Doctor Who Vs. Luther, Series 1

This British psychological drama series
was created and scripted by Booker Prize
nominee, and Emmy award winner Neil

Cross, and starred London-born actor

Idris Elba as the eponymous detective,

maverick DCI John Luther.

Elba received Golden Globe and Emmy

Awards nominations for his role here, and

was joined by Indira Varma (Zoe Luther),

Saskia Reeves (DSU Teller), Dermot

Crowley (DCI Schenk), and Ruth Wilson

(Alice Morgan).

The initial run first aired on BBC1 in the

summer of 2010, followed by four-part

seasons in 2011, 2013 and 2019. A two-

part story was shown in late 2015.

Cross' prequel novel, The Calling was

published in 2011, and finally, the long

mooted cinema version launched last

month, ahead of a Netflix release.

A repeat run of the first six-part series

began on Drama this week - it featured Paul McGann, Nicola

Walker, and a total of twenty-one other Doctor Who cast and

crew connections:

• Varma reprised Suzie Costello, her Torchwood role, for Big Finish, and was cast as the Duchess for Series 14
• Warren [Martin] Brown (DS Justin Ripley) voiced Stephen Gibson for Industrial Evolution, Johnny Skipton for Dead Men's Tales (both 2011), Rufus Stone/To'Koth for Signs and Wonders (2014), Lieutenant Sam Bishop for UNIT: Extinction (2015), UNIT: Shutdown, UNIT: Silenced (both 2016), UNIT: Assembled (2017), UNIT: Cyber Reality, Lady Christina 1 (both 2018), UNIT: Incursions (2019), Lady Christina 2 (2021), Way of the Burryman and The Forth Generation (both 2022), then was Jake Willis in Praxeus
• Reeves voiced Carmen Rega for Emissary of the Daleks (2019), then was Maddelena Fagandini and Mary Wollstonecraft in Delia: The Myths and Legendary Tapes
• Steven Mackintosh (DCI Reed) was Gazak in Timelash
• Michael Smiley (Benny Silver) was Colonel Morgan Blue in Into the Dalek, and voiced Seedleson for Creatures of Beauty (2003)
• Sam Spruell (Lynch) was Swarm in Flux
• Diveen Henry (PC Hanson) voiced Alozza for The Vault of Osiris (2015), Sarah for The Behemoth, Sandra for A Kill to a View (both 2017), and Amanda for Ashenden (2021)
• Sean Pertwee (Lynch) made a cameo appearance in The Five(ish) Doctors
• Paul Rhys (Burgess) voiced Max Paul for The Scapegoat (2009)
• stunt co-ordinator Derek Lea was a stuntman on Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Parting of the Ways, The Age of Steel and Partners in Crime
• Stephanie Carey was also a stunt performer on ten stories (from Voyage of the Damned to The Vanquishers)
• Andrew Tiernan (Henley) was [Jim] Purcell in Night Terrors
• Rob Jarvis (Shand) was Abramal in The Time of the Doctor
• Graham Turner (Holguin) was Amos in The Crimson Horror
• Okorie Chukwu (PC Fulford) voiced Mike/Cyborg Auditor/Henry for Her Own Worst Enemy (2021) 
• Jozef Aoki (Spectator) voiced Toda Elji/Yoshita Hiroshi for The Barbarians and the Samurai (2018)
• director Stefan Schwartz played the Knight Commander in Battlefield
• Neal Champion was the SFX supervisor on An Adventure in Space and Time too
• series stand-by art director Adrian Greenwood was the production buyer on twelve installments, from Asylum of the Daleks to The Name of the Doctor
• Nick Foley was ADR mixer on The Snowmen too
• series production buyer Pauline Seager was the assistant floor manager (AFM) on The Five Doctors
• Elliott Gilhooly was sound assistant on part two of The End of Time too

Doctor Who Vs. The Shadow in the North

Philip Pullman's second Sally 

Lockhart adventure (published

in 1986) was dramatised for

BBC1, and first aired at

Christmas 2007.

The next two Lockhart stories

were also intended to be adapted, but The Tiger in the Well (1991) and The Tin Princess (1994) remain unmade for television.

Billie Piper, Matt Smith, JJ

Feild, David Harewood, and

Hayley Atwell reprised their

roles from The Ruby in the Smoke, whilst Caroline Skinner again

acted as script editor. The Sally Lockhart Mysteries sequel is available

on UKTV Play - it featured Jared Harris, Adjoa Andoh, and eight other Doctor Who cast and crew connections:

• Dona Croll (Nellie) appeared in New Earth as Matron Casp, and voiced Bella for Madquake (2020), and the Empress for The Sincerest Form of Flattery (2021)
• Sir John Standing (Garland) voiced Fenric for Gods and Monsters (2012), and Professor Threadstone for Vampire of the Mind (2016)
• Julian [Alistair] Rhind-Tutt (MacKinnon) voiced Lexhan for The Paradise of Death, and Berkhoff for The Skies of New Earth (2018)
• Phil Cornwell (Harris) was Stallholder in The Fires of Pompeii, and voiced uperintendent Galgo/Zaleb 5 for Serpent in the Silver Mask (2018), and Parsnip for Spinvasion (2020)
• Paul [Mackriell] Copley (Paton) was Clem McDonald in Torchwood: Children of Earth, and voiced Dad for Spare Parts (2002), Jimmy Deel for Missing Persons (2013), Mick Huff for The Miniaturist (2022), and Wendell for The Conservitors (2023)
• Nicholas Blane (Harkness) was Millington in Survivors of the Flux
• Paul Kennington (Nordenfels) was stuntman on Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts, Doomsday and The Doctor's Daughter
• Fran Needham was also make-up artist on Full Circle and Arc of Infinity

Doctor Who Vs. The Ruby in the Smoke

Published in 1985, the first book

in Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart

quartet, The Ruby in the Smoke

was dramatised for BBC1 and

originally broadcast at Christmas

2006.

This period drama is notable for

marking the television debut of

Matt Smith (pictured as Jim

Taylor), and is the first portrayal

of Victorian heroine Lockhart,

by Billie Piper. The pair also

starred in the sequel, The Shadow in the North, then reunited for ITV's

Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Pullman's next two novels in the series remain

unadapted for TV.

The first of The Sally Lockhart Mysteries is available to watch on UKTV's

Play - it featured Julie Walters, and fifteen further Doctor Who cast and

crew connections:

• Big Finish actor Trevor Cooper (Higgs) was [Lancelot] Takis in Revelation of the Daleks, and Friar Tuck in Robot of Sherwood, and voiced Rull for Magic Bullet's Kaldor City, then Sir Ralph for The Doomwood Curse, Shanks for The Haunting of Thomas Brewster (both 2008), Judah for The Beast of Orlok, Smithy for Castle of Fear (both 2009), Captain Maddox/Stennan for Army of Death (2011), Colonel Burroughs/Kimball for The Emerald Tiger (2012), Preddle/Jonathan Jaggers for Judoon in Chains (2016), Jonathan Mayfly/Sir Joseph Eagleton for The Ghosts of Greenwich (2019), Smallpiece for Merry Christmas Mr. Jago (2020), and Silas Keynes for The Ravencliff Witches (2022)
• Robert Glenister (Selby) was Salateen in The Caves of Androzani, and played Thomas Edison in Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - he also voiced Aboresh for Big Finish's Absolution (2007)
• John Joseph Feild (Garland) voiced David McCallister for Blue Forgotten Planet (2009)
• Don Gilet (Hopkins) was Lance Bennett in The Runaway Bride, then voiced Streatham/Fleshkin for The Hunting Season (2022), and Herman Baker for Double (2023)
• David Harewood (Bedwell twins) was Joshua Naismith in The End of Time, and voiced President Vallan for Army of Death
• Pik Sen Lim (Sheng) was married to Don Houghton, and worked on his second story The Mind of Evil as Captain Chin Lee - a role reprised for Open the Box (2019), and also voiced Dom-Ra for Neon Reign (2018)
• Hayley Atwell (Rosa) voiced Asha for Blood of the Daleks (2007), Eleanor for The Doomwood Curse, Seska for The Whispering Forest (2010), and President Moorkurk for The Sands of Life and War Against the Laan (both 2013)
• Julia Joyce (Young Sally) had previously doubled for Piper in Father's Day as young Rose, and was Holly Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth
• Martin Jarvis (voice of Captain Lockhart) was Hilio in The Web Planet, Butler in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and the Governor in Vengeance on Varos, then voiced Nigel Rochester for Jubilee (2003)
• Ramon Tikaram (Maharajah) voiced Wanchese for Voyage to the New World (2012), the Castellan for The Eleven, Marlock for Theatre of War, and Colonel Vikram Shindi for UNIT: Extinction (all 2015), UNIT: Silenced (2016), UNIT: Encounters (2017), UNIT: Cyber Reality and UNIT: Revisitations, Colin Colchester Price for Torchwood (all 2018), and President Dunn La for The World Traders (2021)
• Elliot [Aidan] Cowan (Van Eeden) voiced Gark for The Fifth Traveller (2016)
• Charles Jarman was stuntman on The Lazarus Experiment too
• Paul Bennett was also third assistant director on Blink, Turn Left and Torchwood
• script editor Caroline Skinner was co-executive producer on the revived series (from The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe to The Name of the Doctor), The Doctors Revisited and An Adventure in Space and Time
• Cathy Cosgrove was property buyer on Delta and the Bannermen too

'Radio Times' TV Review of 2022

That venerable publishing colossus, Christmas perennial, and loyal Doctor Who supporter, the Radio Times, revealed the results of their annual multi-channel survey in late December.

Their top fifty shows of the year were elected by the magazine's TV critics, and Jodie Whittaker's long-awaited swansong specials were placed at a respectable thirty-nine. RT columnist Morgan Jeffery wrote:

"All eyes are now on [the drama's] exciting future, with David Tennant returning for a 60th anniversary trilogy ahead of Ncuti Gatwa taking control of the TARDIS from Christmas 2023.

Whittaker's ebullient Thirteenth Doctor bowed out with three final specials. While Easter episode Legend of the Sea Devils was sadly underwhelming, 2022 also delivered two of the very best episodes to emerge from Chris Chibnall's time in charge of the legendary BBC sci-fi series. Kicking off the year was Eve of the Daleks, a smart, sharp and funny time-loop thriller that solidified Thirteen, Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop) as an iconic trio – one we would've happily spent more time with – while regeneration epic The Power of the Doctor was the ultimate fan-pleasing extravaganza, offering up classic Doctors, returning companios (even breaking a Guiness World Record in the process!), plenty of spectacle and a brilliant (final?) showcase for Sacha Dhawan's superb Master. Tag, David and Ncuti, you're it – but Jodie absolutely went out in triumphant style."