, when she retired at the remarkable age of 103. When she died on 8th November 2024, aged 105, fans mourned and tributes flooded in. Three of her friends from the cast of The Archers are paying their own tribute in Radio Times. Read on for what they had to say. Louiza Patikas June was a phenomenon – a living legend. She embodied the poise and precision of the golden age of radio acting, and yet she felt ageless somehow and completely accepting of the modern world, including the many generations of young actors who joined the show after her and grew up on her watch. It was an honour to know her, to share the mic with her, and to play Scrabble with her. She was utterly irreplaceable. (Louiza Patikas has played Peggy's granddaughter Helen in The Archers since 2000.) Pat Gallimore June was my Archers mother-in-law for 50 years. She was a wonderful actress and friend. The tributes from the members of The Archers family are a testament to how much she was loved and how much she taught us. She was the matriarch of Ambridge. A loyal team member of grace and kindness. I was so lucky to have worked with her for so long. I cherish our friendship and the memories of the times we shared on and off the microphone. Dearest June, I shall miss you greatly. RIP ❤️ (Pat Gallimore has played Peggy's daughter-in-law Pat in The Archers since 1974.) David Troughton June Spencer – what a legend! Ultimate professional, fun to work with, always interested in how you were getting on and, above all, for more than half a century, the absolute centre of the Ambridge community. It seemed quite a daunting task taking over the role of Tony Archer [from Colin Skipp], but her kindness, professionalism, her sense of fun and caring understanding eased me seamlessly into the Ambridge way of life. For that, I shall always be truly grateful. She was an amazing woman and her legacy will live on for ever. (David Troughton has played Peggy's son Tony in The Archers since 2014.) Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
"Doctor Who is the hardest job I've ever done"
Britain’s top TV composer Murray Gold invites you to a solo recital in his attic
The Doctor Who Prom will be broadcast on Radio 3 on Monday, before being televised later this year. Add it to your collection. For a longer version of RT's exclusive Murray Gold interview, click here. Murray Gold wears his success lightly. “I’ve just been lucky,” he shrugs, and adds without a hint of swagger, “I’ve always been the composer of the northern poets.” He means the great TV dramatists: Paul Abbott (Shameless, Clocking Off), Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax, Scott & Bailey, Gentleman Jack) and Russell T Davies (It’s a Sin, A Very English Scandal and, of course, Doctor Who). All those shows bear Gold’s stamp, but an even greater accolade is that he must be the only living composer to have had five BBC Proms dedicated to his work – concerts so popular that, even with two performances in one day, seats sold out within hours of release. It helps that three were Who extravaganzas, with a fourth coming this Monday. But the organisers might just as easily fill the Albert Hall by programming his other hits. Indeed, a highlight of the 2015 Proms showcased his score for David Attenborough’s Life Story. An engaging blend of laid-back and intense, Gold has invited me to his north London home to see where all the magic happens. His recording studio is a padded attic, kitted with five Apple Macs, synthesizers, an analogue reverb unit and a plethora of guitars. Is he ever stuck for inspiration? “No. I feel the music is invented just by watching and listening to the story. I block out any sense that I’m composing and just put my hands on the piano like an old-fashioned theatrical organist. I play along and record it.” Under the eaves is a play area for his two daughters, aged five and seven. This must act like a sound bath for them? “Yeah, I let them listen and sometimes they say, ‘That’s really good, Dad.’ But they’re not allowed to watch Doctor Who yet. It’s too scary.” Now 55, Gold came to fatherhood late. His wife Gemma (an actor and dancer whom he met while working with Ballet Leront in Newcastle) is “in charge of things as far as children are concerned – the day-to-day producer, while I’m more like the executive producer”. His own childhood was spent in Portchester, Hampshire, in a close Jewish family, with his dad an accountant and his mum a homemaker who also worked in education for people with learning difficulties. Describing his young self as “a short-sighted geek”, he was the eldest of three sons and always showed a talent for music, even if his career took an unconventional path. Piano lessons as a boy led to him being put in charge of school bands, but when he went to Cambridge, he took history. “Corpus Christi was a lovely college, but I still dream about how I f***ed up there. I just did music and theatre and didn’t focus. I remember lying in bed the day the results came out and shouting to my friends, ‘What did I get?’ They said, ‘You’ve got a 2-2, Murray.’ I carried on sleeping, surrounded by the broken mirrors that had fallen off the wall around me. A fitting end to my academic career.” Who were his musical influences? “I used to love Haydn, who has a lot of folk influences, and I’ve always loved the harmonic minor. I found major-key stuff incredibly boring in the classical repertoire. It’s hard to get away from Bach because everything modern and everything ancient is in there all at once. It’s atomic and spiritual and goes looking for a kind of trippy, druggy place as you ascend the mountain looking for God.” He chuckles as he exults. “David Bowie was my idol. From an early age I started dressing like him. My relatives used to say, ‘Oh, here comes little Bowie!’ ” One day in America they had a chance encounter. “I accosted him out buying an ice cream for his daughter. He was polite but didn’t want to talk to me. I’m glad I did it because he wasn’t much longer for this world.” Work as a session musician in his 20s led to Gold composing the quirky score for the BBC’s 1998 Vanity Fair. That brought him to the attention of Russell T Davies, who needed an ace for his ground-breaking Channel 4 series Queer as Folk. Gold will never forget a meeting at his flat with Davies and fellow executive Nicola Shindler. “I put some toast on in case they were hungry, but they said, ‘Let’s go for a pizza,’ so we went straight out. My toaster was malfunctioning. When we got back, there were three fire engines outside. I’d burnt down the flat!” But it marked the start of a fruitful association. A quarter of a century later, Gold is crazily busy. He’s scoring Sally Wainwright’s punk-band series Riot Women and Stephen Frears’s new drama about Margaret Thatcher. Fine-tuning his Doctor Who Prom, he promises fan-pleasing favourites but cautions, “There’s a lot of new stuff” – cues from the recent Ncuti Gatwa series that haven’t been released yet. “This isn’t going to be a jukebox musical. People aren’t necessarily coming in already humming the pieces.” He aims to capitalise on the vocal power of the London Philharmonic Choir and Russian soprano Aida Garifullina. “That’s a coup. She’s quite a star of her world.” He’s thrilled Catherine Tate is hosting the event. “Oh God, she’s great.” We’ve been talking for a couple of hours when he says, “Are you interested in hearing some music?” Not half. He fires up his computers. “I’ll open the templates. I have my family of instruments here, so there’s strings, arpeggios, every instrument under the sun.” He adds a metronomic beat and some reverb. “I’ll play a nice lyrical legato.” As he adds layer upon layer, what begins life echoing the score of a Scandi noir evolves into a Time Lordly anthem. “Multiply this process by about a million times and you’ve done a season of Doctor Who,” he says. Then he hits delete. “It no longer exists. It was just there for that tiny moment.” I have to remind him I’m recording this interview so those few bars may one day be a Gold rarity. On impulse, he launches into the jaunty 2010 theme for Matt Smith’s Doctor. It’s thrilling to hear the composer play this in his creative space. “I haven’t played that for a while,” he sighs. “Whisper it to Russell, but the chord sequences behind Doctor Who are very 1950s melodrama-ish but orchestrated in a way that gives them motive power.” He finishes by playing – and singing – the opening bars of David Bowie’s Changes. Gold indeed.
Murray Gold: "Doctor Who is the hardest job I've ever done"
The iconic composer previews this year's Doctor Who Prom - from a David Tennant suite to "old favourites".
Murray Gold could lay claim to being the busiest composer in Britain. He rarely takes a day off. It’s almost 20 years since he became the sound of Doctor Who, recently returning to the series after a five-year break. His TV CV includes the scores for Queer as Folk, Shameless, It’s a Sin, Gentleman Jack and Last Tango in Halifax. Currently, he’s working on Stephen Frears’s new drama about Mrs Thatcher and Sally Wainwright’s forthcoming Riot Women, about five friends who start a punk band. Now 55, Murray lives in north London with his wife Gemma (an actor and dancer) and their two daughters. This summer, Radio Times caught up with him to talk about his life and career and his imminent Doctor Who Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. Murray invited us to his home recording studio – his attic where all the magic happens… RT: Talk me through the actual process – from the music coming from your imagination all the way up to being realised as an orchestral score. What steps do you go through? MG: A lot of the music arises just from watching episodes of whatever I'm working on, be it Doctor Who or anything else. There's a mutually flattering, symbiotic relationship between music and film. A good picture can make the most humdrum music memorable and, vice versa, a piece of music can absolutely elevate the picture. I always feel like the music is invented just by watching and listening to the story. I block out any sense that I'm composing and just put my hands on the piano, like an old-fashioned, theatrical organist. I play along and record it. There's a good function called "retrospective record", which buffers it all as you play. RT: And do you work every day? MG: Yeah. This stretch, coming back to do Doctor Who again is, I swear, the hardest job I've ever done. I don't really know why. Maybe because the expectations are so high, the intensity of the music is unrelenting. I realised that, until a few months ago, I'd only had three days off – one for Christmas Day and a couple around my birthday. Otherwise, I've been working every day. RT: You're finding it more difficult than before, when you did it for many years? MG: The last time it was this difficult was in 2005 when Doctor Who was getting off the ground. You don't have any library to fall back on. And every episode now is wall-to-wall music. It’s virtually continuous. RT: Your decision or somebody else’s? MG: It's a branding decision. It's sort of, "This is the product we're making, where music really powers the episode." Music is on the front foot all the way. It's elevated. RT: So, what we largely hear is that what you've created here in your studio. When does the orchestral element come in? MG: There's a bit of a misunderstanding about that. We had four or five sessions with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales across last year, which covered the three 60th anniversary specials, the Christmas special and the eight episodes [of the 2024 season]. What we can record with the orchestra is about 40 minutes [per session], so that’s 200 minutes, about three hours’ worth. So seven hours of the music has to be manufactured by me here. View oEmbed on the source website RT: You’ve used choirs and vocalists before – are you using them again now? MG: Yes, there are quite a few songs, or moments of singing, but that's often just woven into the music. A lot of the time, really, the choir is just another instrument that happens along in the last 10 minutes of an episode. RT: How does the collaboration with the orchestra work? Do you do the orchestrations? MG: [Conductor] Alastair King does them, and I think he's been doing that since probably the second series of Peter Capaldi. The National Orchestra dropped off when Segun came in. [Segun Akinola was the composer for all the Jodie Whittaker episodes.] I guess he wanted to source his music elsewhere, understandably. A different approach, the more approaches the better. We did our first recordings in January 2023 for what's now known as series one, and it was really nice to see them all again. I know the section leaders and some individuals I have a particular relationship with. About 25 per cent have been there across the whole thing since 2005. [Murray is no stranger to the BBC Proms. There have been three previous Doctor Who Proms – in 2008, 2010 and 2013. His score for BBC One’s natural history series Life Story was heard at a special concert in 2015 and reprised in the 2022 Earth Prom.] RT: What can you tell us about your fourth Doctor Who Prom? It’s being performed twice on Monday 26th August. MG: We’re making a choice about what the concert repertoire is going to be. We’re at the beginning of a cycle. I suppose there may be future concerts in the next 10 years, judging by the speed at which tickets sold. Both concerts sold out after an hour. But a lot of the music has never been played, other than the first time when we recorded it for the show. It's not available on CD because none of those have been released yet. It mostly hasn't been titled, so we're botching together titles for the suites of music. RT: Yes, years back some pieces became very familiar because you could then get them on CD or hear them in other forms. So they were drummed into people's minds. MG: Yes, so this Prom isn't going to be a jukebox musical because people aren't necessarily going in already humming and knowing the pieces. There's a lot of new stuff, and there were a couple of things that we just had to slice out. It’s a shame because there's this really great climax to the [forthcoming 2024] Christmas episode – moving, heartfelt scenes. RT: Is that just instrumental, or singing as well? MG: It’s choral. I want the Prom to be as choral as possible, so they'll sing and ululate in other pieces where previously there might not have been a choir. RT: So you’re not previewing any tracks from the next Christmas special or the 2025 season? MG: That was the first thing that went. We have a hard 'out' for all sorts of legal, union and logistical reasons. We've got to be off the stage and have the lorries loaded up at a certain time. When we did all the calculations, something had to go. It's about a two-hour window. We've also got little films, specially made inserts, video inserts with Ncuti [Gatwa]... We've got a suite from the specials around David Tennant's reappearance as the Doctor. We have a suite from some of the lighter episodes and another from some of my favourites like 73 Yards and Boom, so slightly darker. And then we've got one from the finale, which will be the horror one, plus the melodrama of the ending. All of them have an eye towards the staging as well, so for each one there's something interesting in the theatrics. It's definitely a visual thing as well. We’ve got a Segun Akinola suite. And then we've got a few of the old favourites. We've tried to balance it out so that the fans aren’t disappointed by the band coming on and only playing stuff from their latest album which no one ever wants to hear. Hopefully it all fits together quite nicely. And we’ve got this really wonderful Russian soprano who lives here and she's busy at the Royal Opera House. I think that's a bit of a coup, actually. She's quite a star of her world. She’s going to be singing Vale Decem and Abigail’s Song [Doctor Who tracks from 2010]. So they are callbacks to another era. We sent her those two and that was our audition, really, for her to see if she’d be interested and she loved the songs. And that will give her an opportunity to be heard by a younger audience. RT: Has it been decided who's hosting it? MG: It's Catherine Tate. I'm really happy it's her because she's an icon of the show. She actually dropped me a note after the specials aired, saying nice things about what I'd done. Oh God, she's great! RT: What were your early influences in music? MG: When I started playing the piano, I used to love Haydn. He has lots of folk influences. I always loved the harmonic minor. I found major key stuff incredibly boring in the classical repertoire, but as soon as it went minor or was playing a little bit with chromatics, I loved it. I like vivid colours. It's hard to get away from Bach because everything modern and everything ancient is in there all at once, because it's got the shape of Philip Glass and house music, it’s atomic and it unwinds and it's spiritual and it goes looking for a kind of trippy druggy place as you ascend the mountain seeking God! RT: Were you into house and dance music? I'm thinking about when we first got to know you with Queer as Folk, which was very dance-y and upbeat. MG: Yeah, but I really loved funk more and early hip hop, which had its roots in funk. I also loved acid house because that felt intellectual to me, because you would just take one baseline on a TB-303 [synthesizer], it was very minimal, and then the filter would open up and then it would mutate across time. I loved the obsessiveness of it and it's a very odd idea of music. This is a grand reduction, but it comes from an eastern tradition more than probably the western idea of melody and harmony. Just an awareness of time. Philip Glass has that and Ravi Shankar has that, and it makes you aware of the present and the infinite at the same time. RT: Can you remember when you first met Russell T Davies for Queer as Folk in the late '90s? MG: Yeah, sure. They’d just parted company with a very eminent composer and were looking for somebody else. There was a meeting of the great and the good at Red production company, which included Russell and Nicola Shindler and Paul Abbott. Vanity Fair had just been on BBC One, the 1998 version with Natasha Little, and I'd done this mad score for it. Everyone was quite taken by it, so my name came up. Russell rang me up. We met in a hotel in Swiss Cottage and just started talking about Vanity Fair, Queer as Folk and Doctor Who. I didn't know Doctor Who still existed. I'd loved it when I was a kid but I hadn't thought about it much since. I said, "Ark in Space was my favourite episode. I always remember the moment when the man takes his hand out of his pocket and it's parasitic and green." Russell said, "He's Noah." And I thought, "How does he remember the names of these characters?" Another time, Russell and Nicola were meeting me at my flat to spot cues [choose music] for Queer as Folk. I saw them coming and put some toast on in case they were hungry. When I answered the door, they said, "Let's go for a pizza," so we went straight out. The toaster was malfunctioning and when we got back there was quite a spectacle. There were three fire engines and all the windows were gone. I’d burnt down the flat. I’ve been lucky. I was doing Vanity Fair when I was 28, and haven't ever been unemployed since then. There was Shameless, so many legendary shows. I've always been the composer of the northern poets, whether it's Sally Wainwright or Paul Abbott or Russell. RT: You took an unconventional path into making music and composing. MG: I went to Cambridge to study history. At Corpus Christi. Lovely college, absolutely wonderful place. I still dream about how I f***ed up there. I just did music and theatre and didn’t focus. I remember lying in bed surrounded by broken glass the day the results came out. People came in shouting about their results and I shouted, "What did I get?" They said, "You got a 2-2, Murray." And I was like, "Oh…" and carried on sleeping, surrounded by the broken mirrors that had fallen off the wall around me. A fitting end to my academic career. Now I sponsor one or two students a year at Corpus Christi. RT: Was music something that you felt was a drive within you? MG: No more than being in a band and dying at 30 seemed quite an attractive option. Luckily that didn't happen. I mean, David Bowie was my idol, and from an early age I started dressing like Bowie. My relatives used to say, "Oh, here comes little Bowie!" I had the big baggy trousers and jacket cut off here. I was really into all the early Bowie stuff when I was 13, so I was listening to Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs. [We pause for Murray’s 11am toast break. Then, back in the studio, attention turns to his array of computers, keyboards and other gadgetry that dominates the attic.] RT: Talk me through the various machines. MG: The main thing you need to worry about are these Apple Macs, and they all contain rows and rows of instruments. There's five in total and I can access all of them up here on this screen. There’s an analogue reverb unit – some things are irreplaceable and the digital domain just doesn't do them as well. And speakers. I do nearly all my mixing on headphones anyway. The rest is just disc drives. There are synthesizers over there and my Moog. RT: Did you have an Apple genius to help set it all up? MG: No, I did it all myself because nobody comes here and nobody helps me. [In one corner there’s a cosy little spot for Murray’s daughters (aged five and seven) to sit and play.] RT: When they're up here, do you let them hear what you're doing? MG: Yeah, I let them hear it and sometimes they say, "That's really good, Dad." But they're not allowed to watch Doctor Who yet – or anything I do. It's too scary. I feel that the current sensibility is somewhat delicate. So, unlike me, who was able to watch Doctor Who at three, one of my daughters is seven and the sensibilities of a seven-year-old are, I think, way too delicate now to watch Doctor Who. To have those scary monsters in her head. She just wouldn't sleep. RT: What was it like working with both Russell and Steven Moffat? MG: They're just like brothers with slightly different temperaments. Steven’s brilliant and Russell is such an optimistic person. He obviously has a dark side he can access, but he is a force for good. But I like the work of misanthropes as well. RT: Are there any episodes that have presented more of a challenge than others? MG: Bad episodes of any drama are the hardest to do. I was thinking the BAFTAs should have an award for special achievement in the world of bad drama. And I don't mean that ironically or to humiliate anyone, but just because it's so much easier to write a good score to a good picture, and a lot of the time you are making really good stuff but other times you're the last line of defence. You're in a completely defensive role and trying to save the team. I mean, Steven always very kindly would say, "Oh, you’ve saved us so many times." And I would never ask him which he was talking about or if it was in any way true, but I work away until it's really good, or at least I feel like it's as good as it can be, and obviously that is going to take a lot longer when what arrives is disappointing. Are you interested in hearing some music? I'll open up these templates. I'll just show you something. I have my family of instruments here, so there's strings, another set of strings, effects strings, arpeggios, just every instrument under the sun… [He starts a composition, fades in a full range of strings, adds a metronomic beat, plays notes on the keyboard and adds some reverb.] Then I’ll play a nice lyrical legato, and let's put in some of these pulses. So, you see you've already got an orchestral backdrop with a modern contemporary cinematic pulse going through it. All I need now is a picture! RT: I loved that. It started off sounding a bit Scandi noir and then it was coming closer to something from Doctor Who. MG: Trying to pull back is always a good thing. Well, I'm not going to do anything with that. [He hits delete.] That's all now been destroyed. It no longer exists. It was just for that tiny moment. RT: Well, it's recorded on my device, so that will be a Murray rarity. [Suddenly, on impulse, he plays the jaunty theme for Matt Smith’s Doctor from 2010. It’s thrilling to hear the composer play it in his creative space.] MG: I haven't played that for a while… Whisper it quietly to Russell, but the chord sequences behind Doctor Who are very 1950s melodrama-ish, but orchestrated in a way that gives them motive power. RT: I wonder what music Russell listens to when he's writing. MG: He always says he just listens to me – but I don't know how much to believe that. [To round off the morning, Murray plays – and sings – a few opening bars of David Bowie’s Changes. Gold, indeed.] Read more in Radio Times magazine. The Doctor Who Prom will take place twice on Monday 26th August at 2.30pm and 7pm in the Royal Albert Hall. The 7pm Prom will be live on BBC Radio 3, and available on BBC Sounds for 30 days afterwards. It will be televised on BBC TV later in the year. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death ★★★★★
Susan, Sutekh, Bonnie Langford... Russell 'Tease' Davies turbo-blends the Time Lord's rich heritage with Long Lost Family in an eerie and thrilling finale
Story 311 Series 14/Series One – Episodes 7 & 8 “I bring Sutekh’s dust of death” – Susan Triad Storyline The Doctor flies the Tardis into UNIT HQ, determined to solve two mysteries: the identity of Ruby’s mother and the woman whose face keeps popping up in his adventures. The modern version of the latter is tech giant Susan Triad, who is about to launch some world-changing software for free – and Mel has infiltrated her inner circle. Kate allows the Doctor to use UNIT’s time window to re-create the events of Christmas Eve 20 years ago. Wondering if Susan could be his granddaughter and fearing a trap, the Doctor is unprepared to be facing his ancient enemy Sutekh. This god-like being has been waiting aeons for revenge – latched onto and cloaked by the Tardis, evolving, and is now ready to spread his dust of death across every planet the Doctor has visited. As Earth is destroyed across time, the Time Lord, Ruby and Mel flee in the “memory Tardis” to London 2046. The secret of Ruby’s birth is the key to ensnaring Sutekh and hauling him to his demise in the space-time vortex. Finally, on Earth in 2024, Ruby meets her mother and must leave the Doctor. First UK broadcast Saturday 15 June 2024 Saturday 22 June 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Melanie Bush – Bonnie Langford Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Voice of Sutekh – Gabriel Woolf Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Colonel Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Susan Triad – Susan Twist Morris Gibbons – Lenny Rush Harriet Arbinger – Genesis Lynea Bailey Sinclair – Fela Lufadeju Colonel Winston Chidozie – Tachia Newall Corporal Alice Sullivan – Jasmine Bayes The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs Kind woman – Sian Clifford Amol Rajan – himself Roger ap Gwilliam – Aneurin Barnard Louise Miller – Faye McKeever Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Jamie Donoughue Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern This is a clutch-your-cushions finale. True, this season only started seven weeks ago and has flown past in a flash. There’s a sense that it hasn’t yet earned a grand showdown, and that with several Doctor-lite episodes we haven’t shared enough time with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson together. But their story has been running since Christmas 2023, and this two-parter concludes that with a degree of satisfaction. It is also hugely reliant on the programme’s heritage. Susan from the 1960s. Sutekh from the 70s. Mel from the 80s. And UNIT from all those decades. It engenders fan ecstasy for sure, but for new or casual viewers? The showrunner melds it all into a digestible feast and a big-dipper ride. Since Christmas, Russell “Tease” Davies has been dropping hints, feeding red herrings, misdirecting with abandon… breezily generating a vortex of speculation on social media, with some clues so simple (anagrams) that even very young viewers should figure them out. Many are toppled like dominos as the first episode unfolds, but RTD does this generously, amusingly. “S TRIAD spells out… TARDIS,” explains the Doctor, pleased with himself. “Well, obviously,” says Kate, rolling her eyes. “Even I got that,” says Colonel Ibrahim, the 2020s version of 1970s UNIT beefcake Sergeant Benton. The police box’s arrival into UNIT HQ, parking as if it were home, and UNIT’s rise from the ashes are very satisfying. UNIT has been so mucked about with in recent years. Disbanded by Chris Chibnall in Resolution (2019), it was later revived, then razed to the ground by him in The Power of the Doctor (2022). Somehow a “time window” has survived all these events and provides a grainy VHS-quality glimpse of the past. (No one asks if it can handily peep into the future.) It’s a clever device, though, which draws in the viewer as much as the participants on screen, scanning every image, every angle for revelation. It’s beautifully visualised. Episode one an exercise in building tension, drawing us towards a triple cliffhanger, three points of reveal and peril: for the Doctor and Mel at Triad HQ; for Kate in UNIT HQ; and for Ruby in the time window. The snap reveal of Susan Triad’s cadaverous face, the juddering, stealthy approach of the cowled mother figure… the stuff of shivers and nightmares. Full marks for eerie. But for me it doesn’t quite top the exquisite conclusion to World Enough and Time (2017). Not every beat lands in the edit, some of the dialogue isn’t clear. I’m being picky, but I’m vexed by indistinct diction in drama. And it’s not just the usual case of mumbles lost in the mix. I had to replay certain sections and apply subtitles. Otherwise, the casting is extremely strong. Ncuti Gatwa is luminous and magnetic (he could cut down on the blubbing), Millie Gibson totally authentic as the teenage foundling, while Bonnie Langford leaves far behind the rubbishing she received in 1980s Doctor Who with a spirited and subtle performance as Mel, especially when possessed. Jemma Redgrave is commanding but also deeply empathic. Susan Twist has come out of nowhere for me. She’s had to give all these mini-snatches of characters in recent episodes but arrives fully formed as Susan Triad, who’s actually a pleasant human being as tech giants go, innocent of being bait, and she nails that funny Theresa May dance to the podium. For many devotees it’s a total thrill that Sutekh has been revived for the first time on TV since 1975. Pyramids of Mars is a gorgeous Tom Baker-era classic – and can be relished again or anew via Tales of the TARDIS. And in full on BBC iPlayer. How wonderful that Gabriel Woolf, now 91, has revived his most famous, chilling vocal performance. A great actor and broadcaster, his earliest Radio Times credit was for Children’s Hour on the Home Service radio network in 1950. Countless roles and readings followed (including nearly 300 editions of A Book at Bedtime). In 1973, when RT asked readers for their favourite voices, R Shaw of Bolton, Lancashire responded: “The 'golden voice’ on radio or television? There is but one incomparable speaking voice, that of Gabriel Woolf.” This finale is an FX-laden extravaganza. It’s strange that the original jackal head of Sutekh from 1975, though inert and inexpressive, cannot be bettered for pure chills. Our first glimpse of the augmented 2024 version, engulfing the police box, is like a bejewelled, rabid donkey. It fares better in the second episode, given more movement and angles to appreciate how good the CGI is. This evolved Sutekh starts to gain substance. The “dust of death” disintegration of all the Doctor’s allies is excellent too, truly horrifying; as is the realisation that all the planets he’s landed on for fun across time are dying too. You just know it will all unravel and reset – it was ever thus in grandstanding Who finales – and it won’t end well for Sutekh, but it’s clever and actually, to me, very funny how Russell T resolves this. After all his travels with the Doctor, Sutekh has become a Doctor Who fan. This god-like being is reduced to the level of a TV addict, pressing pause on his destructive urges until he too, like us, learns the secret of Ruby’s heritage. And it’s also typical of RTD to wrap up the horror show by the 40-minute mark and make the final act about the Doctor and Ruby. He returns her to where she began last Christmas in a scenario straight out of ITV’s excellent show Long Lost Family, where she finally meets her lovely mum. The ordinary triumphs over the extraordinary. A happy ending indeed. And oh yes, Anita Dobson. A genuine TV goddess. And Mrs Flood. A fairy godmother who sees it all. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Episode 4 – 73 Yards review Episode 5 – Dot and Bubble review Episode 6 – Rogue review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Time Lord loses his heart to a starship bounty hunter in the most gloriously gay episode yet. Happy Pride Month!
Story 310 Series 14/Series One – Episode 6 “Some are saying the best of the season. A triumph! A new standard set. But I think the real estimation of an evening is in the matches made” – Duchess of Pemberton Storyline Bath, 1813: the Doctor and Ruby are enjoying the Bridgerton vibe at the Duchess of Pemberton’s ball, but alien shapeshifters are abroad, killing off partygoers and assuming their identities for fun. The cosplaying Chuldur are being observed by bounty hunter Rogue, who catches the Doctor’s eye and his heart. They join forces to round up the aliens and save Ruby from their clutches. First UK broadcast Saturday 8 June 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Rogue – Jonathan Groff The Duchess of Pemberton – Indira Varma Lord Barton – Paul Forman Emily Beckett – Camilla Aiko Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Lord Galpin – Maxim Ays Miss Talbot – Nancy Brabin-Platt Mr Price – David Charles The portrait – Susan Twist Housekeeper – Debra Baker Crew Writers – Kate Herron and Briony Redman Director – Ben Chessell Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern What a way to celebrate Pride Month! This is the gayest episode of Doctor Who to date – and that takes some doing after The Devil’s Chord only a few weeks previously. It’s wonderful that under Russell T Davies’s stewardship the programme has the confidence, and yes the balls, to present something this gloriously gay. And under the watchful eye of investor Disney. I wouldn’t want it every week but I quite enjoy it when the usually indifferent Time Lord is sweet on someone. This is nothing new. William Hartnell’s Doctor was smitten with Aztec lady Cameca 60 years ago, Paul McGann’s version kissed Dr Grace in the 1996 TV Movie, David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor fell for Madame de Pompadour in 2006, and River Song captured various Time Lord’s hearts – especially Peter Capaldi’s. They spent a night on Darillium that lasted 24 years. Now with Ncuti Gatwa as the dazzling lead, the show is free to pursue its passion and be truthful to the edge he lends this incarnation. American star Jonathan Groff is suave and mischievous as Rogue and a convincing match for the Doctor. People blither on about all of Groff’s TV credits (which are notable), but to me he’s a Tony-award-laden Broadway star: Spring Awakening, Hamilton and Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. All stunning. Rogue clearly bears many similarities to Captain Jack and River Song. Indeed, there’s a lot here that echoes the past. Not just Who doing Bridgerton, but Who doing Who. The Chuldur family are interchangeable with the Family of Blood from 2007. Watching this, I kept smiling and snorting with mirth, thinking, "This is so Russell." It is, but we must also pause and digest that the writing credits go to Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Just what Doctor Who needs: fresh blood and the "female gaze". It looks beautiful in all departments and plays with zip and energy. The anachronistic music choices are a hoot, from the spot-on pop tracks to the Doctor and Rogue dancing – and shocking society – to Piazzolla’s Libertango (from 1974). But the high point, after a couple of weeks’ starvation, is the chance to see just how well Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson play together as time-travelling best friends, having a high old time. Both are charming and often very funny. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Episode 4 – 73 Yards review Episode 5 – Dot and Bubble review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who legend William Russell has died aged 99
An adventure hero since the 1950s and one of the original Doctor Who cast in 1963, he had a long and varied career, captured in Radio Times across the decades
Sometime in the early 1990s I surfaced at Finchley Road station on the London Underground and spotted a familiar figure in the ticket hall. A silver fox in a dapper blazer, he was waiting to meet someone (not me), but he caught my eye and smiled kindly – and I realised I was looking into the well-preserved face of William Russell, inseparable in my heart from Ian Chesterton, the original hero of Doctor Who. He may have played many parts and many other heroes – Lancelot, Ivanhoe, Nicholas Nickleby – but Russell would always be most famous for his co-starring role in the BBC sci-fi series when it began in 1963. After that fleeting encounter I hoped to meet him one day but it would take almost two decades. In 2010, I realised Radio Times had never formally interviewed him, so I made contact and he was only too happy to speak. I arrived at his London home in a leafy terrace south of Hampstead Heath, and as soon as I’d rung the doorbell, a window flew open high above. I stepped back and saw a beaming head emerge. “Is that Patrick? I’ll be right down.” Moments later this spry man, just about to turn 86, was on the doorstep firmly shaking my hand. Then he led me up to a third-floor apartment, the Enoch family home for many years. A note: he may be known as “William Russell” professionally, but he was born William Russell Enoch (in Sunderland, 19 November 1924) and friends and colleagues called him Russell or, even likelier, Russ. I’ll call him Russell here. A vivid memory of that afternoon... He offered me tea, then apologised that his kettle was on the blink, so he was soon boiling water in a saucepan. Tottering across the kitchen with the pan to the teacups, he splashed scalding water on the lino and deployed the F word. How unlike the Mr Chesterton of my imagination! I hooted with mirth. Couldn’t help it. But it broke any ice. We shortly settled in two armchairs and whiled away a pleasant few hours talking about his life and career. I was embarrassed, really, to focus on Russell’s Doctor Who years, so long ago, when this charming and cultured man had accomplished so much in his long lifetime. But he was delighted that, for a photoshoot (below), I’d brought along an original camera script from his first episode An Unearthly Child. He’d last held a copy 47 years earlier. William Russell at his London home in 2010, with the script to the very first Doctor Who episode. Photographed by RT's Patrick Mulkern Let’s get the police box out of the way first. From 1963 to 65, Russell played Ian Chesterton, the Doctor’s first male companion, the show’s hero at a time when William Hartnell’s Doctor was really more of an anti-hero. Courageous, intelligent, good-natured, Ian was the science teacher at Coal Hill School, who taught the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan and was soon spirited away by the Tardis. Across nearly 80 episodes he fought Daleks, Aztecs, Zarbi, Saracens, befriended Marco Polo, became a gladiator for Nero and was even dubbed Sir Ian, Knight of Jaffa, by Richard the Lionheart. In those days Russell was already a well-established face on television; handsome, practically a matinee idol. He had begun theatre acting in the 1940s, and on 20 March 1954 received his first credit on BBC TV. Billed in Radio Times as Russell Enoch, he played the Rev Frank Alleyne in Lonesome Like, a Harold Brighouse play starring Wilfred Pickles. One month later (18 April) he was playing a young Yorkshireman in It Never Rains, a TV play by Lynne Reid Banks. By the end of that year, he’d switched to William Russell to play rebellious Renny in The Whiteoak Chronicles (5 December). In 1955, he bagged his own children’s TV serial as St Ives, the young French nobleman from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. On Boxing Day 1955, he played the Prince in Sleeping Beauty. (His first wife Balbina was in the cast as Lady Isobel.) In 1956, he moved to ITV to take the lead in 30 episodes of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. This has the distinction of being the first British series with episodes made in colour. In 1957, he won the distinguished lead role in the BBC’s ten-part adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby (below). Then, in 1960, St Ives was remade from scratch. An RT feature reported: “The part of St Ives will be played by William Russell, who knows France intimately and whose French – and ‘sense of Frenchness’, as one might say – is perfect. (His wife, Balbina, the actress, actually is French.)” That same year he appeared in four Sunday Night Plays for the BBC, including The Elder Statesman with Vanessa Redgrave, and An Inspector Calls. In 1961, he co-starred with a pre-007 Sean Connery in Adventure Story, a “dramatic study of Alexander the Great” by Terence Rattigan... ...and in A Song of Sixpence again with Balbina (below). In 1963, he was St John Rivers in two episodes of Jane Eyre (BBC). And Doctor Who followed shortly after that. It turned out to be an 18-month commitment that would stay with him the rest of his life... William Russell as Ian and William Hartnell as the Doctor in Doctor Who: The Web Planet. Photographed by RT's Don Smith in 1965. As we jump ahead to the 1970s, he got his first taste of soap as a rakish divorcee in Thames TV’s Harriet’s Back in Town. In 1992, he joined Coronation Street as Ted Sullivan, a sweet elderly gent who wooed and wed Rita; alas after 40 or so episodes Ted collapsed and died from a brain tumour. If the TV roles thinned out, he was well served by theatre. Back in 1960, RT observed that he’d had “great personal success in Moscow with the Old Vic Company”. Across the decades he was engaged by the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Indeed, the Bard was always close to Russell’s heart. I remember he called me a year or two after our interview and he’d just returned from Berlin, where he’d watched Macbeth in German. William Russell at his London home in 2010. Photographed by RT's Patrick Mulkern Well into later life Russell was an enthusiastic traveller, often accompanying his second wife, Dr Etheline Enoch (née Lewis), on medical engagements abroad. Yes, Russell had married a doctor! He once told me that while Etheline was attending a World Health Organisation conference in Rio de Janeiro, he would be relaxing on the beach. He also enjoyed sojourns in Aberdeen while she was engaged at a local hospital. Etheline was a great home baker too. On a second visit to their home, I was treated to some delicious macaroons she’d just baked. He’d had three children with Balbina and in his 60s became a father again with Etheline. They were proud of their son Alfie – actor Alfred Enoch – who even as a child was making a name for himself in the Harry Potter movies. Alfie later won major roles on stage and in BBC1’s Trust Me and the US series How to Get Away with Murder. While mystified by the undiminishing appeal of Doctor Who (“Extraordinary!”), Russell was always happy to give interviews to fans and attend conventions. He was thrilled to be part of the 50th anniversary celebrations given by the BBC and BFI in 2013, and graciously accepted a cameo as a BBC commissionaire in An Adventure in Space and Time. He told me he was delighted when his friends spotted a small acknowledgement I put into Radio Times (below). Advancing into his 90s, Russell cut a remarkable figure, keeping his energy going with joie de vivre, open-mindedness and a thirst for culture. In 2010 he told me: “I’m always looking forward to the next experience. You have to as an actor.” In 2022, he amazed his fans by returning to Doctor Who itself for the first time in 57 years – making a surprise cameo appearance as Ian Chesterton in The Power of the Doctor, a special programme for the BBC's centenary. He filmed it in autumn 2021 at the grand old age of 96, driven with his daughter to a secret location in Cardiff. He was pleased and determined to participate, despite failing health, both physically and mentally. I last spoke to Russell in October 2022, when he called joyously down the phone line, "Hello, Radio Times!" Of the future of Doctor Who, he remained certain of one thing: "I think it will grow!" He died on 3rd June 2024 aged 99. Your detailed guide to every adventure with the First Doctor
Slug monsters are harvesting vacuous, tech-dependent humans, but in this intriguing satire do they deserve saving?
Story 309 Series 14/Series One – Episode 5 “I am not lowering my bubble” – Lindy Storyline The young inhabitants of Finetime are dependent on their dot and bubble technology to get through their home and working lives. Interaction is constant but they are unaware that they’re being harvested and eaten by slug-like creatures, until the Doctor and Ruby intercede and try to guide Lindy and her fellows to safety. First UK broadcast Saturday 1 June 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Lindy Pepper-Bean – Callie Cooke Ricky September – Tom Rhys Harries Hoochy Pie – Niamh Lynch Harry Tendency – Aldous Ciokajlo Squire Cooper Mercy – Eilidh Loan Gothic Paul – Pete MacHale Blake Very Blue – Billy Brayshaw Valerie Nook – Millie Kent Dr Pee – Max Boast Rotterdam Twins – Elloise Bennett, Olivia Bennett Penny Pepper-Bean – Susan Twist Alan K Sullivan – Milo Callaghan Weatherman Will – Jack Forsyth-Noble Suzie Pentecost – Ellie-Grace Cashin Brewster Cavendish – Jamie Barnard Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Dylan Holmes Williams Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern We all do it. Walk around in a bubble, glued to our devices. In this intriguing satire, Russell T Davies takes that to an extreme. On Finetime – a city under a bubble dome – people go about their business constantly encased in a literal bubble of interactivity, oblivious to the fact that they and their friends are being harvested by slug-like monsters. He toyed with this idea once before in Years and Years with the “filter mask” worn by young Bethany (Lydia West) who wanted to become a “trans-human”. Diehard fans will also spot the strong debt owed to the 1967 Patrick Troughton story, The Macra Terror, in which a human colony were enslaved by giant crabs they couldn’t see. The technology and set design are gorgeous. The monsters brilliantly, disgustingly realised. And the tone is largely spot on. The vacuity of the young people of Finetime (“No stinky old folk,” says Lindy. “Just people ages 17 to 27”) is perfectly captured in the writing and performances. They are so dependent on their bubbles, they can’t walk without its directions, like the cellphone users of today who cannot put one foot in front of the other without Google Maps. Here, Lindy walks twice into a lamppost. Unfortunately in this short run we have yet another episode in which Ncuti Gatwa’s relatively new Doctor isn’t fully involved. He and Ruby pop up regularly on windows in Lindy’s bubble, steering the action, but display all the presence and allure of daytime TV hosts offering advice to a live caller. We realise before the Doctor and Ruby that they have been facilitating the evacuation of a vacuous moron. Lindy is also revealed to be treacherous in her betrayal of Ricky September, the influencer who is supposedly gorgeous. If you say so… Many viewers should have clocked early on that not only are these youngsters rich, entitled and gormless, like contestants on a reality show, but they are also all white. In the last act, Lindy and her fellow survivors are shown to be racist, rejecting further association with or assistance from the Doctor. They don’t wish to be “contaminated” because “you, sir, are not one of us”. The Tardis is “voodoo”. It’s a strong line, but this final passage is protracted and overwrought, and doesn’t hit quite as hard as it ought to. We’re left with the uncomfortable feeling he should have left them to the slugs. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Episode 4 – 73 Yards review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Millie Gibson impresses in a beautiful tale of enchantment
Story 308 Series 14/Series One – Episode 4 “The clifftops are a boundary between the land and the sea – a liminal space, neither here nor there, where rules are suspended” – Enid Meadows Storyline When the Tardis lands on a clifftop in Wales, the Doctor and Ruby stumble upon a magical "fairy circle". Once interfered with, it creates a timeline in which the Doctor has vanished and Ruby is haunted by the figure of a woman – always present but always at an intangible distance of 73 yards. Anyone who has contact with the woman flees and abandons Ruby, throughout her life, for decades, until in 2046 together they can save the world from a wicked prime minister, Roger ap Gwilliam. Only at Ruby’s death in old age does the woman come close; it is Ruby and now she has the power to reach back through time and stop the Doctor stepping into the circle. First UK broadcast Saturday 25 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Enid Meadows – Siân Phillips Roger ap Gwilliam – Aneurin Barnard Old Ruby – Amanda Walker Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Mrs Flood — Anita Dobson The Woman – Hilary Hobson Hiker – Susan Twist Lowri Palin – Maxine Evans Eddie Jones – Glyn Pritchard Thin Lucy – Elan Davies Ifor Jones – Gwïon Morris Jones Joshua Steele – Sion Pritchard Frank Hinchey Graham Butler Sanjay Miah – Ali Ariaie Rufus Bray – Albey Brookes Craig Deloach – Miles Yekinni Himself – Amol Rajan Marti Bridges – Sophie Ablett Akhim Patil – Shane David-Joseph Groundsman – Jason May Security officer – Dylan Baldwin Armed policeman – David Constant Newsreader – Deeivya Meir Eizabeth Campbell – Rhyanna Alexander-Davis Nurse – Vee Vimolmal Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Dylan Holmes Williams Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern This is ludicrous nonsense and I love it to bits. A cotton-thin premise but written with such skill, played with such conviction and beautifully filmed that it is riveting to watch from start to finish. It’s like being inside someone else’s mind – Ruby’s – and sharing her delirious dream. In a short run of eight, you wouldn’t expect a "Doctor-lite" episode (Ncuti Gatwa had to dash off to Sex Education), but it throws light on Ruby, and the extremely impressive Millie Gibson – only 18 here in her first-filmed episode – carries the story alone. Every emotion, every doubt and every revelation. She’s excellent throughout, even if the ageing process doesn’t entirely convince. But you go with it, as if in a spell, until at last Amanda Walker (in her late 80s with a career stretching back to the 1950s) takes over and gives a similarly poignant and persuasive performance. Russell T Davies’s fast-forward narrative and the pernicious politician, Roger ap Gwilliam, recall the events of RTD’s Years and Years (2019) and PM Vivienne Rook, played by Emma Thompson. In scant screen time, Aneurin Barnard nails "the most dangerous PM in history", eg Mad Jack, and it’s very funny when he freaks out in the stadium, unmanned by the spectral woman. Any drama that powerfully evokes a mystical landscape has me on side. That’s one reason why I enjoyed the forgotten 2017 episode The Eaters of Light by Rona Munro, which imbued the Scottish Highlands with ancient forces. Here it’s Wales, where the clifftops feel like the edge of reality. I love how supernatural elements are creeping in, from the fairy circle that mustn’t be broken, to the mysterious woman, a familiar spirit always at an intangible, unidentifiable 73 yards’ distance. I guessed early on that she was a version of Ruby communicating across time, but the deathbed reveal is still chilling and satisfying. Like the end of 2001: a Space Odyssey. Simultaneously revelatory but opaque, beyond time and explanation. We don’t discover why the Doctor disappears. It's not clear why those who closely encounter the woman flee in fear. It’s as if they’ve seen a ghost, albeit one from the future; but they also succumb to the power of a spell that has Ruby at its heart. They deny her the truth, and of course in narrative terms they could never tell Ruby what or whom they’ve seen or the threads would collapse. The story is Ruby’s, a foundling since birth and now rejected by all."Don’t worry," she says. "Everyone has abandoned me my whole life. But I haven’t been alone for 65 years." In death, she reaches back to her younger self, only just audibly warning, "Don’t step…" to break the spell. I love that 73 Yards doesn’t entirely add up, it doesn’t fully explain itself or need to, and that is part of its magic. Its enchantment keeps working long after the finish. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Steven Moffat is back in a tense episode about faith, fatherhood and love.
Story 307 Series 14/Series One – Episode 3 “One wrong move and I go BOOM! All food mixer” – the Doctor Storyline In the year 5087, on the war-ravaged Kastarion 3, the Doctor steps on a landmine. Ruby is determined to help but one false move and they will die, as will the ordained Anglican marines deployed in the vicinity. Without moving, the Time Lord must outwit the deadly technology and the so-called Ambulances that are sweeping the battlefield. First UK broadcast Saturday 18 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson John Francis Vater – Joe Anderson Carson – Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy Splice Alison Vater – Caoilinn Springall Mundy Flynn – Varada Sethu Canterbury James Olliphant – Bhav Joshi Ambulance – Susan Twist Crew Writer – Steven Moffat Director – Julie Anne Robinson Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Anne Robinson, Steven Moffat RT review by Patrick Mulkern After two frantic episodes, Boom offers a welcome gear change. A sophisticated landmine stops Ncuti Gatwa in his tracks, rooting his quicksilver Doctor to the spot almost for the duration. A tense predicament unfolding in real time obliges him and Ruby to catch their breath, and be calm, brave and resourceful. Gatwa and Millie Gibson impress throughout. Fatherhood and blind faith are the themes of the week. The first character seen in close-up personifies both – a sightless Anglican marine and father whose very surname is Vater – "father" in German. To spare our sniggers, this is given an English pronunciation, not the German "farter". Vater will soon be a ghost, an AI hologram, thanks to a so-called "ambulance" that cruelly dispenses death on the battlefield. Its interface offers "Thoughts & Prayers" with all the glibness of politicians and social media types who claim to be "so sad" whenever anyone of note "passes". ("Ambulance" is also the latest guise for Susan Twist, bolstering her increasingly bizarre Who CV.) The Time Lord suggests that faith, especially blind unquestioning faith, has led to most, if not all, conflict in world history. In Boom, humankind has taken it to the stars. Faith in war, faith in technology, and these marines are the Clerics, a militarised religious organisation who first appeared in The Time of Angels (2010). It’s a strong message but interesting that these marines are “ordained Anglican”, a soft target. Imagine substituting any other faith or denomination there and watch that BOOM! It’s great to see Steven Moffat back in the driving seat after a seven-year absence. He still writes with ingenuity, playing with words and tech and, more than anything, tugging the heart. There are three types of love story here. Between father Vater and daughter Splice; between the shy marines Mundy and Canterbury. And yes, as Mundy follows Sunday, this is our first glimpse of Varada Sethu, who’ll join the series as the next companion. The third love is between best friends, the Doctor and Ruby. The little hug they share in the police box doorway right at the end is my favourite moment of the episode. There’s no hint of yearning, no Rose/Martha/Amy doe-eyed attraction. Just deep affection. And a smidgeon of Larkin, slightly misquoted by the Time Lord: "As a sad old man once told me, 'What survives of us is love.'" Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Two Maestros – Russell T Davies at an audacious peak and hilariously OTT Jinkx Monsoon – create musical delirium
Story 306 Series 14/Series One – Episode 2 “My notation is Maestro… I am music” – Maestro Storyline In the 1920s, a music teacher inadvertently opens the gateway for a terrifying creature to enter our universe. The demonic Maestro will rob the world of melody, even of the Beatles’ greatest hits – as the Doctor and Ruby discover when they arrive in London 1963. Who can find the right chord to send Maestro back to oblivion? First UK broadcast Saturday 11 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Maestro – Jinkx Monsoon Timothy Drake – Jeremy Limb Henry Arbinger – Kit Rakusen George Martin – Ed White Paul McCartney – George Caple John Lennon – Chris Mason George Harrison – Philip Davies Ringo Starr – James Hoyles Cilla Black – Josie Sedgwick-Davies Tea trolley lady – Sherinne Kayra Anderson Studio producer – Chan Shoker Tea lady – Susan Twist Vinnie – Simon Jason-Smith Elderly woman – Laura June Hudson Shirley Ballas – Herself Johannes Radebe – Himself Murray Gold – Himself Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Ben Chessell Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Released/broadcast/dropped a semi-quaver after the disappointing Space Babies, The Devil’s Chord elevates Doctor Who back into the realms of delirium and genius. No matter that not one note of the Beatles is heard. No matter that this Abbey Road is clearly nowhere near London NW8. No matter that the Fab Four look nothing like the originals but disturbingly like Ann Widdecombe’s discarded love-children. This is peak Russell T Davies. On astonishing top form. Doctor Who at its most audacious and highly entertaining. Maestro is an extraordinary creation – jaw-droppingly OTT, scenery-devouring, a note-perfect performance from Jinkx Monsoon. Hilarious, savage company. A fun night out. A presence that only a Drag Queen Supreme with decades of experience could command. And such are Maestro's metaphysical powers, even the opening theme music can be controlled. Maestro bursts from and recoils into pianos, hunts with a tuning fork, ensnares victims in reams of staves and clamps them in instruments. Maestro sucks music out of the world so that the Beatles and Cilla bleat out abysmal songs, and an orchestra staggers through Three Blind Mice. The simple repetition of the giggle from The Giggle is chilling. If the Toymaker was “a living game”, his child Maestro is “the essence of music itself”, as Russell T Davies establishes a new pantheon of camp superbaddies. It’s vast and intriguing. He's the true maestro at work here. Davies's free-rolling, witty script is well matched by a welter of brilliantly framed, comic-strip shots from director Ben Chessell. Any reservations about the leads lingering from Space Babies evaporate in this episode. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson skate across the screen. An immensely winning couple with great chemistry. And what a challenge for Murray Gold. To render a world with a dearth of music, write a number of pieces reflecting that, and fighting against it – culminating in a joyful song-and-dance spectacular. There's Always a Twist at the End is like Glee does Sweet Charity – a triumph for all, from costume to choreography, but especially for the composer, who gets a blink-and-you'll-miss cameo at the piano. There are lots of nods to the past. The fact that the 15th Doctor realises his Hartnell incarnation is living across town in Shoreditch at this moment with his granddaughter. We see a sweet cameo for (Laura) June Hudson, now acting, but of course better known among fans as costume designer to Tom Baker. And don't overlook that the actor/musician playing 1920s piano teacher Timothy Drake is Jeremy Limb. He's the son of Roger Limb, who composed music for eight 1980s Who serials, including fan favourite The Caves of Androzani. We carry the past with us, but this re-energised version of Doctor Who is talking to the future. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who '70s legend returns for cameo – and breaks down "gruesome" fate
June Hudson makes an incredible return to Doctor Who in The Devil's Chord.
*Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Who season 14 episode 2, The Devil's Chord, ahead.* A frisson of recognition rocked around Doctor Who fandom when June Hudson popped up in the trailer for the new season – screaming at some unseen horror. In episode two, The Devil’s Chord, she plays a lonely old woman menaced by the new villain Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon). Hudson was already Doctor Who royalty for her time as a BBC costume designer. In the 1970s and '80s, she created clothes for Tom Baker’s Doctor as well as his companions, Time Lady Romana (played by Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward) and air-hostess Tegan (Janet Fielding). In 2003, she designed a brand-new costume for Baker commissioned by Radio Times. “Tom still emails me,” she says fondly. But in recent decades, Hudson, aged 91, has taken on acting roles, in BBC sitcom This Country, Ricky Gervais’s Derek, Class, and the 2024 comedy film Wicked Little Letters. Now she’s fulfilling her ambition to act in Doctor Who. “I’d gone for various auditions on Doctor Who,” she tells RadioTimes.com, “including the awful mother on the train in the Egyptian one [Mummy on the Orient Express], but I couldn’t make that because I was lecturing in California". Hudson reveals she was offered this latest part without an audition, but her agent nearly turned it down because there was no dialogue. “The casting director Andy Pryor replied, ‘Well, dialogue isn’t appropriate in this case because it's about a lonely old woman living on her own. It’s a good part and requires a lot of acting. It’s not a walk-on,'" she recalls. She filmed her scene in Cardiff in April 2023. “I can never walk into a studio without feeling high. It was a very big studio with lots of little sets, and mine was my living room where I had a piano. "My character is transfixed by this strange music, raises the piano lid and this frightful monster leaps out. Jinkx Monsoon looking absolutely fabulous as Maestro! “I get murdered, of course,” says Hudson, with delight. “A very gruesome demise. I’m torn to pieces, though you don’t see it on screen. In fact, the role itself required a lot of screaming.” She enjoyed meeting her modern counterpart, costume designer Pam Downe. “I had the honour of being personally fitted by Pam. She took the time to show me her workroom and all the costumes for Jinkx. Wow, what exquisite clothes! I was lost in admiration. “It was a very happy day,” says Hudson. “I even had my own trailer, and was introduced to the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and Millie Gibson [Ruby]. Both so lovely.” Last October, she was invited to a sound studio in London to rerecord her wailing in sync with the edited sequence: “They wanted much, much louder screams! It was overwhelming, really, to be trusted on the show as an actor. I thought, ‘I do not want to regret not giving my all’ – to Doctor Who above all.” View Green Video on the source website Doctor Who returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 11th May 2024. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ncuti Gatwa sizzles and cute babies talk, but this frenetic season opener fails to excite
Story 305 Series 14/Series One – Episode 1 “If things connect, then you are connecting like crazy” – the Doctor Storyline Ruby Sunday joins the Doctor on his adventures – first stop, prehistory, where she nearly changes evolution. They move on to a space station in orbit above the planet Pacifico del Rio. A baby farm has been abandoned by society and the tiny survivors live in terror of a Bogeyman. First UK broadcast Saturday 11 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Jocelyn Sancerre – Golda Rosheuvel Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Eric – Mason McCumskey Voice of Eric – Sami Amber Poppy – Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps Voice of Poppy – Shola Olaitan-Ajiboye Voice of Sandra – Cadence Williams Voice of Marcel – Param Patel Voice of Adjani – Lonnee Archibong Bogeyman – Robert Strange Rico Trieste – Jesús Reyes Ortiz Lucia Colasanto – Yasmine Bouabid Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Julie Anne Robinson Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Anne Robinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Sometimes programmes with the naffest titles confound expectations. Space Babies is not among them, sadly. It's a new experience for me to dislike something written by Russell T Davies – whom I greatly admire – but my finger wavered over the one-star button, such is my antipathy to this instalment. Cute babies should tug at your heartstrings. Baby-farmed little 'uns abandoned by an uncaring society, even more so. These babies zip around in pushchairs, run an orbital station, and can even talk (clever effects). They're aging but seem to be in arrested development. Never had a hug. This should bring out one's protective parental instinct but weirdly it all lands flat. There's nothing to feel here. We observe a lot of dashing about, fleeing from a monster and hiding in shadows, but the excitement levels simply don't transmit. The bowels of the space station have generated a literal Bogeyman, a creature composed of bogeys and snot – nine years if not light years from the ludicrous dust monsters created from human eye mucus in Sleep No More (2015). Despite the frenetic chases, it poses little tangible threat and ultimately becomes another “space baby” that the Doctor must save, an only-one-of-its-kind with whom the Last of the Time Lords empathises. In an amusing, again quite literal crap ending, the Doctor “lets rip” six years' worth of nappy methane to propel the station into another orbit. Space Babies is positioned as a soft reset, the launch of supposedly another “season one” in some territories, but offers none of the panache of Rose from 2005. The 15th Doctor gives Ruby the same space-portal vista and phone home moment that the ninth Doctor gave Rose in The End of the World, only with far less impact. As a jumping-on point, perhaps wisely, it eschews timeworn mystification. Within the first few minutes, any newbies, along with Ruby, receive a crash course in the basics of Doctor Who, the workings of the Tardis and the latest holding pattern for Time Lords. (It's lovely to hear Murray Gold revisit a motif from his 2007 theme, This Is Gallifrey.) Ncuti Gatwa – buff, dynamic, crackling with energy – often dances across the screen. He is rarely still but benefits whenever such moments come and the camera lingers in close-up on his piercing gaze. Then, he is the Time Lord. Millie Gibson has a different energy, refreshingly playing her age, but is required to flit from thoughts and responses almost beat by beat in the off-kilter pacing. In this fast 45-minute slot, the duo are constantly reacting. It's snap, snap, snap, in search of a rhythm. RTD is expert at setting up clues and threads. The snow from another time is eerie, while a “mystery woman” never fails to be intriguing and has served Doctor Who well for aeons – from River Song to Madame Kovarian, via Missy and Impossible Girl Clara, right back to Susan Foreman in An Unearthly Child. They are in the DNA of Doctor Who. Ruby, the cowled “mother” figure and the woman that keeps popping up played by Susan Twist (here a comms officer on a monitor) are the latest batch and presumably interlinked. You cannot fault RTD's audacity. Both launch episodes are bold, but each to their own tastes. For me, Space Babies is Diaper Who, whereas The Devil's Chord screams to be loved. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Shoulder to Shoulder, the TV classic about the suffragettes, is 50 years old – we speak to Dame Siân Phillips, Waris Hussein and Moira Armstrong
We celebrate the making of Shoulder to Shoulder with its star and directors - plus rare photos from the Radio Times archive.
Shoulder to Shoulder was a landmark BBC drama series in 1974 – six 75-minute plays about the struggles of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in their fight for equality and to win the right to vote. Radio Times even published a special magazine on the subject 50 years ago. The series is now being repeated on BBC Four for its 50th anniversary – and to mark the 90th birthday of its star, Dame Siân Phillips. We speak to her and to the programme’s two directors, Waris Hussein and Moira Armstrong. Dame Siân Phillips Dame Siân has had a long and illustrious acting career, taking in theatre, film, TV and radio, as well as writing her two-volume autobiography. She won a BAFTA in 1977 for playing Empress Livia in I, Claudius, and is soon to guest star in the 2024 season of Doctor Who. In the 1970s, she was even an occasional Radio Times columnist. Now she shares her memories of 1974’s Shoulder to Shoulder with RadioTimes.com. "It was an important series and a very good one. It was also highly unusual because there were lots of women in the cast and the producers were all women too – Midge Mackenzie, Georgia Brown and, of course, Verity Lambert. She was a very distinguished person. "I'd never been in a play in my life that had nearly all women in it. At first I was doubtful, because I thought, 'It's going to be all rows and complaining about make-up and hair and who's doing what… but never mind, it's going to be worth doing.' "But there was not one disagreement from beginning to end. I've never known such camaraderie. It was a life-changing show to be on because it just showed what we women could do left to ourselves. I enjoyed it so much. I really loved it. "Quite honestly, I was very pleased to get the part of Mrs Pankhurst. We all started reading up on the suffragettes and became experts on the subject. They laid all the textbooks out in the rehearsal rooms so everybody could read them. "We wanted script changes. We would say, 'Well, what about the scene where they did this? And why haven't you put in this in?' The poor writers were going mad! And it had very good scriptwriters – Ken Taylor, who was the chief one, and Alan Plater. "It took seven months in all. There was a huge cast of women and even a woman camera person at one point. Moira Armstrong was one of the directors, and Waris Hussein was brought in, according to all accounts, by Verity, who was a friend of his, to address the balance of all women doing the whole thing. He was a wonderful director with women, actually. "Very often we were filming on the run. We had to film all the speeches at dawn when nobody was about. I remember climbing onto the plinth of Nelson's Column to deliver one speech when there was no traffic. We had to fit shots in between buses and modern taxis, which happened to be about. "Obviously, a lot of it was not enjoyable, because the suffragettes had a pretty bad time – all the arrests, the police brutality, the force-feeding. "What was amazing, after the programme finished, I went off to the west of Ireland and somebody said, 'You know, there’s a suffragette living in this neighbourhood. A Miss Robinson. Would you like to meet her?' I said, 'I certainly would!' "Margaret Robinson was nearly 100 and almost blind but had baked a cake for me. She’d been a headmistress and chair of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association. One day she’d received a message from Mrs Pankhurst – my character – to go to London with a brick and, on a certain cue, smash a window. That was the day all the glass on Regent Street was broken. "But she wouldn't have dreamt of not coming on Mrs Pankhurst's request. How wonderful to make that connection." Director Waris Hussein Well-known to RadioTimes.com readers as one of the founding fathers of Doctor Who, Waris Hussein, 85, has had a wide-ranging career: directing prestigious BBC Plays of the Month including A Passage to India; working with Bette Davis, Shirley MacLaine and Barry Manilow in Hollywood; and winning a BAFTA for Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). In 1973 and '74, he directed episodes one, two, three and six of Shoulder to Shoulder. "I’d just had a disaster with Divorce His – Divorce Hers, a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and the phones went silent in America. Nobody wanted to employ me, and I was literally hiding in the hills with a friend when I got a phone call from Verity. "'I want you to stop hiding, Waris, because I've got a job for you. It's about the Pankhursts, the suffragettes.' I said I hadn't a clue about them, but she said, 'Get on a plane to England and we'll talk about it.' That was Verity. She was persistent, thank God. "She went to the BBC’s head of drama, Christopher Morahan, and told him, 'I'm thinking of Waris for the suffragettes.' And he said, 'Oh dear, really? Do you think he knows enough about our history?' And Verity said, 'Christopher, he's been here since he was nine.' 'Oh, well, in that case it should be all right…' That was the kind of dialogue I used to get, questioning my ability. It was very loaded. "So I joined the show. Siân was already cast and was perfect for the role of Emmeline Pankhurst, because she really does look rather like her, though she's a taller version of her. "I cast Angela Down as her daughter Sylvia. She was perfect as the socially conscious artist who is dedicated to a cause, and Angela gave it that kind of depth I really respect. I believed in Angela totally as a woman who becomes a suffragette. "For her sister Christabel, Verity originally wanted Helen Mirren, and Helen desperately wanted to do it but was working in America and couldn’t be released. So we cast Patricia Quinn, who had just done The Rocky Horror Show at the Royal Court. She became a very apt addition. In her later years, Christabel ended up in Los Angeles surrounded by adoring movie stars and became this mystical figure who would lead women to freedom. "As Mr Pankhurst, I had Michael Gough, who I loved working with. A very good actor. And I cast Pam St Clement, who ended up in EastEnders as Pat Butcher – she played a big butch wardress in Holloway Prison, going, 'All right then, love…' "In episode three, Judy Parfitt became Lady Constance Lytton, who was sent to Holloway Prison. She went on hunger strike and was force-fed. That script was all about social discrimination – if you were an aristocrat, you’d be treated very softly in Holloway, but they thought she was a working-class woman and she was treated like s**t. She had a heart condition and later she died from it. That's part of the cruelty of it all. "When we were rehearsing, I found out the mechanics of force-feeding and realised it’s not very pleasant – tubes down the nose – and had to be careful how we showed it. I chose to shoot it from above, looking down, so you weren’t in proximity to the instruments of torture. "We only had five minutes left in the studio at Television Centre – the crew were going to close down at 10pm because of the union rules. I was panicking and Judy was lying on her back with this tube being put into her nose. Everyone in the studio and control room was in absolute panic. But we managed to get it done. When you look at it now, because there was such tension setting into the studio and beyond, it works really well - and is pretty horrifying. "It was fascinating for me to do this. As an example, we were supposed to be shooting in Manchester 1904, whereas we actually shot in Hebden Bridge, which resembled Manchester at the time. "There were all these Bengali immigrants who had recently arrived. Here am I, this little brown number calling 'Action!' and 'Stop!', being watched by lots of little brown numbers who’d climbed the tops of trees, looking down at me, wondering, 'Who the f**k is this guy!?' ordering about the middle-class Pankhurst family with their horses and carriages, and long dresses and hats. It was quite a funny sight. "The very last image in episode six is of two women – Sylvia Pankhurst and a friend – discussing their achievement. They are walking away from us, and I was determined to shoot the Houses of Parliament in the background, but this was a period drama, we were terrified we might not be able to do it because of the traffic. "Funnily enough, the season was with us. It was a grey day, there was a mist, and these two women are walking away from camera, tiny dots on the landscape. It was almost surreal as they walk away into the future. To me it was a significant ending, and said everything about the achievement of these two women and where they had come from. And that was the end of the series." Director Moira Armstrong Moira Armstrong directed episodes four and five of Shoulder to Shoulder in 1974. She had a remarkable TV career, with credits ranging from the mid 1960s (Z Cars and Dr Finlay’s Casebook) to the acclaimed Sunset Song in 1971. She directed the creepy Armchair Thriller serial Quiet as a Nun in 1978, and won a BAFTA for Testament of Youth (1979). She was still working well into her 70s in 2010 on Lark Rise to Candleford. Now 94, she lives in West London, close to the offices of Radio Times. "I was very pleased to be asked to direct Shoulder to Shoulder. I knew Verity Lambert very well because she produced Adam Adamant Lives! [1966–67] and I’d directed a few of those. I respected her and thought she was a very good producer. I liked her work. She was clever and good at getting on with people and making everyone work together. "Working on Shoulder to Shoulder was very enjoyable altogether. We all got on with each other well, which I suppose isn’t a surprise, but it was unusual to have so many women around in positions of influence. Back then, they would usually be helping other people but, in this case, were actually doing the job. "I remember complaining to Verity that if you read about the funeral of Emily Davison – the woman who threw herself in front of the king's horse – there were a thousand people in Piccadilly Circus that day, but I had only 36 extras. 'How do I make them like a thousand people?' Verity said, 'That’s your problem.' So I thought, 'OK then, I'll have to solve it somehow…' "My AFM [assistant floor manager] was a very industrious girl, and she said, 'I want to research what actually happened at the funeral.' We covered up the fact that we didn't have a lot of people by choosing a lot of colours – the peonies they were carrying and the velvet of the coffin. We solved it by concentrating on colour. "In those days I didn't find any difficulties as a woman director. I suppose what helped was I’d been a PA [production assistant] for Jim McTaggart – a very good director – for quite some time before I became a director myself. I got to know all the camera crews, so they knew I knew what I was doing on the studio floor, which was a great help. "I'm amazed and very pleased that Shoulder to Shoulder is being repeated, because the present generation probably doesn't know what actually went on with the suffragettes. And it’s very good, I think, looking back on it." Shoulder to Shoulder episode guide A series of six plays created by Midge Mackenzie, Verity Lambert and Georgia Brown. Principal cast Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst – Siân Phillips Sylvia Pankhurst – Angela Down Christabel Pankhurst – Patricia Quinn Dr Pankhurst – Michael Gough Annie Kenney – Georgia Brown Lady Constance Lytton – Judy Parfitt Emily Wilding Davison - Sheila Ballantine Dame Ethel Smyth – Maureen Pryor 1: The Pankhursts (First shown 3 April 1974 on BBC2) Written by Ken Taylor, directed by Waris Hussein 1898: Dr and Mrs Pankhurst and their four children are living comfortably in Manchester. However, in that year an event occurs which will radically change all their lives 2: Annie Kenney (First shown 10 April 1974 on BBC2) Written by Alan Plater, directed by Waris Hussein 1904: Annie Kenney – a mill worker since the age of 10. What has Women's Suffrage to offer her? 3: Lady Constance Lytton (First shown 17 April 1974 on BBC2) Written by Douglas Livingstone, directed by Waris Hussein 1908: Constance Lytton: daughter of the Viceroy of India, she came from one of the leading families in the land. Almost any door was open for her 4: Christabel Pankhurst (First shown 24 April 1974 on BBC2) Written by Ken Taylor, directed by Moira Armstrong Black Friday – 18th November 1910. A violent struggle in Parliament Square between suffragettes and police. But why don't the police arrest the suffragettes...? 5: Outrage (First shown 1 May 1974 on BBC2) Written by Hugh Whitemore, directed by Moira Armstrong The campaign grows: suffragettes destroy property and Emily Wilding Davison becomes a martyr to the cause 6: Sylvia Pankhurst (First shown 8 May 1974 on BBC2) Written by Ken Taylor, directed by Waris Hussein 1914: War is declared, and women still do not have the vote The first three episodes will be shown on BBC Four on Wednesday 17th April. The final three the following week. Dame Siân Phillips, Waris Hussein and Moira Armstrong reunite to discuss the series in a special introduction on 17th April (BBC Four). Catch up on BBC iPlayer. 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Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road ★★★★
A spirited reset as Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson encounter mischievous Goblins and Davina McCall
Story 303 2023 Christmas Special “Health and safety – gin and tonic division” – the Doctor Storyline Davina McCall is hoping to help teenage orphan Ruby Sunday trace her parents via DNA records, but in the run-up to Christmas 2023 both women are beset by a spate of increasingly dangerous accidents – caused by mischievous Goblins. Ruby befriends the new Doctor at a London nightclub, while at home her adoptive mother Carla is preparing to foster a baby over Christmas. When this newborn is abducted by the Goblins and taken to their ship in the clouds to be eaten by a Goblin King, the Doctor and Ruby race to the rescue. First UK broadcast Monday 25 December 2023 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Davina McCall as herself Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Denzel – Bobby Bradley Trudy – Mary Malone Abdul – Hemi Yeroham Ruth Lyons – Gemma Arrowsmith Goblins – Rachelle Beinart, Jess Judge, Dilu Miah, Giuseppe Lentini, Andrew Francis, Lukas Disparrow Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Mark Tonderai Series producer – Vicki Delow Producer – Chris May Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter RT review by Patrick Mulkern I’ve never seen Doctor Who as an inherently Christmassy commodity, but others do and I’m delighted that, after a six-year lull, the show has regained its linchpin status in the BBC1 Christmas Day schedule and has the chance of a bigger audience. In The Church on Ruby Road the yuletide trappings are fairly minimal: a countdown to Christmas, a smattering of snow, a new companion born on Christmas Eve, and street decorations and a tree made deadly. Instead of elves toiling for Santa, a band of mischievous Goblins steal babies to feed their monstrous king. More importantly, this episode offers a soft reset, introducing the new pairing who’ll be fronting the series for the foreseeable future. We’ve already had a decent dose of Ncuti Gatwa (in The Giggle), and he is a bright new star – his own cosmos of charisma – while Millie Gibson displays confidence and innocence, a natural talent remarkable for an actor in her late teens. And she is tested in her first scene, a one-to-one with Davina McCall. Scripted interviews always have a whiff of artifice, no matter how off-the-cuff the participants aim to appear, and this is no exception. Filmed many months into the production schedule, The Church on Ruby Road finds Gatwa and Gibson having already established some chemistry, and future episodes should provide a few more sparks. Their initial encounter in a nightclub is certainly novel as Ruby spies the Doctor in a state of euphoria on the dancefloor, gyrating in a kilt to the sound of Touch by Hybrid Minds. You wouldn’t have caught William Hartnell doing that. Matt Smith, yes. It’s a distant echo of a clubbing scene early on in Russell T Davies’s brilliant Queer as Folk (1999). The series of accidents that befall Ruby and Davina provide amusement and a tinge of peril; they don’t add up to a whole lot of sense, and the Doctor’s explanation about a “tapestry” of coincidence somehow benefiting the Goblins is threadbare. The naughty Goblins are brilliantly realised, their baby-feasting antics lending a dark edge, and their much-vaunted song veering towards The Muppet Show. I have no idea what’s real, what’s puppetry and what’s CGI, which is as it should be, and the steer towards fantasy doesn’t bother me. The grounding of Doctor Who in humdrum reality is Russell T Davies’s forte and when Ruby’s foster-home set-up with mum Carla and gran Cherry starts to feel too perfect, too pleased-with-itself cosy, Davies opens a fridge door on their domestic bliss so that time is distorted, Ruby never came into their lives 18 years earlier, and Carla and Cherry’s outlook is much colder and harsher. Ruby joins a very long line of companions unencumbered by parents. Orphans in time and space, from Susan, Vicki, Dodo and Victoria in the 1960s, through to Amy and Clara of more recent times. So Ruby is no exception, although she is on a mission to find her mum and dad, who appear untraceable. It’s a mystery that will play out in weeks to come. Another, it seems, is the sudden uncanny wisdom of Ruby’s neighbour Mrs Flood, who interrupts the credits roll with “Never seen a TARDIS before?” Anita Dobson is a wonderful presence. I’ve adored her ever since her EastEnders heyday. I’ll never forget a moment at Elstree in 1986 when I held the canteen door open for Anita and, in full Walford drag (her not me), she flashed me a devastating smile and thanked me. I’d met Angie Watts! More Mrs Flood soon, please. Catch up on past episodes in the Radio Times Doctor Who Story Guide
Rare Doctor Who photographs discovered after 53 years
Don Smith's previously unpublished photos of Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Roger Delgado from December 1970.
The Radio Times photo archive is always yielding surprises, but we believed we’d accounted for every last morsel of Doctor Who. That is until a few months ago, when a set of 24 black-and-white negatives was discovered in the files of our late and much-missed RT staff photographer Don Smith. Never catalogued, never scanned nor printed before, they had lain forgotten since he took them in December 1970. Broadcasting historian Steve Arnold stumbled upon them while helping to sort through Don’s collection after his death last year. During a career that began in the 1950s – much of it working for Radio Times – Don had preserved thousands of unused photos. “He hated seeing anything go into a skip so took it upon himself to become a sort of archive of the unwanted,” says Steve, who became friends with Don and visited him in hospital the day he died. Calling at Don’s house in the weeks that followed, Steve encountered “stacks of material. I’d promised I’d help him but the task was monumental and I’m grateful to Don’s family that they trusted me to get on with it. The sheer volumes meant I couldn't stop and fully comprehend what was there, although it was obvious there were long-lost Doctor Who images passing through my hands and into boxes to deal with later.” The pictures were taken on Saturday 5th December 1970 on the set of a story called The Mind of Evil, in Studio 6 at BBC Television Centre in London. It was the recording day for Episodes Three and Four, which were subsequently broadcast in February 1971. Jon Pertwee was into his second year as the third Doctor, Katy Manning played his plucky companion Jo Grant, and together they were tackling the latest diabolical scheme of the Master (Roger Delgado). He had seized control of a men’s prison with the Keller Machine, which housed an alien parasite feeding on criminal impulses. Katy is delighted to see the pictures for the first time 53 years later. “Back in my day they didn’t take a lot of studio shots that we ever saw, so seeing these now is absolutely wonderful. I think they’re extraordinary.” They’re particularly luminous because they were taken on the higher-quality, two-and-a-quarter-inch-square film, sometimes called “medium format”, which by the early ‘70s Don Smith had been moving away from, in favour of 35mm film. “The Mind of Evil was only my second story – after Terror of the Autons – and a slightly different one for Jo,” says Katy. “She got to take on a whole prison full of blokes and show that she was made of tough stuff. People often forget that Jo was quite handy when necessary and was already starting to show her colours. It was a great story to have Roger in as well.” The Doctor and Jo may have been bitterly opposed to the Master on screen but relations were very different off camera. “We all got on frightfully well, and by this point we’d also been to Roger’s house for dinner so we were all bonding, which became so apparent through the three years we worked together. We always discussed how we were going to do something and worked hard to make Doctor Who an incredibly strong show.” She looks back on that formative period with immense fondness. “Right from the start, Jon, Roger and I formed such a strong bond. They were mentors to me. I’d had very little television experience so was like a little sponge sucking everything up. I learnt from Roger especially a lot about the art of television acting, and from Jon I was already hearing the most wonderful stories about the entertainment business. “I soon realised that I was in a very safe and happy place with people who were going to teach me so much but also seemed to warm to me. I adored them all. And I love Jon’s hair in these photos, that length. He was already going to my hairdresser!” Jo Grant became the first long-running female companion, staying three years and winning the hearts of millions. Katy left in 1973, but the magic of Doctor Who has never left her. She adores her association with the show and has returned to the role many times. Now Jo Jones, she has featured in dozens of Big Finish audio dramas, in The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2010 and, in more recent times, in films shot especially for the BBC’s Doctor Who Blu-ray box sets. Last year, there was a surprise cameo in The Power of the Doctor, which she describes as “a tiny little ‘Hello, is that Jo?!’ in the 59th”. How does it feel still being associated with the programme 50 years later? “I’ve grown into Jo Jones. So it’s the same character but she’s had an enormous life that’s now arced into the loss of her husband Cliff. You’d never have imagined back then in 1971 that all this would happen for this wonderfully wacky, clumsy, naïve person.” Just this year, Katy was back filming her own moving edition of Tales from the TARDIS. It brings us up to date with Jo, now a grandmother and a widow reflecting on love and loss. “It was very emotional for me,” says Katy, whose Doctor Who co-stars and friends died many years ago. “I felt a flash of ‘double memory’ as both Jo and myself of some of the people that I had truly loved in my life.” She even wore one of the Doctor’s original jackets, now owned by writer/actor/fan Mark Gatiss. “It still feels Jon, it almost smells Jon – it’s filled with Pertwee!” says Katy. “I’d nestled under it on so many cold locations. Whenever someone has a velvet jacket on now, I get butterflies in my stomach. Velvet hugs!” * All of Katy Manning’s Doctor Who episodes are now on iPlayer, as is her 2023 return as Jo in Tales of the TARDIS. Our thanks to Katy Manning, archivists Steve Arnold and David Carlisle, and Radio Times head of heritage Ralph Montagu – and, of course, Don Smith Read more: David Tennant in unpublished Radio Times photos When the Time Lords assembled – multi-Doctor photoshoots Doctor Who's 10th anniversary photoshoots – classic companions look back The 1970s Doctor Who companions pictured in their own homes Doctor Who's Jon Pertwee in a long-lost photoshoot from 1970 The secrets of 1970s Doctor Who revealed in newly discovered photos The stars of Patrick Troughton's Doctor Who – just before they joined the show See the earliest surviving Doctor Who photographs Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road airs at 5:55pm on Christmas Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Previous episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer and on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. 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With the Toymaker and a dazzling bi-regeneration, Russell T Davies has the last laugh
Story 303 60th Anniversary Special 3 “Well, that’s all right then!” – the Toymaker Storyline The whole of humanity is being driven nuts by a repetitive giggle in their heads. The Doctor and Donna are airlifted into a towering new UNIT HQ, where they join forces with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who has recently recruited the Doctor’s former companion Mel. They deduce that the giggle is an arpeggio emanating from every screen in existence, and originating from the first TV transmission by John Logie Baird using a puppet Stooky Bill. It’s key to a diabolical game being played by the Time Lord’s ancient enemy, the Toymaker. Visiting the Toymaker’s shop in 1925 Soho, the Doctor and Donna are trapped in his labyrinthine domain and menaced by puppet dolls. The Toymaker taunts the Doctor, who challenges him to another game. They race back to the present where the Toymaker seizes UNIT’s galvanic beam. He blasts the Time Lord who “bi-regenerates” into two bodies. They defeat the villain in a game of catch, and one Doctor retires to a family life on Earth with Donna, while the other sets off for fresh adventures. First UK broadcast Saturday 9 December 2023 Cast The Doctor – David Tennant Donna Noble – Catherine Tate The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa The Toymaker – Neil Patrick Harris Melanie Bush – Bonnie Langford Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Shirley Bingham – Ruth Madeley Charles Banerjee – Charlie De Melo John Logie Baird – John Mackay Colonel Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Shaun Temple – Karl Collins Sylvia Noble – Jacqueline King Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney Edward Lawn Bridges – Tim Hudson Middle-aged man – Ross Gurney-Randall Pilot – Glen Fox The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs Trinity Wells – Lachele Carl Voice of Stooky Sue – Leigh Lothian Dance double – Luke Featherston Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Chanya Button Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Phil Collinson, Joel Collins RT review by Patrick Mulkern “Well, that’s all right then!” The Toymaker’s piercingly sarcastic retort to the Doctor’s ludicrous bleats of exoneration – during a puppet show taunting him about the demises of his past companions – is just one of dozens of flourishes that sing in this third special. And they continue to haunt. I love the Doctor breezing into UNIT HQ and bumping into Mel after some 36 years. Bonnie Langford’s second bite of the Who cherry is richly deserved after her raw deal in the 1980s. (I interviewed Bonnie for Radio Times in 1986, and she wasn’t sure even then whether she’d be back the following year – and here we are in 2023!) Time has been kind to her and, of course, she is magnificent as a Mel reimagined by Russell T Davies. I also love the idea of UNIT boss Kate doling out jobs to the Time Lord’s former companions – and Donna bagging one and doubling her salary in the space of seconds. The Toymaker’s screamingly camp song-and-dance routine to the Spice Girls at UNIT HQ is one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who scenes, accomplished with precision and elan – flinging Kate into a wall, spinning Mel like a top, dealing death by bouncy balls, and showering rose petals in a steal from American Beauty. A jaw-dropping showstopper. I only wish they’d found something acceptable to inflict upon Shirley to include her in the assault (other than the Toymaker gurning at her). We live in strange times; we exist in a Whoniverse where it is now verboten to show Davros in his mobility chair, for fear it might offend people with disabilities, whereas it’s fine for another ancient villain to be as camp as a row of tents and voice racist tendencies in a wavering mittel-European accent. I’m glad I’m not making such nice judgment calls. I adore Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, though, the closest Doctor Who has come to Jonathan Harris’s Dr Smith in the 1960s Lost in Space. The Giggle’s 1966 forebear, The Celestial Toymaker, embroiled William Hartnell’s Doctor and companions Steven and Dodo in far more elaborate challenges than these latest, banal games of cards and catch-a-ball, but the Toymaker’s masterplan of seeding a maddening arpeggio through time from the dawn of TV is very clever. RTD delivers a subtle, salty comment on our modern addiction to screens and our tendency to shout into the ether. The ventriloquist dummy Stooky Bill is hideous, as are his Woodentop family, Stooky Sue and the “babbies”, and it’s hugely satisfying when a merciless Donna smashes and boots them to bits. It almost goes without saying, but Catherine Tate and David Tennant are a superb pairing, a gift for this 60th anniversary. Some fans barked loudly for a multi-Doctor episode and RTD cunningly delivers one in a way that few could have predicted. The “bi-generation” is a joy as the old Doctor teams with the new for the majority of the denouement. We’ve had off-kilter regenerations before and this one opens all manner of possibilities for the future. It’s a perfect wrap for 60 years of Doctor Who that one version of the Time Lord is parked in his happy place to lick his wounds and dump his baggage, and I actually hope this umpteenth Tennant Doctor is left to enjoy his retirement undisturbed. Onwards and forwards with Ncuti Gatwa – in just his briefs or fully attired. He’s electrifying. At the end of these three specials, what fast becomes apparent is that it’s actually Russell T Davies who is the Toymaker, dusting off some long-neglected toys, holding them up to the light again and giving them another game for old time’s sake. He’s also minted shiny new toys that will see him and us through a few more years. With The Giggle, the showrunner has had the last laugh. Catch up on past episodes in the Radio Times Doctor Who Story Guide
A tense space adventure that really stretches its stars – disturbingly so
Story 302 60th Anniversary Special 2 “I’ve never been this far out. To stand here like this, physically unprotected, right on the edge… No-one ever has. Not ever. Till us. And this ship” – the Doctor Storyline With the Tardis damaged, the Doctor and Donna are flung to the furthest outreach of the universe. The police box vanishes, abandoning them in a vast spaceship but they are not alone. They encounter a slow-moving robot and alien entities that can convincingly duplicate the Doctor and Donna’s bodies and memories. They must race to escape before the ship explodes and prevent the aliens from reaching the known universe. But which Doctor and Donna are which? First UK broadcast Saturday 2 December 2023 Cast The Doctor – David Tennant Donna Noble – Catherine Tate Wilfred Mott – Bernard Cribbins Isaac Newton – Nathaniel Curtis Mrs Merridew – Susan Twist Doctor doubles – Daniel Tuite, Ophir Raray, Tommaso de Vincenzo Donna double – Helen Cripps Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Tom Kingsley Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter RT review by Patrick Mulkern Cloaked in mystery, swarming with ill-founded rumours, Wild Blue Yonder turned out to be an attempt by Russell T Davies to push Doctor Who to the limit. Not just to the edge of universe but to the extent of what the BBC in its partnership with Disney can now afford or, rather, achieve. The design and hardware of the vast spaceship look a million dollars, though (as Doctor Who: Unleashed revealed) much was created by CGI. Gorgeous and impressive CGI. When you’ve rehired David Tennant and Catherine Tate – two stars often on the brink of going supernova – what more do you need really? Well, another Tennant and Tate, identical, but then eerily not, suddenly swollen, malignant and fanged. A two-hander cleverly morphs into a four-hander – and with four of those distended hands being the stuff of nightmares. The distorted crab-like Doctor is at the bounds of body horror acceptable at teatime, surely a steal from the far more grisly The Thing. There must be all sorts of borrows from old movies that greater fans of sci-fi than I will spot, but I like the nods to past Doctor Who (The Wheel in Space and The Krotons from the 1960s). The daft opener with Isaac Newton recalls Steven Moffat’s cheekier moments, and Davies even has the courtesy to acknowledge Chris Chibnall’s lore-bending in Flux. With an unusual, throbbing score from Murray Gold, the tension builds, and while I miss some of key detail as it’s gabbled, I’m kept alert and guessing throughout, and am agog when the right Doctor first makes his escape with the wrong Donna. Without Tennant and Tate, this could slot into a season run as a standard, albeit impressively mounted episode. Is it worthy of “60th special” status? Well, if Tennant and Tate and Russell T Davies aren’t enough for you, how about Bernard Cribbins in his last screen role? The coda is a beautiful touch. Russell promised me at the launch for The Star Beast that there would be a “fitting tribute” to the great man, who died last year aged 93. It’s wonderful that he was able to make one final contribution to Doctor Who. Clearly, had he been well enough, he would have participated more in these specials as old soldier Wilf. Bernard was a master of comedy and pathos – and could convey both in one shot. From Carry On to The Railway Children, The Wombles to Old Jack’s Boat, he was part of our childhood across generations. Doctor Who was the icing on a long career. I met Bernard once and it was like meeting Father Christmas for real. A grandad for all time has passed into legend. Catch up on past episodes in the Radio Times Doctor Who Story Guide
David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Russell T Davies energise the 60th anniversary with a family-friendly blockbuster
Story 301 60th Anniversary Special 1 “Once upon a time, once upon a Time Lord, I had a best friend and her name was Donna Noble. A Time Lord and a human. And we travelled the stars together” – the Doctor Storyline Newly regenerated but with an earlier face, the Doctor returns to Earth where he is swiftly reunited with Donna Noble. Her life has moved on – with husband Shaun and teenage daughter Rose – and her past adventures in the Tardis lie forgotten. She will die if she remembers the Doctor. A furry alien called the Meep crash-lands on Earth and takes refuges with the Nobles as it is hunted down by fearsome Wrarth Warriors. But the Meep is far from meek and benign, and when it reveals its true nature, the planet is once again in danger… First UK broadcast Saturday 25 November 2023 Cast The Doctor – David Tennant Donna Noble – Catherine Tate Voice of the Meep – Miriam Margolyes Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney Shaun Temple – Karl Collins Colonel Chan – Jamie Cho Shirley Bingham – Ruth Madeley Sylvia Noble – Jacqueline King Fudge Merchandani – Dara Lall Major Singh – Ronak Patani Sergeant – Archie Backhouse BBC reporter – Matt Green Soldier – Isabella Carey Chief technician – Anna Martine Freeman Voice of Zogroth – Ned Porteous Voice of Zreeg – John Hopkinson Lads – Harley McEvilly, Max Fincham The Meep – Cecily Fay Wrarth Warriors — Robert Strange, Stephen Love, Jordan Benjamin, Vassili Psaltopoulos Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Rachel Talalay Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter RT review by Patrick Mulkern Who-oosh… and they’re back! I don’t just mean David Tennant and Catherine Tate, who are reunited as the Doctor and Donna after 15 years – time having barely changed them a whisker. Russell T Davies – showrunner and, for many, Saviour of Doctor Who – is at the controls again, along with many of his old guard: fellow executives Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson; and composer Murray Gold lifting us aloft with his exhilarating score. With this A Team reassembled, the familiar package of energy, humour and pizzazz fizz from the screen, albeit with even more heart than we’ve seen before (“I absolutely love her,” says the Doctor. “Oh, do I say things like that now?”), which is odd for an alien blessed with two hearts. The good Doctor has rediscovered his mojo. The newly regenerated 14th incarnation bears Tennant’s features once more (for reasons yet to be explained) but while it’s great to have him back, I’d have found it interesting had Tennant presented a completely different characterisation. But I’m sure I’m missing the point and will be a lone voice there. Doctor 14 crosses timelines with Donna Noble (Tate), whose death was foretold, should they ever meet again. Brash, gobby and funny as ever, she is going about her life, oblivious of alien incursions, while her expanding family is ever protective. Grandad Wilf (Bernard Cribbins in his last role, who was papped while filming) is mentioned but has yet to be seen. The Star Beast has the momentum of a bank-holiday movie for all the family, and if it feels cartoonish, that is just right, because the furball Meep, the Wrarth Warriors and aspects of the plot originated in a comic strip in Doctor Who Weekly (now Magazine) back in 1980. It bears striking similarities with ET – the Extra Terrestrial too, though it must be said that the Spielberg film came out two years after the DWW strip. The Meep is a cute design, even when it finally bares its fangs, and is a lovely voicing job by Miriam Margolyes. New characters include Donna’s daughter Rose, played by Heartstopper’s Yasmin Finney (a trans woman), and Ruth Madeley as Unit’s 56th scientific advisor Shirley Bingham, who comes with a very well-equipped wheelchair. Modern Doctor Who is rightly inclusive, and it’s typical and deft of Davies to make their inclusion key to the resolution. The Star Beast is diverting fun to kick-start the 60th anniversary, with two more specials to come, paving the way for a Christmas reset with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. Catch up on past episodes in the Radio Times Doctor Who Story Guide