Doctor Who Vs. The Second Coming

This acclaimed Northern morality tale was written

and produced by Russell T Davies, who cast

Salford-born Christopher Eccleston in the lead

role of Stephen Baxter.

Long-serving Doctor Who composer Murray Gold provided the music here too. Both he and Davies

 were nominated for Royal Television Society

awards, whilst Eccleston earned a BAFTA Best

Actor nomination.

Originally commissioned by Channel 4 in 1999,

 and later turned down by the BBC, The Second

Coming was eventually made by Red Productions

for ITV over the summer of 2002.

Following a drunken night-out in Manchester,

Baxter disappears for forty days and nights. He is

found wandering Saddleworth Moor, and claims to

be the second coming of Jesus, the Son of God.

After performing a modern-day miracle - turning night into day at Manchester City's Maine Road

stadium - he proclaims to the world's media that he has just five days to find the human race's Third Testament, and avert the Apocalypse.

Granada's Liverpool-based drama Springhill, also penned by Davies, ended

it's run in 1997 with a recital of The Second Coming by WB Yeats, and was

 essentially a story of good-versus-evil too.

Screened over two consecutive nights in February 2003, this drama also

featured Tim Woodward, Peter Wight, and fourteen other Doctor Who cast

and crew connections:

• Lesley Sharp [born Karen Makinson] (Judith) was Sky Silvestry in Midnight - she also worked with Eccleston on Clocking Off and The Shadow Line, and with Davies on Bob & Rose
• Mark Benton (Tyler) was Clive Finch in Rose (a role reprised by Big Finish for The Dimension Cannon), and voiced Ellis for Invaders from Mars (2002), and Jack Coulson for Energy of the Daleks (2012)
• Rory [Michael] Kinnear (Dillane) voiced Samuel Belfrage for Industrial Evolution (2011)
• Ace [born Ahsen Rafiq] Bhatti (Gupta) was Haresh Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Jennifer Hennessy [born Hayes] (Reporter) was Valerie in Gridlock, and Moira in The Pilot and Extremis
• Angel Coulby (PC Fraser) was Katherine in The Girl in the Fireplace
• Ray Emmet Brown (Nurse) voiced No. 16 for House of Blue Fire (2011)
• Denise Black [born Dixon] (Rachel) voiced Eva Jericho for Damaged Goods, Control for Rise and Shine (both 2015), and Mrs. Mountford for The Haunting of Malkin Place (2017)
• Trisha [Gloria] Goddard had a cameo appearance in Army of Ghosts too
• stunt co-ordinator Gareth Milne was George Cranleigh in Black Orchid, an Attendant in Vengeance on Varos, and doubled for Peter Davison in Warriors of the Deep
• Rick English was a stuntman on Tooth and Claw too
• Davy Jones was also make-up designer on fifteen adventures (from Rose to Cold Blood)
• associate producer Des Hughes was line producer on eight stories (from The Snowmen to The Time of the Doctor), and had a cameo in The Five(ish) Doctors
• SFX supervisor Graham Brown was a SFX assistant on Resurrection of the Daleks and Attack of the Cybermen, uncredited VFX assistant on (part 4 of) Full Circle, The Five Doctors, The Caves of Androzani (4) and Revelation of the Daleks (2), then VFX designer on The Curse of Fenric