Doctor Who Vs. Agatha Christie, Part 1

"Loss-of-memory cases are rare, but occasionally

genuine" The Disappearance of Mr. Dagenham (1924)

First screened in September 2004, BBC2 celebrated the life and

career of the Queen of Crime (1890-1976) with the drama, A Life

in Pictures.

Agatha's story was told in flashback, from her perspective at two

distinct times in her life - through the sessions with her psychiatrist (following her disappearance in 1926), and then via interviews at the

tenth anniversary of The Mousetrap in 1962. Much of the film focused

on her notorious disappearance, after her first husband Archie Christie

 had asked Agatha (portrayed by Olivia Williams) for a divorce. Whilst

some contemporary commentators suggested a publicity stunt, the

doctor here concluded that the writer had experienced a fugue state,

 and her amnesia was genuine. In 1999, Hercule Poirot and the Disappearing Novelist (part of BBC2's documentary series, The Great Detective) also supported that diagnosis.

Sky Arts' Agatha Christie Vs. Hercule Poirot later examined the

novelist's flight in the context of the reception to her latest work,

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Gareth Roberts' story, The Unicorn and the Wasp also depicted the

events (albeit fictional) leading up to Agatha's flight. By the end of

 the episode, the action had moved from the Queen of Crime's

atypical setting - the English country house - to Silent Pool, where

her car was actually found abandoned. Here, the Doctor deduced

 that the incident caused Agatha's memory loss.

A Life in Pictures (last repeated by the BBC in 2008, then shown

on Drama in 2019) is now available on Britbox - it featured Mark

Gatiss, Bonnie Wright, and seven Doctor Who cast and crew

connections:

• Anna [Raymond] Massey (Older Agatha here; Narrator of Death on the Nile, 1976; Miss Pebmarsh in The Clocks) voiced Miss Pollard for Big Finish's The Girl Who Never Was (2007)
• Raymond [Anthony] Coulthard (Archie Christie here; Raymond West for The Case of the Perfect Maid) voiced Loki, Edgar and Hawks for Cobwebs (2010), Ralph and Acolyte for Suburban Hell (2015), and Robac, Servers and Dalmari for The Destination Wars (2017)
• Anthony O'Donnell (Kenward/Poirot) was Commander Kaagh in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane and The Last Sontaran
• Bertie [born Robert] Carvel (Max Mallowan here; Osborne in The Pale Horse, 2020) was the Mysterious Man in The Lazarus Experiment
• Olivia Darnley (Nurse here; Cherry in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, 2010) voiced Emily Cole for Prisoner of the Ood (2018), and made a cameo appearance in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
• Tim McMullan (Pharmacist here; Meredith in The Witness for the Prosecution, 2016) voiced the Eight for Doom Coalition 3 (2016)
• Mick Pantaleo was also the first assistant director on A Christmas Carol, The Doctor's Wife and Night Terror, then producer on Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar and Agatha and the Midnight Murders

The Mysterious Case of Agatha Christie (part of Sky's Urban

Myths strand) aired in April 2018, and featured seven other

Doctor Who links:

• Anna [born Charlotte] Maxwell Martin (Christie here; Sophia for Crooked House, 2008; Ethel in And Then There Were None, 2015) was Suki Macrae Cantrell in The Long Game, then voiced Maddie Bower for The Diary of River Song 2 (2016)
• Bill Paterson (Conan Doyle here; Bradley in The Pale Horse, 2010) was Dr. Edwin Bracewell in Victory of the Daleks and The Pandorica Opens
• Rosie Cavaliero (Dorothy L Sayers here; Bunch for Sanctuary & Tape-Measure Murder) voiced Cassie Schofield for Project: Twilight (2001) and Project: Lazarus (2003), and Marge Ellmore for Infamy of the Zaross (2017)
• Mark Bonnar (Billy here; Alfred for 4.50 from Paddington, 1997) was Jimmy in The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People, then voiced Heath Porteus for The English Way of Death (2015), Zoltan Frid for The Labyrinth of Buda Castle (2016), and the Eleven for Doom Coalition, Ravenous, Dark Universe (2020) and UNIT: Nemesis 1 (2021)
• Adrian [Philip] Scarborough (Danders) was Kahler Jex in A Town Called Mercy and The Making of the Gunslinger, and voiced Rupert Von Thal for The Boy That Time Forgot (2008)
• Tor Clark (Angela) was a Teacher in Let's Kill Hitler
• Alex Kaye Besley was second assistant director on The Shakespeare Code too

Doctor Who Vs. Without a Clue

"The brains behind Sherlock Holmes

belonged to Dr. Watson, according

to this farce, the shy doctor having

invented the fictitious sleuth as a

front for his own crime detection

skills. As Holmes captured the

public's imagination (depicted in

The Strand magazine), Watson

was forced to hire actor Reginald

Kincaid (played here by Michael

Caine) to impersonate him. How

they fare while investigating a

plot (hatched by Paul Freeman's

Professor Moriarty) to undermine

the British Empire with forged

fivers is the comedy basis for

this mismatched buddy movie. Its lots of fun, despite the hammy

performances, and Ben Kingsley's Watson wipes the floor with

Caine's Holmes." Alan Jones, Radio Times.

Released by Orion in late 1988, the ITC production originally had

the working title The Impostor of Baker Street, then was intended

to be marketed as Sherlock and Me. Shown on Talking Pictures

today, the film also featured Jeffrey Jones (as Lestrade), and a 

dozen Doctor Who cast connections:

• [Peter John] Freeman voiced Jalnik for Big Finish's The Foe from the Future (2012)
• Lysette [Ann Chodzko] Anthony (Leslie) voiced Clara Harris for Assassin in the Limelight (2008), Hazel Bright for Hothouse (2009), and Sophia for The Secret History (2015)
• Harold [Sidney] Innocent (Johnson) was Gilbert M in The Happiness Patrol, and voiced Freeth for The Paradise of Death
• Ivor Roberts (Reporter) was Mogran in Genesis of the Daleks
• James [Rutherford Worsfold] Bree [born Thomson] (Barrister here; Barnicot in The Six Napoleons, 1965; Coroner in The Empty House, 1986) was the Security Chief in The War Games, Nefred in Full Circle, and Keeper of the Matrix in The Ultimate Foe
• Clive Mantle (Thug here; Frankland in The Hounds of Baskerville) voiced Oliver Cromwell for The Settling (2006), Tuvold for The Burning Prince (2012), Tillegat and Lieutenant Treeves for Destroy the Infinite (2014), and Chuke for Genetics of the Daleks (2020)
• John Tordoff (Andrews) was Alec Leeson in (episode 4 of) Colony in Space
• Richard Henry (Hadlers) was a Mentor in Mindwarp
• Chris Webb (Henchman here; Stuntman on The Sign of Four, 1987) was a Monoid in The Ark
• stuntmen Stuart Fell and Terry [Anthony] Walsh both worked on the classic run
• Rocky [Laurie] Taylor (stunts here & A Game of Shadows) was a stuntman on The Idiot's Lantern
• Terry Forrestal (stunts here; Sir Hugo in The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1982) was a Driver in K9 and Company

Doctor Who Vs. Four Lives

ITV Studios' latest crime drama

was based on the true story of

the four young gay men who

lost their lives to serial rapist

Stephen Port (portrayed here

by Stephen Merchant).

Dubbed the Grindr Killer by the

press, Port was convicted in

2016, and will never be freed

from prison. 

Shown over three consecutive

nights, the drama concluded on

BBC1 last night - it featured

Sheridan Smith, and twelve

Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Samuel Barnett (Edwards) voiced Hans Tod for The Beast of Orlok (2009), Robin Yeadon for Nightshade, Norton Folgate for Torchwood (2016 to present), and Cicero in Tartarus (2019)
• Leo Flanagan (Daniel) was Charlie Duffy in Kerblam!, and Rex in The Eternal Mystery
• Michael Jibson (DC Slaymaker) voiced Corporal Gibbs for The Forsaken (2015)
• Daniel Ryan [born O'Brien] (Whitworth) was Biff Cane in Midnight
• Ella Kenion (Mandy) was Harriet in Let's Kill Hitler, then voiced Boudica for The Wrath of the Iceni (2012), and Romy for Equilibrium (2015)
• George Asprey (Rees) voiced Overseer Zim for The Hidden Realm, Balthasar Schrek for Nothing to See Here (both 2016), the Leader for Infamy of the Zaross (2017), General Melak for Time in a Bottle and Kings of Infinite Space (both 2018), and the titular alien for the Ravenous series and Beyond (2021)
• Ian Puleston Davies (MP) voiced Angus Selwyn for Absent Friends (2016)
• Milo Twomey (Detective) voiced Jorvik for Theatre of War (2015)
• Steve Walker was also script supervisor on twenty-four episodes (from Let's Kill Hitler to The Zygon Inversion)
• Ben Ashmore was also SFX supervisor on thirty-six stories (from The Girl in the Fireplace to The Next Doctor), The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood
• Chris Lyons was also SFX technician (teeth) on Empress of Mars, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children
• Nick Roberts (ADR mixer) was recordist on The Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone, The Vampires of Venice, Cold Blood and The Lodger