Doctor Who Vs. Cracker Specials

After three full seasons, Granada's Cracker

 returned to ITV in 1996 for a feature-length

thriller written by Paul Abbot. Robbie Coltrane

again played the titular criminal psychologist,

Fitz (here on a lecture tour of Hong Kong), and

 was joined by Ricky Tomlinson (as DCI Wise).

An American version launched in late 1997, and

was shown in the UK as Fitz. In 2000, the series

was ranked 39th in the BFI's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes poll.

Coltrane reprised his most famous TV role ten

years later in a final special, set in Manchester

again, and scripted by series creator, Jimmy

McGovern. The two thrillers featured David
Bradley, and a total of eleven Doctor Who
cast and crew connections:

White Ghost (UK TX: October 28 1996)

• prolific Big Finish director Barnaby Kay (Philby) was Heidi in The Girl Who Died, and voiced Martin Donaldson for A Life in the Day (2015), Commander Thrakken for The Neverwhen (2016), Gerrard Pulman/Foreman for Precious Annihilation (2020), and Chilton for The Devil's Hoofprints (2021)
• Pik Sen Lim (Wei Wei) was Captain Chin Lee in The Mind of Evil - a role reprised for Open the Box (2019), and also voiced Dom-Ra for Neon Reign (2018)

Nine Eleven (UK TX: October 1 2006)

• for Barbara Flynn (Judith) see Series 1
• Anthony Flanagan (Archer) was Orin Scannell in 42
• Nisha Nayar (DS Saleh) made her TV debut as [an uncredited] Red Kang in Paradise Towers, was a Programmer in Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways, then voiced Zanzibar Hashtag for Harvest of the Sycorax (2016), Guleraana Arbid for Torchwood One (2017), and Coleridge for Spinvasion (2020)
• Stephen MacKenna (Robert) was Dennis in The Woman Who Fell to Earth
• effects editor Peter Baldock was an Acolyte in The Face of Evil
• Steve Griffin and Kai Martin were stuntmen on The Idiot's Lantern and Tooth and Claw
• Andy Pryor was also casting director on the revived run, from 2004 to the present
• Andy Brierley was also casting associate on fifty-eight episodes (from The Christmas Invasion to The Big Bang), Music of the Spheres, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures