Doctor Who Vs. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson's cult Millennium

thrillers were published posthum-

ously in his native Sweden between

2005 and 2007, then translated into

English and became global best-

sellers. The author, journalist and

activist died in 2004, aged just 50,

and the series was expanded by

David Lagercrantz from 2015.

Karin Smirnoff was commissioned

to write a third trilogy in 2021.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,

and sequels The Girl Who Played

with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked

the Hornets' Nest were all adapted

in 2009 by Yellow Bird and Nordisk

Film - Noomi Rapace and Michael

Nyqvist portrayed Lisbeth Salander the eponymous heroine) and Mikael

Blomkvist. Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig played Lisbeth and Blomkvist

in this Englsih language version of the first novel.

The film, released by Sony Pictures in late 2011, was shown on Great!

Movies last night - it featured Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard,

Joely Richardson, Geraldine James, Alan Dale, Embeth Davidtz, and

these eight Doctor Who cast connections:

• Steven Berkoff [born Leslie Berks] (Frode) was the Shakri in The Power of Three
• Goran Visnjic (Armansky) depicted the titular inventor in Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
• Donald Sumpter (Morell) was Enrico Casali in The Wheel in Space, Commander Ridgeway in The Sea Devils, Erasmus Darkening in The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Eternity Trap, and President Rassilon in Hell Bent
• Tony [Paul] Way (Plague) was Alf in Deep Breath
• Martin Jarvis (Birger) was Hilio in The Web Planet, Butler in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and the Governor in Vengeance on Varos, then voiced Nigel Rochester for Big Finish's Jubilee (2003)
• Leo [Martin] Bill (Trinity) was the Pilot in A Christmas Carol
• Bern Collaco (Banker) was an Operator in The Return of Doctor Mysterio, and Soldier in Thin Ice
• Christine Adams (Reporter) was Cathica Santini Khadeni in The Long Game

Doctor Who Vs. Coronation Street @ 65, Part 5: 1970-1972

Sladen played barmaid Anita
Reynolds in six instalments
at New Year 1970.

Corrie ended its first decade with the broad-
cast of its first colour episode (in November
1969) and a brand new title sequence. As
the soap approached its tenth anniversary
and thousandth episode, it was hit by strike
action at Granada which kept the show off the

air for most of June 1970. ITV's Colour Strike

later in the year meant that the drama was

recorded in monochrome again from November

1970 to February 1971.
The troubled early Seventies therefore

 resulted in the first major ratings slump since

 the programme's formative years.

These three years on the cobbles featured
Elizabeth Sladen (in her first credited TV

role), and a total of twenty-three Doctor Who

cast and crew connections:

• prolific BAFTA winning writer [James] Brian Finch penned 150 episodes of Coronation Street, and provided an ultimately unused script for season 23 - Leviathan was adapted by Big Finish in 2010
• Paul Bernard was also director of Day of the Daleks, The Time Monster and Frontier in Space
• Ian Barritt (Policeman here; Forshaw, 1973) was Professor Peach in The Unicorn and the Wasp
• Rosalind Ayres (Jasmine) voiced Miriam Rochester for Jubilee (2003)
• June [Muriel] Brown (Mrs. Parsons) and Ray [Harold] Dunbobbin (Clarke) both starred in The Time Warrior, as Lady Eleanor and Irongron's Soldier, whilst Brown's EastEnders character (Dot Cotton) appeard in Dimensions in Time
• Maggie Steed [nee Baker] (Ellen) voiced Rana Zandusia for Mission to Magnus (2009)
• Richard [Leslie Mitford] Steele (DS Jones) was Commandant Gorton in (episode 2 of) The War Games, Sergeant Hart in The Silurians, and Guard in The Mark of the Rani
• William [Thomas Clucas] Lucas (Maxwell here; Judge Parrish, 1996) was Range in Frontios
• [John] Talfryn Thomas (Dirty Dick) was Mullins in Spearhead from Space (1) and Dave in The Green Death
• Gareth Thomas (Ryan) voiced Lord Tamworth for Storm Warning (2001), Kalendorf for Dalek Empire and Return of the Daleks (2006), and Astaroth Morax for Last of the Colophon (2014)
• Luan Peters [born Carol Ann Hirsch] (Lorna) was Chicki [as Karol Keyes] in The Macra Terror (4), and Sheila in Frontier in Space (3)
• George [Michael William] Layton (Shelton) was Technician Penn in The Space Pirates, and voiced Stefan Lehne for Unto the Breach (2014), Louis Markell for The Havoc of Empires (2015), and Regis Tel for The Quest of the Engineer (2020) - he also played the Doctor in the unaired French and Saunders spoof, The Silurian Disruption, in 1987
• Del Henney (Duncan) was Colonel [Patrick] Archer in Resurrection of the Daleks
• John [Wilson] Stratton (Crabtree) was Shockeye of the Quawncing Grig in The Two Doctors
• [Clifford] William [Cumberbatch] Simons (Bates) was Mandrel in The Sun Makers
• Ivor Roberts (Silcock) was Mogran in Genesis of the Daleks (3)
• Brian Glover (Henshaw) was [Charles] Griffiths in Attack of the Cybermen
• Jeremy Young (Lewis) was Kal in 100,000 BC, and Gordon Lowery in Mission to the Unknown
• Alec Sabin (Lomax) was Ringway in Earthshock
• Paul [Mackriell] Copley (Photographer here; Priestley, 2007) was Clem McDonald in Torchwood: Children of Earth, and voiced Dad for Spare Parts (2002/2017), Jimmy Deel for Big Dig (2013), Mick Huff for The Miniaturist (2022), and Wendell for The Conservitors (2023)
• Robert Keegan (Jacko) was Sholakh in The Ribos Operation
• Thelma Barlow [nee Pigott] (Mavis Wilton/Riley, 1971-1997) was Lady Thaw in The Lazarus Experiment

Doctor Who Vs. Titanic (1997)

James Cameron's epic disaster

movie was a fictionalised

account of the sinking of RMS

Titanic in 1912. Kate Winslet and Leonardo  DiCaprio played

Rose De Witt Bukater and Jack

Dawson, young lovers from

contrasting social classes who

met on the ship's ill-fated maiden

voyage.

Cameron felt that the emotional
impact of the disaster would be
 best conveyed by a romance 
played out against a backdrop of

historical events and real people.

Co-funded by Paramount and

Fox, production began in 1995 as

Cameron filmed the actual wreck

on the bottom of the Atlantic.

Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Ioan Grufford, and Kathy

Bates depicted Captain Smith, Bruce Ismay, Thomas Andrews, First Officer

Lowe, and Mollie Brown respectively.

Upon opening in late 1997, the film (a huge global commerial and

critical success) began breaking records. As the most expensive film

ever made to date (with a budget of $200 million), it was the highest

grossing one too - it was the first picture to take $1 billion (then $2

billion) at the box office. It became the most Oscar nominated

feature ever (with fourteen) and subsequently the biggest winner

(eleven awards tied it with Ben Hur). A 3D version of Titanic was

released in 2012 to mark the centenary of the disaster, followed by

theatrical re-releases in 2017 and 2023.

Shown on Channel 4 tonight, the film also featured Billy Zane, Bill

Paxton, David Warner (Lovejoy here and Laurence Beesley in

1979's S.O.S. Titanic), and eighteen Doctor Who cast and crew

connections:

• Ron [Eaglesham] Donachie [born Porter] (Master-at-Arms) was the Steward in Tooth and Claw
• Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres (the Duff Gordons) both starred in Big Finish's Jubilee (2003) as Nigel and Miriam Rochester - Jarvis was also Hilio in The Web Planet, Butler in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and the Governor in Vengeance on Varos
• Paul Brightwell (Quartermaster Hitchens) was the Surgeon in World Enough and Time
• Craig Kelly (Harold Bride) provided the voice of Joe for Scream of the Shalka
• Derek Lea (Stoker Barrett) was a stuntman on Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Parting of the Ways, The Age of Steel and Partners in Crime
• Rocky [born Laurie] Taylor (Cartmell) was a Warrior in (episode 9 of) The Daleks' Master Plan, Guard in The Curse of Peladon (4), and stuntman on The Idiot's Lantern
• Brian McDermott (Preston) was [Douglas] Sheard in Time Flight
• Terry [Phiilip Julian] Forrestal (Bell) was Tractor Driver in K9 and Company
• Paul Herbert (Steward) was a stuntman on The End of Time
• stuntman Kiran Shah was the Figure in Listen, and an Emojibot in Smile
• Jo McLaren was also stunt performer on Day of the Moon and Let's Kill Hitler, then stunt co-ordinator on six other episodes (from The Snowmen to The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
• stuntmen Paul Heasman and Bill Weston both worked on the classic series
• stunt performers Ray De Haan, Jamie Edgell, Sarah Franzl and Lee Sheward all worked on the revived run

Doctor Who Vs. The 39 Steps

Published in 1915, John Buchan's 

classic espionage novel has been 

dramatised many times since 

Hitchcock's film version in 1935.
Produced by BBC Scotland, this
feature-length TV serial was first
 shown at Christmas 2008.

Here, on the eve of WWI, Richard
Hannay (played by Rupert Penry
Jones) is framed for the murder of

a British spy and flees London. The

romantic subplot with Lydia

Leonard was incorporated for the
Scottish scenes.

Shown on Drama last night, the

adventure also featured Patrick

Malahide, Eddie Marsan, and six Doctor Who cast/crew connections:

• Alex Jennings (Kell) voiced Lord Hawthorn for Big Finish's The Hunting Season (2021)
• David Haig [Collum Ward] (Sinclair) was Pangol in The Leisure Hive
• Steven [William Thomas] Elder [born Lawrence] (Wakeham) voiced Siy Tarkov for Dalek Empire, Farrow for Jubilee (both 2003), Eric Rawden for Something Inside (2006), Rudolph for Blood on Santa's Claw, and Lord Lycaon for I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day and Brightly Shone the Moon That Night (all 2019)
• James Hawes was also director of The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, The Christmas Invasion, New Earth and School Reunion
• stunt co-ordinator Paul Heasman was an uncredited Nazi in Silver Nemesis, and the stunt arranger on Survival
• George Cottle was also a stuntman on Boom Town, The Runaway Bride and Smith and Jones

Doctor Who Vs. Trauma

This psychological thriller centred on
the lives of two fathers, Dan Bowker
(played by John Simm) and Jon Allerton (Adrian Lester), whose paths cross when Dan's teenage son Alex
is stabbed and dies in the trauma
department under the care of consultant surgeon Allerton.
Scripted by Mike Bartlett (writer of Knock Knock and creator of Doctor Foster), the drama was produced by Tall Story Pictures and ITV Studios.
Trauma was shown over three
consecutive nights this week, and
featured twelve other Doctor Who 
cast and crew connections:

• Jemima Rooper (Nora) voiced Izzy Sinclair for Big Finish's The Company of Friends (2009)
• Jade Anouka (Alana) was the Waitress in The Bells of Saint John, and voiced Danuta for The Blood Furnace (2017)
• Steven Elder (Beckett) voiced Farrow for Jubilee (2003), and Rawden for Something Inside (2006)
• Calvin Dean (Saunders) was Ha-Ha in Nightmare in Silver
• Catherine Skinner (Lucy) voiced Cherryanne for The Entropy Plague (2015), and Princess Myrahla for The Eighth of March (2019)
• Paul Thornley (Holloway) voiced Marko for Seven Keys to Doomsday (2008), Michael Rond for Fitz's Story, Gomori for Paper Cuts (both 2009), and Robbie Flint and Cyril for Criss-Cross (2015)
• Richard Cox was film editor on The Next Doctor too
• John Mooney was also a sound assistant on Remembrance of the Daleks, Silver Nemesis (3), The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Battlefield and Ghost Light
• Joe Malone was sound assistant on The Husbands of River Song too
• James Metcalf was floor runner on An Adventure in Space and Time too
• Abbi Collins was also stunt co-ordinator on eleven episodes (from Rise of the Cybermen to The Waters of Mars) and The Sarah Jane Adventures
• Amanda Foster was a stunt performer on The Doctor's Daughter too