Doctor Who Vs. Burke and Hare

Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis portrayed the notorious 19th century serial killers, Burke
and Hare in this British black comedy.
David Tennant was originally
cast as Hare, but was replaced
by Serkis. The film was directed
by cult film maker John Landis,
writer of An American Werewolf 
in London.

During 1827 and 1828, two 
Irish immigrants, William Burke 
and William Hare perpetrated 
seventeen murders in the West 
Port area of Edinburgh, and sold 
the corpses to the anatomy 
lecturer, Dr. Robert Knox. The killers were only prosecuted when Hare was
given immunity to implicate his accomplice. Burke was hanged in 1829. Ironically, the bodies of executed criminals were then dissected, and Burke's skeleton is still displayed at the city's Medical College. Knox (played by Tom Wilkinson) never faced any criminal charges, and was forced to leave Scotland when the Anatomy Act (which outlawed 'body-snatching') was passed in 1832.

The second cinema depiction of these murders (released in 2010) was shown 
on BBC Two again last night, and featured Christopher Lee, Isla Fisher, Tim 
Curry, Ronnie Corbett and twenty Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Pegg (Burke) played the Editor in The Long Game, and voiced Don Chaney for Big Finish's Invaders From Mars (2002)
• Bill Bailey (Angus) was Droxil in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
• Jessica Hynes (Lucky) was Joan Redfern in Human Nature and The Family of Blood, then (that character's great-granddaughter) Verity Newman in The End of Time, and voiced Glory Bee also for Invaders From Mars
• David Schofield (Fergus) voiced Nostradamus for The Doomsday Quatrain (2011), and Billy for Death in Blackpool (2009), then starred in The Girl Who Died as Odin
• Steve Spiers (Doorman) was Commissioner Strickland in Aliens of London and World War Three
• Hugh Bonneville (Harrington) was Captain Henry Avery in The Curse of the Black Spot (and briefly in A Good Man Goes to War and The Wedding of River Song)
• Duncan Duff (Attendant) was a Newsreader in Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel, and voiced Joe Hartley for Night Thoughts (2006)
• Jenny Agutter (Lucy) voiced Sekhmet for The Bride of Peladon (2008)
• John Woodvine (Lord Provost) was the Marshal of Atrios in The Armageddon Factor, and voiced Galileo Galilei for Doom Coalition: The Galileo Trap (2015)
• Christopher Obi (Martin) was George in Closing Time
• Michael Smiley (Patterson) was Colonel Morgan Blue in Into the Dalek, and voiced Seedleson for Creatures of Beauty (2003)
• George Potts (Dr. Lister) voiced Ruben and Guard for You Are The Doctor and Other Stories (2015)
• Christian Brassington (Charles) voiced Alfred Stahlbaum for The Silver Turk (2011), and was the Editor in The Five(ish) Doctors
• Reese Shearsmith (Mackenzie) and Paul Davis (Patient) both starred in Sleep No More, as Rassmussen and King Sandman respectively, whilsr Shearsmith was also Dan Matthews in the two Auton VHS spin-offs, Andrew Powell in the PROBE video series, and depicted Patrick Troughton in An Adventure in Space and Time
• Danielle de Costa was also a stunt performer on Voyage of the Damned and Night Terrors
• Gary Hoptrough was a stuntman on The Runaway Bride and Let's Kill Hitler too
• stuntman Curtis Rivers was John Barrowman's stunt double on Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Torchwood
• prosthetics supervisor Waldo Mason was in the SFX crew for Aliens of London
• Lisa McDiarmid was also the stand-by art director on The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords, Torchwood and the pilot episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Neal Champion was the SFX supervisor on An Adventure in Space and Time too