Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Martin Parsons about his choice of Image of the Fendhal (1/4)

Transcript

Talks to Martin Parsons about his choice of Image of the Fendhal (1/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

0:33
Hamster with a blunt pen knife for doing quicker, quicker.
0:36
Welcome back to a Hamster with a blunt pen knife, the Doctor Who
0:40
commentary podcast. Hello, Martin.
0:45
Hello, Joe. How are you doing?
0:48
I'm all right, thank you. A little bit ill, but otherwise
0:51
fine. How's life in the mountains of
0:53
France right now? Well, it's, it's a little bit
0:56
chilly. We've got the mountain.
0:57
The mountain wind is descending onto the town, so there's a bit
1:01
of an epic storm brewing up outside.
1:02
But it's all right. The snow's up on the peaks now,
1:04
which is nice. Oh, that sounds very romantic.
1:07
I mean, talk about romantic, right?
1:08
We've only been talking for how long?
1:10
Half an hour just before we started this recording.
1:12
And he's already invited me up next week to the mountains.
1:15
I don't know if it's a euphemism, but it sounds like
1:17
I'm going to have a very exciting week next week.
1:24
We both just shut up at the same time.
1:27
That's so unlike me. We'll get into.
1:29
We'll get into that later. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:31
Well, coming up the mountain, I'm scared that's a euphemism
1:34
for something, you know. Martin, Hello.
1:36
Welcome to Hamster first of all. Thank you very much.
1:39
I feel like we we should have done this about two months ago,
1:42
but even my schedule appalling us or something has prevented us
1:46
from doing this. I'm so pleased that we're
1:48
finally here. What the hell are we talking
1:51
about today? We are talking about season 15,
1:55
a classic image of the Fendall it.
1:58
Was just Fendall. How has nobody covered this?
2:00
I can't believe it. I actually can't.
2:04
Believe. It's because it's so underrated,
2:08
the poor. The poor thing gets ignored.
2:09
It gets overlooked by everyone. I mean, I think those
2:12
fendalline, you know, the big giant sort of phallic worm
2:15
things are absolutely terrifying.
2:18
When I was a kid, they scared the life out of me.
2:21
I genuinely think it's a really good design and a really creepy
2:25
concept. I think it's just obviously
2:27
sometimes the camera angles, the lighting, the wobbliness of it
2:32
is maybe she'll. Come after George Spencer
2:34
Foster, OH. I will not.
2:36
Oh, I'm leaping to his defence. Oh.
2:37
I have enough of that with Nathan Bottomley going on about
2:41
him. I mean, is it because so come
2:43
on, there is it's a classic because it has the all time best
2:46
guest character of all time, Ma Tyler in it.
2:49
Oh I was about to say it has the all time best guest character
2:52
which is Adam Colby. But it's.
2:54
Definitely got the best. It has the best just guest cast.
2:59
Wanda Ventham I. Wonder Ventham, everybody,
3:02
Scott, Frederick, just absolutely everybody is just on
3:05
fire in this story. Wander could turn me.
3:07
That's how pretty she is. She was.
3:09
She's covered in gold paint. Yeah.
3:13
Does Adam Colby have the best lines ever?
3:15
I just, that's what it is. I think the writing and the
3:18
performance is just absolutely spectacular for Colby, and I
3:22
think he just works so well and he doesn't.
3:24
That kind of character. It's someone who you've met
3:27
people like that in real life, but you don't see them in Doctor
3:30
Who often enough, I don't think. Just the sarky fucker that's
3:33
just kind of in the office. It's still a race, isn't it?
3:36
In our circles, that's. What it is?
3:38
Oh, and a total player it's. Definitely.
3:40
Total race. Yeah, that's exactly it.
3:44
An absolutely gorgeous Oh no, that's where it falls apart.
3:47
Sorry, what can I ask you before we even start talking about
3:52
image of the Fender? Oh, what's your Doctor Who
3:55
journey? Where did you come in?
3:56
What's the first thing you saw or read or listen to?
4:00
Yeah, I'm, I'm really curious. So I came in on the 1993 repeats
4:05
season. So I came in on Revelation of
4:08
the Daleks. So Colin is very special to me
4:11
as a Doctor. And it was in, it was Part 2 or
4:16
Part 3, depending on which cuts it was.
4:17
But when the statue falls on him, that was the first thing I
4:21
ever saw of Doctor Who and then did.
4:23
You reenact that in your bedroom like I did.
4:27
I used to throw the wardrobe on me, no?
4:31
But no, no, no, it did. I did, I did.
4:33
Where's the sort of chest of drawers that.
4:34
You couldn't. Your mum's like, what are you
4:38
doing? Yeah, she's just.
4:39
Like Jesus Christ that took the statue.
4:42
Back. That was great.
4:45
That's practicing by Perry. But then then it was because it
4:48
was 1993 was I think as loads of people have said this, it was
4:52
just the best year to then become a fan because it was
4:55
absolutely everywhere. And through various ways,
4:58
through having videos and things like that, just became more and
5:01
more of a fan. And also Phil is my catch
5:04
phrase. In Sheffield, where I'm from, we
5:06
had the Sheffield Space Centre, which was a kind of, which is
5:09
still there, which is a kind of comic store, but they sold
5:12
videos. They sold.
5:13
They always had pretty much the full collection of the Virgin
5:16
New Adventures. And I regret so much to this day
5:19
not just getting them all. They were 499 honestly.
5:23
I mean actually I have now I'm I'm only missing 2 of them.
5:28
Which two? I've got a few spares.
5:31
I'm missing so violence in on the day.
5:33
So I don't have those spares. But I every so often I'll find
5:39
myself in a situation where I'm like, oh, I remember I was in
5:42
another sort of comic bookie shop and they were selling off
5:45
missing adventures and I bought 3 copies of The Dark Path and
5:48
three copies of Burning Heart being like, oh, these are ones
5:51
that I'm just going to sort of put these away for a pound each.
5:53
It might not be a mortgage, but that might be a small extension
5:57
or. Exactly.
5:58
Yeah, it's just getting the roof redone a little bit.
6:00
Yeah. But then we also had sort of
6:03
wildly and probably in the 90s as we had Galaxy 4, which was a
6:07
Doctor Who shop and so and the boys that ran that was.
6:11
So I would just go and hang out there.
6:13
It was the other side of the city from where I'm from.
6:15
But I would just go and hang out there and just sort of sit
6:17
looking at the amazing collection of things that they
6:20
had. And the, the, the guys that ran
6:22
it were very, you know, kind to me and sort of put up with me
6:26
just hanging out and asking stupid questions.
6:28
He's here again it. Really, it really was.
6:30
It really was. And one of it's feel terrible.
6:32
I forgot what their names are, but one of them would make me
6:35
like tapes of the audio visuals, for example.
6:39
So I got this kind of deep dive fandom experience through
6:43
through that really. This could be a love affair
6:46
between you and dinner. You're actually.
6:51
Three, did you say how old were you when those went out?
6:54
So I well the so the audio visuals came a little bit later,
6:57
but I was five years old when I first started.
7:00
Three bloody hell, Martin, you look amazing for.
7:04
My for my advanced age, it's not having hair, you see, no one can
7:08
tell. Oh wow.
7:10
God you look absolutely incredible.
7:11
That is genuinely your age. What's your secret spectrum?
7:15
Stocksemia. That's only.
7:16
Yeah, exactly. It's the.
7:18
You've milked a few bats in your time mirror.
7:21
Have you got other painting in your attic?
7:24
Something like that. All of the above.
7:25
OK, and you're in a child, of course, because you still watch
7:28
Doctor Who. Oh yeah, of course.
7:30
That's what keeps keeps me young.
7:31
Here's a question What was it like then when Sheffield turned
7:34
up in Doctor Who? So I mean, I've talked about
7:37
this on, on Dylan's podcast. No, So it was, it was amazing
7:40
when it the, the sort of rumours started.
7:42
I was going to Sheffield and it was like no, like not, not
7:46
really. And I wasn't living.
7:48
When did they start filming it? I think I was living abroad at
7:50
the time but they started filming it and where they were
7:53
filming it was they would film me around, around Bramall Lane,
7:56
Sheffield United football ground, which is just down the
7:58
road from where I live. They were filming outside Park
7:59
Hill Flats. It was all these things which is
8:01
where my school was, like all of these things.
8:03
It was incredible. Then you watch directives in the
8:07
UK. Well, so one thing, a big thing
8:10
for me about that season is that I think the Woman who Fell to
8:13
Earth promises a version of Doctor Who that then the rest of
8:17
the series doesn't follow up on. And it's a very Sheffield heavy
8:21
version of Doctor Who. And actually they then just kind
8:24
of fuck off for Sheffield completely.
8:26
And and you lose the first episode.
8:28
You get that stuff of the fact it's in the countryside that
8:31
people don't really realise a lot of the time that we're right
8:33
next to the Peak District, but they start in Havasage, even if
8:36
they pronounce it wrong and all of this stuff, you, you get this
8:39
really great sense of the city and the thing of like throwing
8:43
kebab aliens. And it's a really, really nicely
8:45
drawn sort of depiction. Then they just don't go back to
8:48
it. And there is also the problem,
8:50
which I've raised before, that toasting Cole's accent is a
8:54
crime. I mean, it's just, I cannot
8:57
imagine how awful it must have been for Jodie and Mandate to
9:02
act for two years with someone doing that butcher.
9:06
I mean like job on the accent. It's so I've got.
9:09
Chips. Though, But I was the equivalent
9:14
to me would be if I went in and started doing a kind of London
9:17
accent. It's like, oh, I gazer with
9:19
somebody who's actually from that for two.
9:20
Years. I'm fine.
9:22
You sound like you're from crawling.
9:24
That's true. Based on the experience, yeah.
9:27
But no, no. But then, and I felt that what
9:30
pissed me off a little bit is that Cardiff got such a great
9:33
through all the tortuous stuff, they really sold the city.
9:36
Then Liverpool did as well then. Fucking Liverpool.
9:40
I was like sorry chippers, he's like 2 years of ignoring
9:43
Sheffield and then he's like look how beautiful the Liverpool
9:46
docks are right? Fuck off with your excuse.
9:49
Me, I feel if I need to step in at this point and say they've
9:52
never been to Crawley, all right?
9:54
Not once. You know, they've done episodes
9:57
on gang warfare of them. Things like that, it's too
10:00
dangerous, they can't get. The Torchwood, you know.
10:04
No, they could have done that episode of The Sarah Jane
10:07
Adventures where Clive was homeless.
10:09
That would have been perfect in crawling.
10:10
That one so. Sorry, cruelly, I don't live
10:14
there anymore. I'm not I, I don't, I'm not, I'm
10:17
not here to attack. I've started getting letters
10:19
from the council, you know, saying stop the saying, you
10:21
know, it's about cruelly. Yeah, it's not right because you
10:26
take a load of kids there, you know, So do you arm them first?
10:31
Well, we do. We do warn them sometimes.
10:33
But like they're like, oh, English people are so friendly.
10:35
You can just go up and chaps them.
10:36
We're like, maybe just be a little bit careful when you're
10:40
doing that just outside the county mall.
10:42
I hear that the second you sort of go over the worst barrier,
10:46
you know, into Crawley, they they give you a pepper spray.
10:49
So you're all right, you. Should I hear you go?
10:52
Well, I had a mate of mine was really a French friend was he
10:55
visited my family living Crawley and he was like, oh, I've always
10:58
had this dream of going to the Snooty Fox for a pint and I was
11:01
like, it may not be the classy establishment.
11:04
You run across the road from the.
11:06
Station. Oh my God.
11:09
I mean, having been to the CC Fox for a pint on several
11:12
occasions, I was like, you might be imagining it's something that
11:14
it's not It's. The most miserable power.
11:21
In fact, I went there one summer, right, because a friend
11:24
of mine's dad had died and I took my heart with me and we
11:28
went in to get a drink. He goes, well, I'll wait here
11:30
and you go and see your mate and he goes, but I'm going to wait
11:33
outside. I'm not waiting.
11:34
In the station. God bless it.
11:37
OK, all right, so I'm getting a bit of a sense of of you, the
11:41
starts of your Doctor Who journey.
11:42
And so then, you know, sort of how much money did you spend in
11:46
your teenage years, Christ. The audios.
11:49
The audios, Yeah, I mean, I was at.
11:51
So the books kind of came. My local library had a few
11:55
Doctor Who books I sort of got. And actually, I mean, I was when
11:57
I started. Yeah, I got really got into the
11:59
books because I just happened to pick up a couple of, one of them
12:02
was Planet of Fire. I remember the hardback Planet
12:05
of Fire and my parents. I never used to like reading in
12:08
school. My parents thought I was
12:10
dyslexic or something, having all these tests done without
12:13
being told what they were for. And then one day my mom came in
12:15
and was like, oh, are you, are you following that book you're
12:18
reading? I've sat.
12:19
I was like, yeah, what do you mean?
12:20
Yeah, sort of having a nice time reading it.
12:23
And she was and she sort of realized that it was just that I
12:25
hated the books we were given in school, all those sort of Oxford
12:28
reading Tree, Biff, Chip and Kipper.
12:30
I just didn't give a shit. But when it was Doctor Who, I
12:31
was like, oh, yeah. So that was really.
12:33
Force feeding me fucking Dickens.
12:35
I just want Dicks. Just Dicks.
12:38
But once we got onto that, once we got onto the Dicks, it was
12:40
then I, yeah, I just loved it. So I loved the reading and I
12:43
would get, they had a certain amount of new adventures, not
12:46
many, but I kind of read those and then I'd start buying them
12:49
pretty slowly get and I thought I had far more than I actually
12:52
had. And it was in COVID.
12:53
I realised that I was missing about 20 of them.
12:55
So I've been trying to complete the collection but I read most
12:59
of them and a lot of the target. Many many targets that you just
13:02
pick up from any second hand bookshop.
13:03
Get loads of target books in there.
13:05
Big Finish I was at from the start.
13:08
Sirens of Time I think I bought ACD player to listen to Sirens
13:12
of Time on the CDs. Someone.
13:14
When I was listening to your two op for TV that you beyond ball
13:18
steep into big finish obscure details that you knew.
13:22
I know. I mean Big Finish I am a huge,
13:26
huge fan of. I mean, I think in the same way
13:28
as a lot of people, I don't always buy it nowadays, but not
13:33
necessarily picking up every single release.
13:35
How do you wish you didn't buy them nowadays?
13:38
All right, Honestly, I could have a really comfortable life,
13:42
you know, if it finishes, weren't turning up every other
13:45
day. But.
13:46
Yeah, I mean, I did, yeah. I spent a fairly hefty amount of
13:51
money on Doctor Who merchandise. And also, I mean, we'd have
13:54
weird things like there was an antique shop that would always
13:57
end up with Doctor Who stuff in here.
13:59
So I've got one of the like Cyberman lampshades that they
14:02
happen to have in there and just weird shit like that.
14:05
But I just find or things that Galaxy 4 would have weird
14:08
memorably. Lampshades.
14:09
That sounds amazing. But I actually had it up in my
14:12
room for a while and then took it down because apparently they
14:14
get really fragile and and fall apart.
14:17
So I was like oh actually no, I need to protect this expensive
14:19
lampshades. So I've got it folded up in
14:21
plastic somewhere. Oh, OK.
14:23
So the impression I'm getting then is that there's no going
14:26
back for you, unfortunately. Oh.
14:28
Christ, no. You're in for life.
14:31
Oh, in in for life. And I think there were once or
14:33
twice I would have moments where because obviously, you know, in
14:37
school and stuff, I was the only person that liked Doctor Who,
14:39
but it was almost people would sort of there was almost a
14:42
respect that came with it. People would be like, oh,
14:44
Martin, have you heard that there's new series Doctor Who
14:46
coming out? And I'm like, well, actually
14:47
it's an online webcast, but you know, because.
14:52
You never had any tiny bit of sex.
14:54
Back then, oh God, no. But it was, it was one of those
14:58
things that people would sort of be like, mine's the one that
14:59
knows about Doctor Who. So when the new series happened,
15:02
I'd probably gone off it a little bit, you know, sort of
15:05
1516. I wasn't really.
15:07
And then the new series started and I was like, you know, this
15:09
don't know how this is going to be.
15:11
I remember, though, when they cast Christopher Eccleston and
15:14
I'm a huge horror fan and I'd loved him in 28 days later.
15:17
And that's the thing. That's that's the that's the
15:19
thing that stuck with and I was like, do you know what that is?
15:21
The doctor? I want that this guy you sort of
15:24
because it's that thing of his character in major Western 28
15:27
days later. He he genuinely cares for his
15:30
his men, but he just has like no morals about how he, you know.
15:35
You're really worrying me now. You want to, Chris Reston, go
15:38
around the universe telling people to do terrible things to
15:41
women? But it's, but it's that thing of
15:44
the, the, the sort of, on the one hand, the sort of like
15:48
genuine love and caring, but the other hand, that kind of
15:51
coldness. And I was like, do you know
15:53
what? That is what I want?
15:55
And then he did it with this totally different performance,
15:57
which wasn't what I was expecting, but I still really
15:59
liked it. And I think that sort of brought
16:01
me back in and then I, you know, I've been up and down on the new
16:05
series as it as it goes, but it's never the same as the
16:08
classic. I think I've never been as down
16:10
as I am right now. I mean, yeah, that announcement
16:12
came out this week. And I was like, I've never felt
16:15
more depressed. God, I was like, and if I was
16:20
like, oh, you're such a killjoy, I went.
16:22
Did you watch the last series? Honestly.
16:25
I mean, the absolute agony. And I was actually, it was the
16:29
first. It wasn't even the last series.
16:31
It was. I was with my younger brother
16:33
and his wife and we were watching the Christmas.
16:37
What's it called? The Goblin.
16:39
Oh. Church on Ruby Rd.
16:40
Church on Ruby Rd. Church on Ruby Road And it
16:42
finished and my sister-in-law just went and and you enjoyed
16:47
that. I was just like, do you know
16:51
what? Not really.
16:53
I'll never forget my mate Linda, right?
16:55
And this is on the day when her relationship fell apart.
16:58
And so she was like, can I come and stay at yours for a little
17:02
bit? I was like, yeah, but Doctor Who
17:03
is on tonight, and it is the season finale.
17:06
She goes, oh, don't worry, I'll watch it.
17:08
I'll watch it with you. And it was journey's end.
17:11
And she watched the whole thing in absolute rap silence.
17:15
And I was like, my God, I think I've got a convert here.
17:19
And then at the end, she went, what the hell was all that
17:22
about? She didn't have a fucking clue,
17:26
you know? And my friend Kate when she sat
17:28
and watched Listen with me and she got halfway through and she
17:32
went I'm going to have to leave the room.
17:33
I'm so bored. I'm sorry.
17:35
I was like never watch with a non fan.
17:38
No, no, because it's. Hard.
17:41
Enough for me to sit through and listen, liking other people
17:44
there. It's like, oh.
17:45
God, for me, it was Joyce of the world.
17:47
I got to the end of that and I was like, do you know, I'm
17:49
seriously reconsidering life choices here?
17:51
Do you know what? It's really funny because I've
17:53
heard a lot of people, but for me that was the only shitty
17:58
Gatwa episode I liked. That was the only one did.
18:02
You seem like a man with so much sense.
18:04
Sorry, it's weird. It was the only one and I don't
18:07
think it was good, but it was the only one where I was like,
18:10
you know what, I'm sort of enjoying this.
18:12
Even like that. It's very knock about as the
18:13
Christmas ones and and the one that was what was the Pete
18:16
Mctire I forgot. All the old lucky day.
18:19
Lucky day I. Like lucky, yeah.
18:20
I like lucky day, but I I was like, is it a good thing that
18:24
I'm enjoying the one that the doctor is not in?
18:26
Like you know is this. This is probably not made.
18:29
My 3 favourites were 73 yards dot on bubble and Lucky day.
18:33
So I was in a bit of trouble there and honest to God, right
18:37
like you know, I've wanked over Shooty Gatwas Instagram posts
18:40
like everybody else. So it's not like I've got an
18:43
issue with him. He's a very pretty man.
18:45
But I I don't know if I saw the doctor there.
18:49
That's my issue and it's a new. Generation, it's the same with
18:53
me. But the only time I did see the
18:55
Doctor was enjoy to the world. That's the only time I was like,
18:58
do you know what I'm kind of getting it now is?
19:00
It when he was sort of emotionally abusing that girl
19:02
from Derry Girls. Was it during that scene?
19:05
I was like, finally the abuse is back.
19:07
You know what? This is what I look for.
19:09
But no, I, I know it's I, I agree.
19:12
Yeah, I've sort of, it's not. But then like you said, it's
19:15
this doctor for a new generation.
19:17
But I'm not. None of the younger people I've
19:19
spoken to are watching it. It's just like, it was like,
19:22
what's that Doctor Who? I was like, oh, maybe this isn't
19:24
working in the way that it was. Supposed to be.
19:26
Did you just say the abuse is back?
19:28
The abuse is what I just want to say to everyone.
19:30
We are joking, all right? Yeah.
19:33
We don't need letters. This is just my other 28 days
19:36
later doctor that I've been. I've been hoping for, that's
19:39
what. Yeah.
19:41
Oh, I love it when the Doctor's account, mind you, I think you
19:43
might have got that 28 days later, Doctor Wayne Capaldi,
19:46
right? Yeah.
19:47
You were saying, like the morality was a bit different.
19:50
The methods were a very questionable.
19:52
But he had a good heart, you know, he cared about people.
19:55
Oh yeah. Well, but the best, the best.
19:57
My, my, the way I always describe it goes for David
20:01
Tennant and he goes for Jodie Whittaker.
20:02
It's that they are at their best when they're.
20:06
Or horny like when they get in. Like where?
20:09
I don't mean horny in the way of the 10th.
20:10
That's old people, you know. But it was.
20:13
But it's that thing if you look at the way that Jodi is when
20:16
she's with Tesla and she's sort of getting a bit and she's sort
20:20
of flirty and just being so like like brilliant in the sort of
20:24
back and forth. Even the episode itself is not
20:26
my favorite, but the the the the relationship and when even just
20:30
her thing with the Sontar and she's like, oh, put it back on
20:33
So so just. So she's horny for herself.
20:38
Ohh, look at Yeah, there's. Like more and more of it.
20:42
Like just keep saying there's brilliant.
20:43
More jodies, more jokes. Brilliant.
20:45
Yas is going. Ohh God I thank you.
20:49
I wished very hard last night. Yeah.
20:51
I think that the fact that you got like the lockdown thing
20:54
meant that we just got Jodie like 5 times over was just
20:57
great. It's like no one else is allowed
20:59
in the studio, so it's just Jodie.
21:00
Do you mind doing this to get brilliant?
21:01
Like another one another one? The funniest thing is she's the
21:04
opposite of shooters. Well, you know, our shoot she
21:06
was going, Oh, my knees were going, 'cause I had to work for
21:08
two months of the. Year.
21:09
Oh God she's just like fuck it, throw myself into this.
21:12
There's her in that, the Vanquishers, right?
21:14
She's on the behind the scenes and she goes straight up to the
21:17
camera and she goes, there's three of me.
21:20
I'm in every scene. There you go.
21:23
That's how you work hard shooting, all right, honestly.
21:26
Yeah, yeah, she just, she bloody loves it, doesn't You can see
21:29
when she was back in the whichever one, it was reality
21:32
war. When she's just back again and
21:33
just so happy to be back again. Just keep like sneaking about,
21:37
like love it. This is so fun though.
21:39
We have got to talk about image of offender.
21:40
I'll do it. No, I suppose we do.
21:42
I suppose we do. Well, no, because I feel like
21:44
that's it. So we've sort of covered your
21:46
early days and then the wilderness years and now back up
21:49
to date with the new series. So are you, do you have a like a
21:53
big hard on for Tom? Oh God, yeah.
21:55
I mean, Tom Baker is my favorite Doctor by far.
22:00
I mean, there's not even really any question at all.
22:04
And I think because the this came from my, I say I got sent
22:07
some videos when I first got into being a fan.
22:09
So I saw Colin first, probably saw Battlefield, so saw
22:13
Sylvester as well. And then I got sent robot and
22:16
city of death and that was just right.
22:19
OK, this is this is the doctor. Like I mean, I love Colin, I
22:22
love Sylvester, but it's like the the 4th Doctor for me is the
22:25
one. It's funny, those only ones you
22:28
see are the ones that sort of capture you, right?
22:30
Because. Colin with my first.
22:32
And I just love Colin and I see the flaws and the issues that
22:35
people have, but I don't. Care.
22:37
No, do not care. Do you not care?
22:39
I think Colin is probably my second.
22:41
And again for Big Finish, So, so good.
22:46
Just sort of, but on TV so good as well.
22:47
But the Big Finished stuff just, you know, absolutely fantastic.
22:51
What was it you think? The bit where he was singing
22:53
Mother Mother I Feel Sick and skipping with Harry?
22:56
Or you know that bit where he suddenly starts fast motioning
22:59
typing on that typewriter? But all of that stuff, just the
23:04
the costume changes, just the ridiculous, but just the way
23:08
when he's like Brigadier and does that like just absolutely
23:12
fantastic. He's like, do you think I might
23:14
attract attention? It's just possible.
23:20
But what we're actually going for today is a very subdued
23:23
performer, mostly subdued. He has a.
23:25
Few moments. He has a few moments, yeah.
23:27
Which I think goes back to what we were saying about poor George
23:30
Benson's foster problem. Hello ladies.
23:32
Having said that, when he pops out the top house.
23:35
Yeah. Do you do it when you see cows
23:38
now? I do.
23:39
Hello ladies. But they're running up and
23:41
talking to cows, I'm pretty sure.
23:43
I may have made this up in my head, but in the final, this is
23:46
going back into the wilderness deep dive.
23:48
But in the The Flood, the final like Paul McGann comic does he
23:53
does he run and talk to a cow at the end of when when he gets
23:56
back to he. Does yes.
23:58
On the outside with Veteran, yeah.
24:01
I'm always just like, that's the, that's such a doctor.
24:03
Yeah, when he happened twice. But like, hello, you know,
24:06
that's great. No.
24:06
Excuse me now come on, Mr. Deep Dive.
24:08
You're forgetting the lunar strangers.
24:11
Oh God, how could I forget the last Strangers spacesuit?
24:16
I think that was one of the I would get sporadic Doctor Who
24:19
magazines that were given to me. And so I think it was episode 2
24:22
of the Luna Strangers. I was like, what The Who is
24:25
this? Like, what is?
24:26
I didn't understand. The single thing was like, yeah,
24:28
great saying. That Newton would now go up and
24:30
walk to talk to a cow. Because, you know, I've got some
24:32
films. Near me.
24:33
I do, I do. If I see cows, I will go in and
24:36
say hello. Well, there was some I was going
24:38
to say because no, you're in Eastbourne, aren't you?
24:40
Yeah. East waiting room.
24:42
I don't know it that well, but E Dean.
24:45
Oh, that's just up the road. Literally up the road we've got,
24:47
we had a family friend, he had a little house in East Dean out in
24:50
in the fields. And that was, yeah, I'd always
24:51
stop and say hello to the cows when we were up, when we were up
24:54
there. OK, I'm getting a picture of you
24:56
now, you know, from your Sheffield roots, you know, down
24:59
the mines, but then you've sort of gone up in the world to the
25:03
mountains of France, you know, the skiing seasons with fabulous
25:07
friends in East Dean that closed a little village.
25:09
I was going to say I don't know about the city I live in is
25:12
known as the Chicago of France because of its gun.
25:16
The mountains are really pretty, but the city itself maybe?
25:19
Not rename it the Crawley of France.
25:23
You know, I moved from Crawley to Eastbourne because the crime
25:26
rate was so high in the mid 90s. And I said to my husband please
25:30
can we move to the seaside? And he was that person who could
25:32
just make things happen. And within two months we was
25:35
here in Eastbourne and someone fucking died at the end of my
25:38
Rd. at the end of the first week I went.
25:40
It's me, I'm cursed. Because when I went to I went to
25:43
university at Nottingham at the point when it was shotting him
25:46
and I was like, is he me brings this that brings the gun crime
25:50
Every time I live in a city, it's like, oh, gun violence has
25:52
gone up. I.
25:53
Think there's a story in that, You know, a Doctor Who's story?
25:56
Everywhere you go people are shot and everywhere I go people
25:59
are stabbed. We could be like the Jessica
26:03
Fletchers going around everywhere and we don't realise
26:07
it's us doing it. We're causing it.
26:08
Yeah, yeah, fuck carrying it with us.
26:11
I can see a future for us here, you know well.
26:15
Not for what we meet, but for us, yeah.
26:17
We now, like, we've talked for 25 minutes now, we've not got
26:20
into the episode. Who cares?
26:23
Yeah, we forget what? People are very patient, you
26:25
know? Oh, that's right.
26:26
Yeah. Well, should we go in and watch
26:28
episode 1? We'll see because I'm sure
26:30
there's plenty so we could talk about more beforehand, but
26:33
there'll be plenty to talk about whilst it's playing out.
26:36
And I'm sure I'm fairly certain you want to go to bed at some
26:38
point tonight at. Some point, yeah, In the early
26:41
hours. Well, do you want to count us
26:45
in? Then give us a give us a three
26:46
seconds or a 5 seconds or A10. Seconds.
26:49
I don't know what sort of a man you are.
26:50
OK, let's go for a 5, so counting in 54321.
26:58
Here we go. Oh God, I've got the sound on.
27:00
See, I told you I wasn't going to be prepared.
27:02
OK, I'm ready now. I've got one question for you
27:04
straight away. Go on.
27:06
Why is that on your bedside table behind you?
27:09
I'm really curious. On my bedside table.
27:11
Well, it looks like a bedside table.
27:13
There's a little table behind you there.
27:14
Is it back over there? Something, yeah, that's sort of
27:16
leaning against the wall like a foot.
27:18
It's a a flute. No, it's a box of incense sticks
27:24
which was left. So I took this flat over from 2
27:26
of my colleagues and they just left everything in the flat that
27:30
was here. And I've never really had
27:31
incense sticks before, but I've just every so often I'll just
27:34
pop these on. Sorry, it's a piece no.
27:36
No, no, no. But it's true.
27:38
There isn't really much. There's a on the other side,
27:40
there's a painting that a friend did of a pint of beer that says
27:43
God save God save the beer. Which is.
27:48
But that's all I've got. That's all that I've got really
27:50
in the. Room.
27:50
Now I know you're posh. It's France, darling, It's
27:55
France. Alas, poor Yorick.
27:59
I mean, already we're just looking at these characters and
28:03
they're both amazing. Just everything about them, the
28:06
conversation, like just and then style, it's like wonderful.
28:11
Man, he has got sort of subdued camp menace down pat, he.
28:15
Is excellent. And I mean he is the one that
28:19
Scott Frederick is the one that really gets to exploit
28:23
everything. He gets the sort of like
28:26
slightly weird, then the very, very creepy, then you get his
28:29
brilliant ending. Because I do feel that.
28:33
I mean, we'll get to it, but I do feel that Wander Anthem and
28:38
Dennis Lille are both brilliant, but ever so slightly underused.
28:43
I feel like they both get sort of at the end.
28:46
They don't really have kind of endings to their stories in some
28:50
ways, which I think is a shame. She gets a lot of screen time,
28:54
but most of that screen time is her either hypnotized or as an
28:59
evil God. This is it.
29:00
And and there is something about where and I mean, now we know
29:03
that this may be not something that actually anyone would
29:05
really want. But when RTD said that his
29:08
biggest regret was not doing a direct sequel, and he said as
29:11
like a offhanded thing, you know, could have done Fendale
29:15
got wand of Anthem back. And it was like, do you know
29:17
what actually? We've seen empire death.
29:20
But now, now we know that that is not a thing that anybody
29:24
wants. But in my but the thing that
29:26
came to me was I was like, Oh my God, imagine Donna and Colby
29:31
like I was like, I cannot even like the the the magnificence of
29:37
that duo would just be like. She'd be like, what sort of body
29:43
was it A dead one? What?
29:45
Sort is. There, you know, Oh, that'd be
29:47
wonderful. Together it'd be absolutely
29:49
amazing. I just imagine that after the
29:51
subtlety of Suitek being dragged around the Time Vortex on a
29:54
lead, I mean, would he? I think that Tennant would have
29:57
had a massive salt gun going after those slugs, wouldn't he?
30:00
Or something, You know, it would have been pretty terrible.
30:04
Oh, I love this technology. So this, this is I mean, I've
30:07
just today getting to get some some ideas by rewatch the stone
30:13
tape because I feel like the, the Nigel, I mean, this dark
30:19
secrets from monsters from the past mixed with clicky
30:24
technology is my is my jam. That is my that is my thing.
30:30
I mean, I love and I love it. Where you get this idea of the
30:34
science can't help you. And I love that.
30:36
And there was someone, I don't know who it was.
30:38
I always quote this, it may have been Kim Newman.
30:41
Somebody said that the the greatest addition that the 20th
30:44
century added to the ghost story is that an explanation doesn't
30:48
mean an end to the terror. And I love that.
30:51
It's like, yes, you can explain it, but you're still fucked like
30:54
and you can't and and there's. That's this, right?
30:58
That's this, that's this, that's this.
30:59
They're like, we know what it is, but it's just death and we
31:01
can't. Do it.
31:02
How do you kill death? How do you kill death?
31:05
And I think that and especially with this kind of technology,
31:07
but the the stone tape it which is this is ripping off, I mean a
31:11
fairly hefty amount. You've seen it, you know.
31:15
Have you not? Go and watch it, Oh my God.
31:17
Do you mind if I'm spoiling? It or no?
31:19
Come on. Oh please.
31:20
It's just the the I mean, I love, love, love Nigel Neil and
31:25
it's this idea idea of in the stone tape it, which is, I mean,
31:27
the famous concept that came from it is the idea that the
31:30
ghosts are kind of recordings in the stone of the building.
31:34
And these the scientists are then trying to kind of
31:35
understand that because they want a new recording medium.
31:38
So they're like, we could maybe do this ourselves, but what they
31:41
actually end up doing is kind of reawakening a force that's older
31:47
than the ghosts, which is expressed in just all you get is
31:50
like blurry lights and weird sound and it's just incredibly
31:55
creepy. I mean, it's just such a
31:56
beautiful concept of like there is just something ancient which
32:00
is in the stones and it's going to get you.
32:02
And that then leads to like another haunting, but that but
32:05
the same thing from Quota Mass and the pit as well.
32:07
It's that hidden, buried historical thing which is having
32:11
a horrible effect on the present day.
32:14
And you can't really do anything about it because even in Cueta
32:17
Mass and the Pit, it's like there's nothing.
32:18
You can't stop it. You can just kind of try to
32:21
understand and deal with it, but there's nothing you can you
32:23
can't solve the problem that really you can throw iron at it,
32:27
but it's still existing within humans themselves, which is.
32:30
Great salt. I think it's salt or.
32:32
Salt or salt? Yeah, you get salt and iron.
32:34
Don't you tell me George Spencer and Foster can't direct these
32:38
scenes with the hiker, the misty woods, the tracking shots?
32:42
I mean, there's a shot where, oh, we've just gone past it
32:44
where the camera literally just goes into the woods.
32:46
Like APOB shot. It's.
32:48
It's it's gorgeous. It's like the Evil dead.
32:50
It's wonderful. And I think that this is.
32:53
Yeah, I just say wonderful when wonder was on this.
32:55
Wonderful mashes. But it's, it's, I think in the
33:00
the notes, the production notes on the DVD, it's said that they
33:05
they weren't happy with the quality of the film.
33:07
And I think if anything, I quite like that it's very grainy.
33:11
I think that really adds to it. It's pretty.
33:14
Great. I think it's very clear what's
33:17
happening. Oh yeah, it's.
33:19
Being pursued. Oh, God, yeah.
33:21
And I think, and I think all of the film segments have a really
33:24
brilliant texture and they really add something to it.
33:28
I think. I think they're all great.
33:29
I think what's. Unusual, though, is how it's
33:31
into cart with all those scenes of her and the overlays of the
33:34
skull. Which is really nicely done.
33:37
You don't Doctor Who's not the sort of show where you can do
33:39
build up a suspense like that, no.
33:43
And I think it's, I think he's done a really, really good job.
33:45
And it's almost a shame he gets the TARDIS scene.
33:47
You're like, oh. I know there's terrible flat
33:49
lighting. You're like, oh gosh, Leila,
33:52
will you put them away? What is going on with that
33:54
costume? Yeah.
33:56
I mean, there are choices being made, aren't there?
33:58
But I think what you get here, I mean, I don't know, this is I'm
34:01
assuming this is after their sort of slight to do.
34:06
They do great work. And I know there's all the back,
34:09
the background stuff between Tom and Louise, Jason, things like
34:12
that. But I think.
34:12
They were OK. At this point, I think at this
34:14
point they were OK. I think that I think it was
34:16
really Fang Rock that was kind of the big like, but but I think
34:20
also, I mean, I have to say as well that I think Louise Jameson
34:23
is the best actress to ever have played a companion.
34:26
It doesn't mean Leela's my favorite companion, but I think
34:29
she just. Oh, I agree.
34:30
Does the work brilliantly. I don't think even counting new
34:35
series, I don't think anyone else can actually take the crown
34:39
really. She understands that she has to
34:43
find something in every scene, and when you hear her talking
34:47
about it on commentaries and in documentaries and all sorts of
34:50
she's a thinkers actor, she's always thinking about where am I
34:53
in this scene? What can I contribute if I'm
34:56
not? How the hell can I upstage Tom?
34:58
And quite right too. Someone's got to do it.
35:02
You remember that bit in Horror Fang Rock, where he's giving
35:05
some grand speech and she's there doing the shovelling of
35:08
the coal and she doesn't because she's never done it before, so
35:11
she doesn't quite know how to do it.
35:12
You ain't looking at Tom once. In that sense, and even just
35:16
now, her reactions to stuff, it's so, so good.
35:19
It's so spot on. It's so sort of economical.
35:21
She does things with just a very quick look, but you get
35:25
everything from that look. I mean, I think she's just sort
35:27
of exceptional. I love as well that in this
35:30
story you have, you know, obviously the great romance of
35:34
Adam Colby and Wanda Ventum's character, Thea Ransom.
35:37
But then of course, you've got style.
35:40
Is that his name? Yeah, Fredericks.
35:43
He obviously wants to have it off with both of them.
35:47
Bisexual. No, no.
35:48
So 100%. I mean, this is I, I often talk
35:51
about the Fetch Priory orgy, which is for me the life.
35:56
It's the short hand. You get an invite.
35:59
Oh wish. But this, what you have in this
36:01
story is you have characters that have kind of inner lives,
36:05
which you don't always get in Doctor Who stories.
36:07
You sometimes you start a Doctor Who story and you're like, this
36:09
character didn't exist 5 minutes ago in this one.
36:13
The night before this, something went on, everyone got a bit too
36:16
drunk and it's like you get the sort of thing where I think
36:20
Style and Colby got a bit close that Colby is kind of OK with
36:23
and Style doesn't. He's he's a bit, he's still not
36:25
sure about his feelings you had. Friends, I just sat there
36:28
watching, going wrong. Yeah.
36:30
What a great posting this is. That's it.
36:33
And I think, and I think was kind of watching from the corner
36:35
being a bit creepy, but he's sort of but that.
36:38
But you get that the the interactions are just so good
36:41
and the the suggestions of like there is something else behind
36:45
this. They've all got their own lives
36:46
going on. That's bad, right?
36:48
He did it in Robots of Dance. He I mean less so in Face of
36:52
evil, because how can you give less so?
36:54
In Face of Evil, But no, no, 100%.
36:56
Yeah, actually he is a really, really good writer.
37:00
And in this it comes across just brilliantly for how just how
37:05
well drawn the characters are. Again, with economy of dialogue,
37:10
but you get one or two lines, even just the dog Leaky with all
37:13
its background, like it's just such a great thing that exists
37:18
in the story. There we go A.
37:20
Dead. Why?
37:20
What other? Thought is there, he doesn't say
37:26
any line. Naturalist as well.
37:28
I've never seen him before. I was gonna say, I mean, I don't
37:32
know. I've never seen Edward Arthur in
37:34
anything else. I don't don't.
37:35
Think he did a lot. And but he's sort of, it's a
37:38
sort of brilliant performance. I don't like.
37:41
Yeah, it's not naturalistic. I don't know quite where he's
37:43
pitching it, but it's so good and it fits so well with the
37:47
others. What is Wanda doing in this?
37:49
She is meant for movies. Will you take a look at?
37:52
Her, I mean honestly, and I that's what I mean, my biggest
37:55
criticism of the story is that I just don't think by the end,
37:59
because she's all painted up and stuff, that last episode she
38:02
doesn't. It's when Style wakes her up and
38:04
then drugs are puts her to sleep again and you're like, for fun
38:07
sake, like just she, she, she needs some dialogue, she needs
38:10
something to do. I think her best, her best scene
38:13
that she gets in. This is the one where she's
38:15
talking to Colby and she's talking about.
38:18
Oh, brilliant. I don't know why I did that.
38:21
Yeah, I don't know what's. Happening planet was like go on.
38:25
Ask me who planned it that. Is really, really great and I
38:29
think that. Was terrible acting.
38:33
No, sorry. Wanda.
38:34
She deserved. She deserved, but I think she
38:36
deserves a stronger ending. You know, I don't know whether
38:42
it's a kind of redemption or something, but she's just kind
38:44
of written out, and I think that is a pity.
38:46
And what's happening here, though, Martin, is it's the the
38:50
female renaissance has started. We're in the Graham Williams.
38:52
Yeah, that's true. Women are back.
38:55
We've we've got, you know, fabulous Wonder Ma, Tyler and
38:59
Leela all in one stop. I mean, for God's sake.
39:01
All getting dialogue, all getting things to do.
39:04
More women than we had in season 14.
39:06
The whole season, yeah. But that's how we get to Stones
39:09
of Blood. We are actually passing the
39:10
Bechtel test. But it's but I think that's
39:14
yeah, I mean, you know, Martin are absolutely brilliant and I
39:16
think but I think all the other characters.
39:18
So yeah, the two, for me, it's Fendelman and Thea that I think
39:22
are missing something at the end.
39:24
A little bit more. Fendelman, you get his great
39:25
kind of breakdown of like mankind has been tricks or
39:28
whatever, but it's like it's not then then he just gets killed.
39:32
It's like, oh, there's something missing that he almost needed,
39:35
maybe a bit of a redemption thing.
39:37
He's not a villain, but he needed something, I think, at
39:40
the end. It's a very quick ending, isn't
39:41
it? I mean, they're all under the
39:43
table still and then they just run off and then.
39:45
They need to seem like we can say, but no, it's like we're
39:48
just, we're just fucking off here.
39:49
And I mean, you see that in sequels that have been done to
39:51
this where they are a bit like, oh, actually there are threads
39:55
that are left hanging. And they do it in the Big Finish
39:57
one, the Lucy Miller one, where it's like Fendelman, that whole
40:00
family fit all the cows. But that whole thing of like the
40:03
responsibility you bear for being like the vessel that
40:07
brings this about and things that that doesn't really get
40:09
explored enough I think in this one.
40:11
Does this scene make you want to sing that song from the advert?
40:14
We are lucky cows. We chew the curtain brows.
40:19
Do you remember that advert Anchor Butter?
40:21
But I was about to say it must be anchor, but I don't remember
40:24
that specific one. It was just shot like this,
40:26
except Tom Baker and Louise Jameson weren't.
40:28
In it weren't uttering around. But again, I think that's I
40:30
think that looks great. I think that looks really nice.
40:33
I don't think. Love Doctor Who in the
40:35
Countryside because when I was a kid I always played Doctor Who
40:38
in the countryside. Yeah.
40:42
Wonderful. I think, and it's like all the
40:43
Sylvester McCoy stuff, just how great those final two seasons
40:46
are where you're just out in the countryside.
40:48
It's just brilliant. It's lovely.
40:49
I went to Arundel last year, actually.
40:51
Yeah, I was looking for Fiona Walker, but I couldn't find her
40:54
anywhere, so I decided to ham it up myself.
40:58
Yeah, it's got to be done. I was sort of going down the
41:01
fields, going all things shall soon be mine and people were
41:05
going, oh, not another one. Happens every every couple it's.
41:10
The same people you know who give you the look in Didcot, the
41:13
village from the Android invasion.
41:16
When you're tied to. And all born, Yeah, like, oh,
41:18
crikey, more Doctor Who fans, OK.
41:22
But. There's only a few places that
41:23
you can go because the house in this, it's the same house as
41:26
pyramids, isn't it? Is it Star Groves?
41:29
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although it looks very different
41:32
because they don't do a lot of filming outside the houses.
41:34
No, I was going to say that's it.
41:36
It's just along that line, isn't it?
41:37
But I think it's that edge. But it's yeah.
41:39
Again, I just think it's really nice that that sort of you only
41:42
get that one shot of the house for it.
41:44
I think that works really well and that it's always, you get
41:48
those just those lovely kind of night shots that are just really
41:51
creepy like, you know, I think it, yeah.
41:54
I don't really understand what the issue was with the filming.
41:56
I don't really understand why it was a problem.
41:58
Go, I mean, look at this. It looks sharp as anything it's.
42:01
Yeah. I mean, it may be they're a bits
42:03
they cut out and didn't use that weren't as good, but I think
42:07
what they get is really, really good and also just the direction
42:09
is great. This is brilliant that him him
42:12
going over and Lena just being there.
42:14
He came armed and silent. I.
42:17
Was sent by the council to cut the verges.
42:19
Like he's just, it's just excellent.
42:21
Has she escaped from somewhere? He goes.
42:24
Yeah, but I mean that and that as well.
42:26
That dialogue is just brilliant. You both.
42:29
Does he make a reference to her being a foreigner in this scene?
42:33
I can't remember if he says that she's from somewhere else
42:35
because. He says she escaped from
42:37
somewhere. Does he?
42:38
Say I can't remember. Hang on.
42:40
I'm going to keep an eye on the dialogue you both escaped from
42:43
somewhere. Frequent.
42:44
That is the fantastic line. Both escaped from somewhere
42:47
frequently. One of the great travesties of
42:49
the 1990s, and this is the late 80s, was Star Cops.
42:54
And I'll tell you for why that was so.
42:56
That was written by Chris Boucher and fantastic scripts
43:01
completely let down by the BBC that refused to throw the
43:05
resources and they threw the acting talent at it.
43:07
But you're the resources. I've never seen Star Cops.
43:11
Ah well, I'll tell you what. I'll do the stone tape and you
43:13
do. Oh yeah, brilliant.
43:15
I don't need much idea. I don't need much persuade.
43:16
Do a podcast about it. I don't know how will Lincoln
43:19
but. But I have a weird connection of
43:23
Fendale and Star Cops, which is an image of Fendale.
43:25
I saw it quite late, I think in terms of general stories, but I
43:29
remember seeing it advertised inside the cover of another
43:33
video where they have just the cover, but they always have Star
43:35
Cops and Moon Base 3 and all of those other ones advertised in
43:39
the middle. But yeah, the cover of it and
43:41
then title of it really stuck in my mind.
43:44
I was like, what is the Fendall? What what is its image, you
43:47
know? And then that cover with the
43:48
skull was just great. Did you hear what you said?
43:50
I love the fact that Tom knows all the cliches.
43:53
He goes, yes. And the Manor and Tom goes, ah,
43:55
yes, it's haunted. Of course he goes yes.
43:58
Well, yeah, but the woods even more so.
44:00
You know, it's a very knowing script.
44:02
It's very knowing it is, it is. But also, I mean, it's hugely in
44:07
a quiet way influential. All that stuff about the time
44:10
Fisher that just became essentially the first season of
44:13
RTD and Torchwood. And the fact that growing up on
44:16
it effects and some some of the Torchwood stories dealt with
44:19
that really, really well. That concept of being close to a
44:23
rift in time and whatever, and that all of that stuff got got
44:27
reused later on. You ever been called a loony old
44:29
trout, Martin? Not yet.
44:33
I'm hoping Looney. Trout, I love her so much.
44:36
She she is absolutely fantastic. Everything about her performance
44:42
is just wonderful. She goes, I'm not sticking
44:44
around here making dinner for you bunch, if he's going to be
44:46
rude to me. And that and there isn't a dog
44:50
born as would attack me. Boy, they've got more sense the
44:52
most. That is a brilliant.
44:53
Line as well. What's great, she's the most
44:55
knowing thing in the script because she is absolutely a
44:59
cliche, A walking cliche, right. The person who knows all the
45:02
ancient arts and all of this, you know, an old villager who
45:05
gives people double S for protection and things.
45:08
And yet she's right on every occasion.
45:10
Yeah, she's right. The protection spells work,
45:13
Yeah, you know, And she comes along at the end.
45:15
She has. Come on boy, we're going to go
45:16
to the house and sort it all out.
45:19
What a wonderful character. And and also it's just that
45:21
thing again of this external, like the sort of the inner life,
45:24
her thing when she's like there'll there'll come a time
45:26
when I'm too old for this sort of thing.
45:27
You're like, what else is Martin have been doing?
45:30
Like this is fantastic. She's a bit of Hawthorn in that
45:33
way. I always expect her to start
45:35
going. Oh Beedrick, you must romance
45:38
the lady from the Manor. Do you know what I'm talking
45:41
about there? So she is.
45:43
She was a part of one of the highest rated sitcoms of all
45:46
time to the Man of Born in the Oh, she's.
45:48
Mrs. Poon. Yeah.
45:50
Yeah, yeah, I do. Oh, sorry.
45:52
I was like. Yeah, I do.
45:53
Oh, she was obsessed about was him shaking up with Penelope
45:58
Keith in that. Wasn't it?
46:01
I just like he called her out with a time and he said, yeah, I
46:03
know you want a nice retirement, all right, like Jesus Christ.
46:07
But I think, yeah, again, I think she's a very good actress.
46:10
I think it's very well cast for all of it all.
46:14
Of it Benson Foster. So he did this and he did Rebus
46:17
operation. I mean and the 2 character LED's
46:21
just brilliantly cast stories couldn't really be better.
46:25
Skip over to Blake 7 and he did Gambit where he got old Amelia
46:29
Dukar and Fishnet, you know, I mean he cast impeccably.
46:34
But I mean, also, I mean, talking about Blake 7 and
46:37
talking about Boucher, and because I mean, some of the
46:41
scripts were just exceptional as well.
46:43
I mean, *1 as a season finale is sort of pretty much unbeatable
46:49
for me. As a way of bringing stuff
46:50
together in a sort of unexpected way, I think is exceptional.
46:53
Some of those lives he gave there.
46:55
I mean, do you remember in sand, You know, I was the boy next
47:00
door. I'd move Where?
47:01
Next door or oh God, in rumours of death.
47:05
Do you remember this exchange? What is it?
47:08
He's a savage Callie. And she goes, yes.
47:10
And it's infectious, isn't it? I mean it.
47:13
There's the dialogue in Blake Seven.
47:14
Could be. I mean, it could be Pony.
47:16
It could be. It could be.
47:17
Yeah, 1 pointer. Oh, it could be so good.
47:19
And I and I think, yeah, I think just at the end of when he gets
47:22
that sort of season finale where Blake's just like, I always sort
47:25
of trusted you, Avon. You know, he's like, ultimately
47:27
I knew that you're a kind of good guy and you get.
47:30
And then just that bit at the end where it's like we're the,
47:32
we're the last ones defending. We have to basically work with
47:35
the federation. What lovely way to end it.
47:38
Beautiful. And I think he was the reason
47:41
the character work was just so. Riveted.
47:43
Oh, God, yeah. Yeah. 100 percent, 100% you.
47:45
Can see him slowly taking over through season 1 and then in
47:49
season 2 he's like right, it's my base.
47:50
Yeah, this is my yeah, exactly. Terry's out of ideas.
47:56
Which actually, I mean, talking about Dennis Lil, I think,
47:59
although it's not quite so good, but I think he is a really
48:03
strong actor. And in Survivors, yeah, once
48:06
Terry Nation goes and they sort of bring him back, he goes from
48:09
being kind of creepy pervert. He wants to impregnate all the
48:11
women to. Be with ladies.
48:14
So yeah. And then they then they just
48:15
like they need him to be the lead and they're like still
48:17
shagging all the women. He's like, not as much as I was,
48:20
like kind of. Going on the lead now.
48:22
OK, I believe, you know, go stop this.
48:24
But I think, I think he was, I don't think he had a good time
48:26
making it, but I think he was really good in it.
48:29
And I think he is just and he's brilliant in this I think as
48:32
well. What other Doctor Who is in?
48:34
Oh, the awakening? Wasn't he so George Hutchinson?
48:37
Yeah, which is a fantastic performance as well.
48:39
You speak treason fluently. Fluently.
48:44
Yeah, would you imagine happen to all the spinning reels from
48:47
all the future technology in the 70s?
48:49
I mean, I just love them. Yeah, they'll be in someone's
48:52
house somewhere, clicking around.
48:54
I mean, look, they've got at least 4 television screens here.
48:58
But all of this stuff, again, because it's so analogue and
49:01
clicky, it like it just works even more.
49:04
Because that's such a great. Thing is, everything just
49:07
clicks, doesn't it? It just ticks over.
49:09
It's brilliant and. This is the sort of shot you do
49:12
not get in Doctor Who. There's nobody in this room.
49:14
No, it's the camera going through a dark room as the skull
49:17
was slowly coming to life. Yeah, it's just style.
49:20
It's just atmosphere like a. Style, baby.
49:23
Yeah, it's style, baby. And then cut back to the woods.
49:26
It's just, yeah, it's just brilliant.
49:28
And then I love the very primal fear of being rooted to the spot
49:33
something horrific comes towards.
49:34
Fantastic. And it's one of those things
49:36
that genuinely I think you do understand in a way that going
49:39
back to listen, as we were talking about, I think sometimes
49:42
Stephen Moffat thinks that people have shared experiences
49:44
they don't have where he's like everyone, everyone knows what
49:47
this feels like. You're like, do they?
49:48
No, I'm not sure, but the route to the spot thing I think is a
49:50
very common sort of nightmare experience.
49:54
I know he's like, you know, everyone's scared of that person
49:58
under the bed. No, grab your foot.
49:59
That's where I kept all the porn.
50:01
I wasn't scared under my bed, but I was.
50:03
Like, honestly, yeah, no, that's not a thing I've ever thought
50:05
about. I don't know.
50:06
Maybe some people do, but no, not really.
50:08
How I do this bit in a moment, this sort of Cliff hanging
50:11
moment where Don Brennan from Coronation Street shoots at
50:15
Leila. The cheat.
50:17
She's very forgiving of him in the next episode.
50:19
She ohh. Well, you know, yeah.
50:22
Whatever. That is beautifully lined up the
50:25
sky. Really in in a way that you
50:27
often get. And then this lovely evil dead
50:29
shot at the end. Just brilliant, but in a way.
50:31
Home. Just brooding there.
50:33
Yeah, fantastic. But you get it a lot, don't you?
50:36
In Doctor Who, weather things don't quite line up and you're a
50:38
bit like, oh, that's a shame. It could have been if there are
50:41
a bit more time. But this is done really.
50:43
And that's a great, fantastic final shot.
50:45
That's just brilliant. Oh, what a brilliant first
50:48
episode. I mean, we've got everything
50:50
there, right? You've got big concepts, you've
50:52
got atmosphere, you've had jokes, you've got fun scenes
50:55
with the Doctor and Leela, you've got great guest
50:57
characters. Oh yeah, you've got a whole set
51:00
of guest characters that work that first 5 minutes that the
51:02
doctor's not in and you don't notice that the doctor's not in
51:05
it. You're like, this is great, just
51:06
keep chatting more about breakfast and whatever.
51:08
Fantastic. Did you notice the guard was
51:10
called David Mitchell? David Mitchell.
51:14
Mitchell. And Steele's name is Maximilian.
51:18
Maximilian. Yeah.
51:18
No wonder Colby knew he was getting lucky the night before.
51:22
But I also, we haven't said it. I love that he calls him Maxi.
51:25
That's the thing. That's so and it, and the way he
51:28
kind of reacts to it when he's like, Maxi starts the game with
51:31
a smile. That's what he was saying when
51:34
he was riding. Him, you know, honestly, that's
51:36
and that's exactly why and then you can tell what styles like
51:39
reacting really weirdly T style and I don't call me maxi.
51:41
I don't like that. That's what you.
51:42
Said last night. You know, usually people are
51:44
trying to stop me from making these sort of illusions about
51:48
there's you talking about the orgy effect Priory for God.
51:51
Sake. Yeah, no, Fender the only one
51:53
where it's like for the from the first watch, it's like it's
51:56
definitely there. It's like what happened last
51:58
night. You need to talk about this.
51:59
I mean, I think that's he could have just sort of off Mike and
52:02
said to him, you know, you ain't gonna call the police or I'll
52:05
tell them your career will be over when I tell them what you
52:08
were up to last night. We did.
52:10
You didn't see me in the corner with the Polaroid camera.
52:15
So I've got my little dossier on you.