Doctor Who Vs. Liar, Series 1

ITV's hit psychological thriller concluded in

October 2017 with a climax that will see 

the programme return to the network for

a second series next month.

Liar focused on the police investigation into 

the alleged rape of teacher Laura Nielson, 

played by Joanne Froggatt. Ioan Gruffudd

was her attacker, surgeon Andrew Earlham.
Another repeat run of the six-part crime

drama (from Two Brothers Pictures and

All3Media) concluded on ITV3 last night,

and featured Peter Davison, Adjoa

Andoh, and twenty-eight other Doctor

Who cast and crew connections:

• Big Finish actor Warren Brown (Bailey) voiced Stephen Gibson for Industrial Evolution (2011), Rufus Stone and To'Koth for Signs and Wonders (2014), then Lieutenant Sam Bishop for UNIT: Extinction (2015), UNIT: Shutdown, UNIT: Silenced (both 2016), UNIT: Assembled (2017), UNIT: Cyber Reality, Lady Christina 1 (both 2018) and UNIT: Incursions (2019) - he was also Jake Willis in Praxeus
• Shelley Conn (DI Harmon) voiced Asha Qureshi for Situation Vacant (2010)
• Danny Webb (DS Maxwell) was Mr. Jefferson in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, then voiced Byron for The Girl Who Never Was (2007), and Ori for The Dark Husband (2008)
• Zoe Tapper (Katy) voiced Collis for Legion of the Lost (2016)
• Kieran Bew (Ian) voiced Arthur Kettleson for The Lady of Mercia (2013), Murdo Jamieson for The Helm of Awe, Krim Pollensa for Month 25 (both 2017), Richard Cooper for The Creeping Death (2019), Lunk/V97 for Do No Harm (2020) Dwayne Pherber for The End of the Beginning (2021), Grannus Drek for The Tribulations of Thadeus Nook (2021), and Davlin Crux for Hooklight 1 (2025), and was Ivan in Oxygen
• Chu Omambala (Semer) was Major Blake in The Christmas Invasion
• Richie Campbell (Liam) voiced Floyd for Renaissance of the Daleks (2007), and Jeremiah Henderson for The Torchwood Archive (2016)
• David Avery (Brown) was Fabian in The Name of the Doctor
• Tim Chipping (Wilson) voiced Grigory for The Wanderer (2012), and Constable Wolsey and Mandrake for The Widow's Assassin (2014)
• Laura Aikman (Charlotte) voiced Young Anita for Buried Memories (2019), and Lila Kreeg for Master! (2021)
• Clare Higgins (Felicity) was Ohila in The Night of the Doctor, The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar
• Franc Ashman (Examiner) was Christine in The Big Bang
• Tim Packham (Teacher) began his TV career as a Plasmaton in Dimensions in Time
• co-executive producer James Strong was the director of The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit, Daleks in Manhattan, Evolution of the Daleks, Voyage of the Damned, Partners in Crime and Planet of the Dead
• Ray Holman was also costume designer on twenty-eight stories (from Blink to The Husbands of River Song), and Torchwood
• Mike Jones was also film editor on twelve stories (from Rose to Face the Raven)
• Lynsey Muir was also assistant director on thirteen episodes (from The Christmas Invasion to Doomsday) and Torchwood
• dialogue editor Doug Sinclair was sound editor on forty-two stories (from Rose to The Waters of Mars), and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and sound designer on The Infinite Quest
• Helen Atherton was also stand-by art director on twenty-eight adventures (from A Christmas Carol to The Name of the Doctor)
• Louis Burnett (graphic designer) and Sebastian Marczewski (second assistant camera) were both trainees on An Adventure in Space and Time
• Jamie Talbutt was also foley editor on fifty-eight episodes (from A Christmas Carol to The Husbands of River Song), and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and sound FX editor on Shadows of the Vashta Nerada
• Tom Fears was camera trainee on Face the Raven too
• Gareth Hughes was also a camera operator on fourteen editions (from Rsoe to Heaven Sent)
• Rob Carter was also steadicam operator on The Bells of Saint John, The Rings of Akhaten and Last Christmas
• 2nd unit DoP Joe Russell was steadicam operator on thirty-seven instalments (from Blink to The Day of the Doctor)
• principle standby Ian Fowler was costume assistant on fourteen stories (from Into the Dalek to The Husbands of River Song)
• Simon Marks was also costume supervisor on thirteen episodes (from The Magician's Apprentice to the 2015 Christmas special)

Doctor Who Vs. Nothing But the Night

This thriller was made by Charlemagne
Productions, the film company set up
by actor Christopher Lee and producer
Anthony Nelson Keys, with the aim of
creating traditional Britsh horror
features.
However, the drama's box office failure
led Rank to pull out as distributor, and
the short-lived compnay folded.
Shown on the Talking Pictures channel
 last night the film (scripted by Brian 
Hayles) featured Lee, Peter Cushing,
Diana Dors, and ten other Doctor Who
cast connections:

• Michael Gambon (DI Grant) played both Elliot and Kazran Sardick in A Christmas Carol
• Keith Barron (Haynes) was Captain Straker in  Enlightenment, then voiced Isaac Barclay for Big Finish's Plague of the Daleks (2009), and Lord Tulip for The Bad Penny (2018)
• Fulton Mackay (Cameron) was Dr. John Quinn in The Silurians
• Morris Perry (Yeats) was Captain Dent in Colony in Space
• Duncan Lamont (Knight) was Dan Galloway in Death to the Daleks
• Geoffrey Frederick (Operator) was Exorse in The Savages
• Robin Wentworth (Porter) was Professor Horner in the first episode of The Daemons
• Andrew McCulloch (Malcolm) later co-wrote Meglos
• Kenneth Watson (Jamie) and Maxwell Craig (Visitor) both appeared in Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, as Craddock and Fighter - Watson was also Bill Duggan in The Wheel in Space

Doctor Who Vs. William Hartnell at the Cinema, Part 2

These two satirical film
comedies were vehicles for
Peter Sellers (1925-1980).
Based on Leonard Wibberley's novel, The Mouse That Roared
was released in the summer of
1959, and was a surprise box
office success in America.
Sellers played a trio of roles
here, and was joined by
William Hartnell (as Will

Buckley). A sequel, The Mouse

on the Moon, followed in 1963.

Heavens Above! (directed by 

prolific filmmakers John and Roy Boulting) opened in the spring of 1963. Hartnell played Major Fowler. Both productions (shown again on the Talking Pictures TV and Sony Movies channels this week) featured a total of twenty-one future Doctor Who cast alumni:

The Mouse That Roared

• Timothy Bateson (Roger) was Binro in The Ribos Operation
• Colin Gordon (Announcer here; Prime Minister in Heavens Above!) was the Commandant in The Faceless Ones 
• Fred Haggerty (Fenwickian) was a stuntman on (episode 2 of) The Time Meddler
• John Tatum (Admiral) was a Villager/Coven member in The Daemons
• Juba Kennerley (Maybury) was an Old Man in The Massacre (2)
• Tex Fuller (Fenwickian) was an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks (3)

Heavens Above!

• Mark Eden (Despard) was reunited with Hartnell on Marco Polo
• Rodney Bewes (Milkman) was Sergeant Stein in Resurrection of the Daleks
• John Harvey (Wilson) was Professor Brett in The War Machines, and Officia in The Macra Terror
• George Curtis (Constable) and Arthur Howell (Man) both starred in The War Games, as Firing Squad Soldier (1) and Confederate Horse- man (3)
• Walter Henry (Doorman) was an Extra in The Myth Makers (2) and The Silurians (6), Primord in Inferno, and Brother in The Masque of Mandragora
• Gilbert Wynne (Engineer) was Thara in The Krotons
• Richard McNeff (Inspector) was Baker in The Dalek Invasion of Earth
• Rita Tobin Weske (Lady) was the Theatre Cleaner in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (3)
• Anthony Lang (Officer) was an Egyptian Slave in The Daleks' Master Plan, Extra in The Highlanders (1) and The Faceless Ones (1), Time Lord in The Three Doctors (1), and Kaled Councillor in Genesis of the Daleks
• Graham Tonbridge (Man) was Priest in The Massacre (3) and Journalist in The War Machines (1)
• Jim O'Brady, Fred Wood (Protestors), Maxwell Craig (Reporter), Pat Judge (Worker) and Reg Thomason (Technician) all appeared in the second Dalek film
• Richard Rodney Bennett was composer of The Aztecs too

Doctor Who Vs. Spooks: Code 9

David Wolstencroft, the American-born TV writer
and creator of the long-running Spooks (2002
to 2011), conceived this spin-off drama series
for BBC Three.
Again produced by Kudos, the six-part thriller
was intended to offer a new, "more maverick
perspective" for a younger audience.

Despite it's origins, the new series held no
character or plot connections to the parent 
programme, and instead focused on the story
of six young MI5 recruits. 

Set in 2012, the show opened in the after-
math of a nuclear attack on the London
Olympics. The subsequent evacuation of the
capital and the South East of England meant
that the government had relocated to
Manchester, and new MI5 agents were now
tasked with preventing further terror
attacks.

Spooks: Code 9 originally aired from August
2008, then was repeated on BBC HD in June
2009, and latterly on Forces TV in February 2018 - it featured Georgia
Moffett (pictured as Kylie), and a total of sixteen other Doctor Who cast
and crew connections:

• Anthony Flanagan (Tom) was Orin Scannell in 42
• Big Finish actor Warren Brown (Luke) voiced Stephen Gibson for Industrial Evolution (2011), Rufus Stone and To'Koth for Signs and Wonders (2014), and Lieutenant Sam Bishop for UNIT: Extinction (2015), UNIT: Shutdown, UNIT: Silenced (both 2016), UNIT: Assembled (2017), UNIT: Cyber Reality and Lady Christina (both 2018) - he was also Jake Willis in Praxeus
• Andrew Knott (Rob) voiced James O'Meara for 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (2013), and Sean Casey for The White Room (2014)
• Lorraine Burroughs (Simone) was Thalina in The Fires of Pompeii
• Lucinda Dryzek (Alice) was Melissa in School Reunion
• Chris Finch (Conlan) was a Time Lord Soldier in The Day of the Doctor and the Prequel: The Last Day
• Eva Pope (Hamilton) voiced Nia Brusk for Army of Death (2011)
• Darryl Clark (Norris) was Officer Will in Resolution
• Dean Forster was also a stuntman on The Christmas Invasion, New Earth, Smith and Jones, Voyage of the Damned, The Next Doctor, Cold Blood, A Good Man Goes to War, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood
• Crispin Layfield was also the stunt co-ordinator on the revived series (from Smith and Jones to the present)
• sound editor Helen Dickson was foley editor on all thirteen episodes of Series 5, and twelve instalments of The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Matt Wood (VFX supervisor) and Gary Kelly (digital compositor) were both tasked with The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and The Power of Three - Wood also worked on A Town Called Mercy
• line producer Patrick Schweitzer first worked on the revived series as location manager on The Runaway Bride, then was production manager on six stories for Series 3, and produced all of Series 5
• James Moran was writer of The Fires of Pompeii too
• Toby Haynes was also director of The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang, A Christmas Carol, The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon

Doctor Who Vs. The War of the Worlds

"Across the gulf of space.. intellects vast and cool and
unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes,
and slowly and surely drew their plans against us"

H G Wells' seminal 'scientific
romance' was published in
1898 following serialisation
in Pearson's Magazine and
Cosmopolitan. The novel has
 inspired many adaptations,
most famously Orson Welles'
radio version of 1938, and
has influenced other literary
works ever since.
The first British television
iteration of the sci-fi classic
was announced in late 2015,
and the co-production (from
Mammoth Screen. Creasun
 Media and Red Square) began
transmission last month. The
 three-part drama (written
by Peter Harness) con-
cluded on BBC1 last night,
and featured Rafe Spall,
Eleanor Tomlinson, Robert Carlyle, Jonathan Aris, and twenty-three
Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Rupert Graves (Frederick) was John Riddell in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
• Charles De'ath (Graves) was Adelaide's Father in The Waters of Mars
• Harry Melling (Artilleryman) voiced Harvey Taker and Demi-Taker for Big Finish's The Whispering Forest (2010)
• Milo Twomey (Sgt. Major) voiced Jorvik for Theatre of War (2015)
• Adam Darlington (Refugee) was Passerby in Arachnids in the UK
• Sam Benjamin (Salesman) was the Estate Agent in Knock Knock
• Mickey Lewis (Policeman) was Dalek Operator on Asylum of the Daleks, Into the Dalek and The Magician's Apprentice, Policeman in The Snowmen, Beast Man in The Rings of Akhaten, Alien in The Witch's Familiar, Chauffeur in The Zygon Invasion, UNIT Soldier in The Zygon Invrsion, Corpse in Oxygen, Harbour master in The Lie of the Land, Cyberman in The Doctor Falls, and Soldier in Twice Upon a Time
• Susan Wooldridge (Mrs. Elphinstone) auditioned for the role of Leela in 1976
• Nick Gillard (stunt co-ordinator) was stunt arranger on (part 2 of) Silver Nemesis
• Damian Timmer (co-exec producer) and Tony Gibson (SFX editor) both worked on An Adventure in Space and Time too
• Howard Burden was also the costume designer on thirty adventures (from Asylum of the Daleks to Last Christmas)
• Carly Griffith was also assistant costume designer on eighteen episodes (from Asylum of the Daleks to In the Forest of the Night)
• Charlie Bestwick was also costume assistant on fourteen stories (from The Time of the Doctor to Last Christmas)
• Sean Clayton  was also the second assistant director on Dalek and Father's Day
• Daniel Kennedy was draughtsman on Series 12 too
• Dan Walker was concept artist on Series 1 too
• Robert Searl was ADR recordist on Twice Upon a Time too
• Chris Reynolds was also a SFX technician on Terror of the Vervoids and Battlefield
• Peter Kersey was SFX technician on the Doctor Who TV Movie too
• Sophie Hardcastle was also camera trainee on Demons of the Punjab, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos and Resolution
• Peter Lowden was camera assistant on The Time of the Doctor too
• Rob Arrowsmith was also a camera operator on The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang and A Christmas Carol
• Liam Byrne was armourer on The Wedding of River Song too

Doctor Who Vs. Pet Shop Boys

This post combines my two greatest creative influences: the

British institutions that are Doctor Who and Pet Shop Boys.

For the uninitiated, the Wikipedia entry for the Pet Shop Boys describes them as

"an English electronic dance music duo [formed in London in 1982, and originally called West End], consisting of Neil Tennant [b. 1954], who provides main 

vocals and Chris Lowe [b. 1959] on keyboards." 
One of the world's best-selling music artists, Pet Shop Boys have sold over 100 million records worldwide, and are listed as the most successful duo in UK music history. Three times Brit Award winners and six-times Grammy nominees, since 1985 they have achieved forty-two Top 30 singles and twenty-two Top 10 hits in the UK chart, including four number ones: West End Girls, It's a Sin, Always On My Mind, and Heart. At the 2009 Brit Awards, Pet Shop Boys received the Outstanding Contribution to Music.

This month, the duo released their first single for three years. Dreamland,

a duet with Olly Alexander (of Years & Years), is the intended title track of

their forthcoming album, to be released next January. PSB headlined the

recent Live in Hyde Park festival, and the band also announced a new 

worldwide arena tour for 2020 - Dreamworld will celebrate their greatest

 hits. These two icons of British culture are connected by these sixteen 

facts:

• in the late 1980's, a young Scottish drama student called David John McDonald adopted the stage name of David Tennant, after PSB front- man Neil Tennant
• their 1988 film, It Couldn't Happen Here, starred Gareth Hunt (Arak in Planet of the Spiders), Barbara Windsor (given a cameo in Army of Ghosts), extra Chris Chering (Tetrap in Time and the Rani, and Skin- head in Silver Nemesis), and Simon Archer (lighting cameraman) was later the cinematographer on The Lodger
• comic actors, David Walliams and Matt Lucas (both longtime Petheads and dedicated Whovians) appeared in the video for I'm With Stupid (2006)
• Frances Barber (who played Madame Kovarian in Series Six) starred in the PSB's 2001 stage musical, Closer to Heaven as Billie Trix, a role reprised for Musik (2019) - Concrete (2006) included her live version of Friendly Fire
• Tennant provided backing vocals on Robbie Williams' 1998 single, No Regrets with Neil Hannon, who later sang Love Don't Roam for The Runaway Bride, and performed Song For Ten on the first Doctor Who OST album (2006)
• former PSB manager Tom Watkins also worked with Billie Piper during her pop career
• the character of Elton Pope in Love & Monsters was named after Elton John, who recorded a cover version of In Private with Tennant for Fundamentalism (2006)
• Tennant and Lowe have collaborated with many other musicians, including Kylie Minogue, who played Astrid Peth in Voyage of the Damned
• the PSB revived the career of Dusty Springfield with the release of the single, What Have I Done to Deserve This? in 1987, leading to her PSB-produced album, Reputation in 1990 - the number one hit record, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (1966), was heard in The Rebel Flesh, and Rory remarked that his mum was a fan of Dusty (along with Wilf Mott)
• Phil Oakey also dueted with Tennant (on Yes Etc. with This Used to be the Future), his former band, the Human League, recorded a tribute B-side track entitled Tom Baker in 1981
• Sir Ian McKellern (the voice of the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen) starred as a vampire in the video for Heart (1988)
• Ron Moody appeared as the Judge in the video for It's a Sin (1987), and he later voiced the Duke of Wellington for Big Finish's Other Lives (2005)
• the duo wrote I'm Not Scared for Eighth Wonder's vocalist Patsy Kensit in 1988 - she later voiced Mercenary for Kingdom of Lies (2018)
• Joanna Lumley starred in the video for Absolutely Fabulous (1994) and was later seen as the first female incarnation of the Doctor in The Curse of the Fatal Death
• Bettrys Jones, a dancer in the video for I'm With Stupid, voiced Judith for Black Thursday (2019)

Doctor Who Vs. Deep Water

Produced by Kudos, ITV's latest crime drama concluded last night.
 The six-part thriller was adapted 
by Anna Symon from the Lake 
District-based series by novelist
Paula Daly.
Deep Water debuted on August
14 (then the entire run was made 
available on the ITV Hub) and it
featured Anna Friel, Rosalind 
Eleazer, and thirteen Doctor Who
cast and crew connections:

• Big Finish actor Sinead Keenan (Roz) played Addams in The End of Time, and voiced Margery Phipps for Council of War (2013), Aoife Dineen for Iterations of I, Stephanie Wilton for The Reesinger Process, Rosheen for The Highest Science (all 2014), and Mary Summersby for The Darkness of Glass (2015)
• Alastair Mackenzie (Riverty) voiced Galen for Prisoners of Fate (2013), Robots for The Entropy Plague (2015), and Julian St. Stephen for Counter Measures 1 (2012)
• Faye Marsay (Joanne) was Shona McCullough in Last Christmas
• Gerald Kyd (Elias)  voiced Martin Regan, Sir Robert Devere and Mulryne for 1963: The Assassination Games (2013), and Lieutenant Maurizio Savinio for Aquitaine (2016)
• Matthew Aubrey (Wayne) voiced Gwyn Hughes for Black Thursday (2019)
• Steven Cree (Joe) voiced Neil Redmond for Torchwood: Uncanny Valley (2016)
• Gordon Seed was also stunt co-ordinator on thirty-six episodes (from The Idiot's Lantern to Kill the Moon)
• Christina Low was stunt driver on Series 12 too
• casting director Andy Brierley was casting associate on fifty-eight episodes (from The Christmas Invasion to The Big Bang), Music of the Spheres, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• sound mixer Brian Milliken  was the sound recordist on The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• George Atkins was also ADR mixer on The Time of the Doctor, Flatline and Empress of Mars
• Euan Toms was ADR assistant on The Witchfinders too
• Nigel Squibbs was the dubbing mixer on An Adventure in Space and Time too