Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 253: The War Games, Episode Three

All the cliffhangers in this one are really good, aren’t they? The Doctor tied up before a firing squad as the first shot sounds. The ambulance emerging from the fog only for our heroes to be chased down by a group of angry Romans (they were probably still annoyed at the Doctor for burning down their city). Now we can add the Doctor and Zoe being swept off by a mysterious TARDIS-like machine, leaving Jamie and Lady Jennifer behind in the American Civil War.

If anything, I’d say that today’s closing moments need another couple of seconds before they cut, as it’s a little abrupt here, but the impact is still in tact. It’s another one of those times that I’m glad I’ve not seen this story in such a long time, because while I can recall the major plot revelations, I can’t remember each story beat along the way. I’d forgotten completely that the Doctor and Zoe were taken away in the ‘TARDIS’, so it came as a great surprise.

The thing that I’m enjoying the most at the moment is the very real sense that the Doctor is already a little out of his depth here. He’s soldiering on anyway and just carrying on with things, trying to investigate exactly what’s happening, but he doesn’t really have a clue. When the ‘TARDIS’ arrives in the barn, he looks so confused by what’s happening that it really sells the moment to me.

I’m also finding myself really dawn to Lady Jennifer and Lieutenant Carstairs. It really shouldn’t work giving the Doctor – in effect – four companions for his final story, but they’re such well crafted characters that you can’t help but fall for them instantly. All the business with Carstairs trying to distract another soldier while the Doctor blows up a safe is fab (and it gives a chance for Troughton and Hines to light up the screen again, too), and his sacrifice to help the others get away is actually quite moving.

The story is evolving at a nice pace, too. We’re barely a third of the way through, and yet nothing is feeling too stretched out at this stage. Episode One plays out as pretty much a standard historical, but with the addition of a mysterious hidden video screen, and with some handy hypnotic glasses. There’s something of a subplot about people forgetting chunks of time, and the court marshal is a bit suspect, but there’s nothing all that out there.

The second episode builds on the elements from the first and then adds in a redcoat out of his time, and then hits you with the Romans at the end. Today, we’re introduced to the map of all the war zones (though conveniently, they only draw attention to the wars that we’ve seen and the American zone that we’re about to visit) and then the Central Zone, policed by a sinister man answering to the ominous ‘War Lord’. In some stories, taking this long to reveal all these elements would be something of a slog, but everything else in The War Games is of such a good standard that I’m really enjoying the pace. If anything, I’m slightly sad to be moving away from the First World War setting – it’s so well realised and this TARDIS team suit it to a tee.

I do need to give a slight cheer for the return of the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, used here again to undo a screw. It’s telling that the device isn’t mentioned when he’s trying to break into a safe (though Jamie does make a joke about a tuning fork, referring back to The Space Pirates, which was a lovely touch), so it really isn’t built for breaking locks at this stage. If anything, it’s now making The Dominators look like the odd one out in terms of the Sonic’s uses, but I’m glad we’ve had one last appearance from it for the Second Doctor. 

The title of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special has now been confirmed by the BBC as 'The Day Of The Doctor'.

We also have confirmation of the running time which will be 75 minutes approximately, as well as some of the other planned programming to surround the anniversary. 

Professor Brian Cox will be presenting a lecture on BBC Two on the science behind the hit show. This will be in addition to the drama 'An Adventure In Space and Time', written by Mark Gatiss. The one-off programme stars David Bradley, of the Harry Potter films, as William Hartnell.

BBC Four will introduce new audiences to Hartnell, with a re-run of the first ever story. The four episodes are being shown in a restored format, not previously broadcast in the UK.

BBC Two's flagship arts programme The Culture Show is to present Me, You and Doctor Who, with lifelong fan Matthew Sweet exploring the cultural significance of the BBC's longest running TV drama.

A 90-minute documentary on BBC Radio 2 will ask "Who Is The Doctor?" - using newly-recorded interviews and exclusive archive material to find an answer - while BBC Three will be home to several commissions.

Danny Cohen, Director BBC Television said:

"It's an astonishing achievement for a drama to reach its 50th anniversary. I'd like to thank every person - on both sides of the camera - who has been involved with its creative journey over so many years."

Smith has already started filming his final scenes as the Doctor, which are due to air in this year's Christmas episode. His replacement, Scottish actor Peter Capaldi, was announced in August.

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer on Doctor Who said:

"50 years has turned Doctor Who from a television show into a cultural landmark. Personally I can't wait to see what it becomes after a hundred."

[Sources: BBC News]

Well, of course he didn't! :) Doctor Who is a fictional (albeit awesome) television show - however, a recent discovery of a previously lost Van Gogh painting does provide a striking image of what looks like the TARDIS!

The Van Gogh Museum identified a long-lost Vincent Van Gogh painting (pictured-right) that spent years in a Norwegian attic because it was thought not to be authentic. It is the first full-size canvas by the Dutch master discovered since 1928.

"Sunset at Montmajour" depicts a dry landscape of oak trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh's familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the exact day it was painted because Vincent described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, and said he painted it the previous day - 4th July 1888. He said the painting was done "on a stony heath where small twisted oaks grow."

A brief glance to the upper-left side of the painting shows what appears to be a blue box complete with light box, but on closer inspection is actually a house with a chimney.

The great thing about art, however, is that it is down to the individual to decipher its meaning - and we see a TARDIS! :)

[Source: The Van Gogh Museum]

Doctor Who has picked up two awards at this years TV Choice Awards, held at London's Dorchester Hotel.

The first award of the evening for the show was in the Best Drama category, where it beat off competition from Downton Abbey, Waterloo Road and Call The Midwife. 

The second award was for Outstanding Contribution, with Steven Moffat, David Tennant and Peter Davison taking to the stage to accept the award for Doctor Who, with Matt Smith appearing via a specially recorded video message.

On accepting the award, Steven Moffat said:

“I’m receiving an award about Doctor Who from Doctor Who while Doctor Who is busy filming in Cardiff.”

Matt Smith lost out on the Best Actor award, with ex-Doctor, David Tennant winning for his role in Broadchurch.

Jenna Coleman lost out on the Best Actress award, with Miranda Hart winning for her role in Call The Midwife.

[Source: TV Choice]

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Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 252: The War Games, Episode Two

Dear diary,

We've spent so much time lately stuck in scientific bases and out on alien worlds that you really do forget just how good the BBC are at creating a historical drama. Every detail of the sets and costumes in the last two episodes has been so spot on that it's a real treat to look at. It also means that when things do start to go a bit strange, and we find video screens built into the walls, they're all the more jarring and carry a much greater impact - because they look so out of place amongst all this period detail.

The locations for the story are lovely, too, especially the buildings around the Doctor's firing squad (of all the times to be admiring architecture!). I grew up on a farm with several buildings in a similar style, so it looks like just the sort of place I used to imagine Doctor Who adventures taking place. Were this a bad episode, details like the sets would be something to help bring it up a point or two in my estimations, but The War Games is still thundering along - the gorgeous design is just a bonus.

No sooner are we out of the cliffhanger to yesterday's episode (a real stunner, too, and another one to consider placing on a list of 'best ever'), than we get another shock reveal in the form of a TARDIS arriving in the General's office. It's key to remember that the last time we saw a TARDIS other than the Doctor's was during The Daleks' Master Plan, and that was over three years ago. It comes as a real shock even, I'm glad to say, to me. It's been so long since I've watched The War Games that I'd remembered these other time machines not turning up until the latter half of the tale. It came as a complete surprise, and that just made the whole thing better.

Then we've got the use of the General's glasses when he's hypnotising people. In yesterday's episode, when they're used to the very first time, it's done as he starts to read some papers. It's all framed as to suggest that the glasses just happened to go on before the need to hypnotise. As the story has gone on, it's become clearer that they're integral to the hypnotism process. It's also great to see Lady Jennifer and Lieutenant Carstairs start to break free of their own brainwashing, having seen it seeded in since their first meeting.

It almost serves to show the impact that the Doctor can have just by turning up somewhere. He's well aware that things aren't quite what they seem to be, but he's still piecing it all together. Meanwhile, his mere presence in this area has brought together two people who may never have met, and caused them to think differently. It's the great strength that this Doctor has displayed many times before and it's good to see it being used one last time before he bows out.

Elsewhere in the episode, Troughton is on absolutely blazing form. When he halts a car simply by standing in the middle of the road and shouting at the driver, it signals the start of one of his best ever performances as he smashes through the next few scenes with his volume control up to maximum. I often find myself quoting the Seventh Doctor when he says that you just need to 'act as if you own the place' to get through unquestioned (indeed, trying that once got me onto the set of a proper Doctor Who episode for a full afternoon as they filmed, but that's a story for another day), and it's this idea that's being shown at its best here.

Wendy Padbury deserves some praise again, too; she's really a brilliant foil for Troughton's Doctor, and after all my musing earlier this season that I'd like to see him traveling alone with her, I'm glad to see that the production team have obviously had similar thoughts, and keep pairing them off. If there's one thing I'm going to miss by the time this story is over, it's the developing relationship between the two.

After all that, we're sent on our way with another stunning cliffhanger, as the ambulance disappears into a strange void of smoke, and then reappears out in the English countryside, ready to be set upon by Romans. Obviously, I know what's going on, but I can only imagine how odd this must have seemed at the time. We've not had a historical story in ages and now there's two for the price of one (and there's even a redcoat thrown in for good measure!). 

Ex-Doctors, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy were spotted outside TVC this morning, next to placards saying "No Doctors. No 50th!" and "Have a heart! Classic Doctors want a part!".

Colin Baker is also reportedly meant to be at the location too, which DWO believe to be for the filming of Peter Davison's tongue-in-cheek short film to commemorate the 50th Anniversary.

Davison has previously recorded a short for the Gallifrey One convention in LA. You can watch the short he recorded for the 2011 convention, below:

[youtube:6qSnDhpzsMk]

DWO will post more on this news as we get it...

[Source: Twitter]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 251: The War Games, Episode One

Dear diary,

It's May 2006, and I've taken my friend Ben with me to Holt out on the Norfolk coast, where they're having a big Doctor Who celebration. Later that evening we'll settle down to watch The Idiot's Lantern play out on TV, but for now we're stood in the middle of a high street taken over by an attempt to break the world record for the number of Daleks gathered together in one place. I don't think they quite managed it.

Truth be told, the day was a bit rubbish, I seem to recall. Someone had dropped us off there in the morning, and wouldn't be back to collect us for hours. An early highlight was meeting Colin Baker, who surely has to be one of the nicest people ever connected to the series in any way, shape, or form, but then everything else was just a bit naff. There were plenty of stalls selling tat, none of which appealed to me, and I remember spending about an hour sat on a step somewhere while we tried to think of something to do.

The day got considerably better when we found a particular stall that was selling Doctor Who video tapes. It's funny how some things stick in your mind so clearly, but this is one of them. It was quite a small set up, a stall bordered with a rusty metal frame and covered with a blue tarpaulin on three sides and the top. They had loads of tapes spread out on the front desk, with more piled up on those cheap shelving units you can pick up in Argos all along the back. It was heaving with people, and you had to fight your way through the crowd a bit to reach the front and look through the collection.

I'd pooled my money for a few weeks in the hope that I might be able to buy something on this day out, and so far it had remained firmly in my wallet. Suddenly, I had the opportunity to spend it ten times over. All these VHS tapes, all these stories that we're miles away from any kind of DVD release! I can't remember all the ones I looked at - I must have picked up loads while trying to make my decision - but then I caught sight of one particular set up on the top shelf at the back.

The Time Lord Collection. A sturdy cardboard box wrapped around The Three Doctors, which I already had on DVD so wasn't that exciting, The Deadly Assassain, which was supposed to be a really good Tom Baker story in which he fights the Master on Gallifrey, and... no? Surely not? It can't be... a double tape release of The War Games, the epic ten-part Second Doctor story which introduced the TIme Lords to the series and saw Patrick Troughton's departure?!?!

It's strange, in 2013, with only a few DVD releases left before everything is easily available to pick up for a few pounds on Amazon, to explain just how exciting this was. I'd picked up one or two video tapes of the old stories on Ebay over the years, but they were usually the ones that went cheap - and thus weren't the ones with the best of reputations. Indeed, I took a flyer for the company selling the tapes on this day and handed out a highlighted version to family members when they asked what I'd like for my birthday that year.

The War Games had been released in 1990, and then again as part of this box set in about 2002. I think it was a limited edition, but I just wasn't aware of that kind of thing back then. To me, it was simply a chance to own The War Games. This story - mores perhaps than any other - was like a Holy Grail. It's ten episodes long! It's the first introduction of the Time Lords. The Second Doctor regenerates. I could type on for a half a million words and I'd never be able to accurately tell you how thrilling the thought of owning this box set was.

But it was out of my price range. Only by about £10 or so, but still. Thankfully, it was Ben to the rescue. I'd successfully managed to get him into the stuff they were currently showing on TV with David Tennant and Billie Piper, but he had zero interest in any of the old stuff. Indeed, Ben is one of the pair I spoke of during The Tomb of the Cybermen, who'd had the audacity to laugh at the silver giants! Ben stumped up the extra cash (for which I'm still thankful, seven years on) and I purchased this magnificent set.

If anything, it made the last few hours of the day go even slower. Not only had we now been round everything there was to see at this particular day out, but now I was holding a copy of The War Games in my hands, and simply couldn't wait to get home and watch it. I explained to Ben just how important this story was to the history of the series, but I don't think he really cared. I decided that I would ration the story out; no more than one episode a day (that sounds familiar), so that I could really make the most of it. Of course, that all went out the window once I'd gotten it home and put it in the video player because it was fantastic.

And, d'you know what? It still is. I've tried something of an experiment with today's episode, because I happen to be visiting Mum's house at the exact point that I should be sitting down to watch this one. So often throughout the course of the 1960s episodes, I've commented about how different it would have looked on an old telly compared to being on my Mac screen, so today I've hooked up an old VHS player to an old telly (it's from the early 80s, but I think it's about as close as I'm going to get) and popped in the VHS. The DVD is waiting at home for me in freshly restored glory, using better prints than were available to the VHS release, but I planned to have something really insightful and fascinating to say about the process of watching the episode in this way.

And I've completely failed! Because apart from noting that - yes - Patrick Troughton's face does actually look terrifying when you see it emerging from the title sequence on an old CRT screen, I've just been entirely swept up in the story, and I've not made a single other note about the way it looks on this old screen. Typical. If you want, you can pretend that I've said something really interesting here about it all.

Oh, but it is brilliant, this episode, isn't it? Right from the moment we see the TARDIS' materialisation in the reflection of a puddle on the muddy battlefield up to the second the Doctor scrunches up his face before a firing squad and a shot gets fired... every single bit of this episode is sheer brilliance.

I'm surprised to find how pleased I am to see the TARDIS back in history. We've not been anywhere before the 1960s since way back in The Abominable Snowmen, and I didn't think I'd been missing travels back into the past, but actually it feels fresh and different. It's probably helped by being an era that's so close to living memory (even more so on the original broadcast) and it makes it all feel that much more real.

This is especially true of the threat running through the episode. When the Doctor parts company with Zoe to be taken to a cell, he gives her a gentle kiss on the head and mutters 'Goodbye, my dear.' It's a simple moment, but it's so touching. Forget being stuck inside the Kroton's ship, or fighting the Karkus in the Land of Fiction, this is real, and there's an honest sense of danger to it all. The same can be said for the moment that Zoe breaks in to steal the set of keys. It feels far more dangerous than anything else in Season Six has - perhaps more than anything else in the Second Doctor's era. Being somewhere as sombre as the First World War, and being the final story for all three of our regulars, it all feels far, far, more true.

I could rattle on for ages about this episode, and the Doctor Who Online news page would disappear under a wave of my gushing with praise, so I'll stop now. There's another nine days to go with this one, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for me to say everything I could possibly want about The War Games.

For now, I'll settle for saying that I'm so happy that the story can produce this kind of emotion in me, all these years later, and having sat through so many other episodes already this year. This one really is something very special indeed.

For now, I'll settle for saying that I'm so happy that the story can produce this kind of emotion in me, all these years later, and having sat through so many other episodes already this year. This one really is something very special indeed. 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 250: The Space Pirates, Episode Six

Dear diary,

And just like that, I've run out of missing Doctor Who episodes. It all seems so easy in retrospect, and actually 106 missing episodes doesn't feel like a massive amount when you think about just how many I've actually been able to watch. I sort of suspect that I should have a bit of a celebration or something to celebrate this key milestone, but it's The Space Pirates, so the era of missing episodes goes out with more of a whimper than a bang.

I think part of the problem I've had with the story is that I'm just not all that engaged with the situation. In The Seeds of Death, it felt as though the Doctor and his companions were willing to throw themselves into the line of danger in an attempt to help because they really wanted to do so. Here, the only reason that they're helping anyone is because they've been separated from the TARDIS, and have gotten swept along with events.

It means that when the situation is getting desperate and we're watching a (really long) countdown to an explosion, everything just feels a bit dull. I don't care about the situation, so I'm not that bothered by anything that's happening. It's an interesting feeling in some ways. I always know that the Doctor and his companions are going to get out of the danger (well, unless it's a regeneration story or something like Earthshock), but part of the fun is watching how they make their escape. It's about the Doctor being clever, or his companions being vital. Today, I know that they're not going to get blown up and I don't care how they get out of it, because it boils down to something as mundane (!) as diffusing a bomb.

As I've said before, I'm really disappointed by The Space Pirates. Based on the first couple of episodes, I was so looking forward to standing out from the crowd and proudly declaring a liking for the tale, but it's just not to be. I wonder if its reputation might be better had more episodes survived, or if more were to show up? The surviving Episode Two was rather good, and it gave me lots of little visual cues to enjoy. Because of the slower pacing throughout the rest of the tale, the audio just doesn't really help. Having something to look at (even if it is metal hair) would really benefit the tale.

It still doesn't deserve the title of the worst story of the 1960s, though, I don't think. The Dominators was much worse than this - and I could see all of that one!

Though I've joked about it above, this really is a pretty significant moment in the marathon for me. One of the things that's always been off putting about the idea of a Doctor Who marathon is the fact that such a large chunk of the early years is marred by huge gaps. I tiptoed into Season Three with a bit of a worry, because i genuinely didn't know how I'd cope with so many bits of the programme being missing, and getting stuck in a cycle of moving between the soundtracks, surviving episodes and back again.

As it is, I've really enjoyed it. The sheer quality of a lot of stories from this era has really helped to make the task more manageable, and in some ways it's gong to be a shame to leave behind the narration from the soundtracks. Season Six has been a nice way of easing back into actually sitting down to watch an episode properly again, which I have to confess has felt a bit alien so many days in a row!

Still, despite everything, I really do hold out hope that more will be returned to the archive at some point in the future - and I've absolutely no doubt that it will. These things always turn up in the strangest of places and just when you're not expecting it. Now that I'm ten episodes away from the end of the 1960s, it's sods law that some will be turning up any day now…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 249: The Space Pirates, Episode Five

Dear diary,

I can't seem to make my mind up with this story. Every so often, I think I've worked out what's going on, and then I change my mind and they do something different anyway. For much of Episode Two, I kept switching between believing that Milo Clancy was definitely not in league with the pirates, to deciding that he definitely was. Even now, when it seems pretty clear that he's on the side of the law (even if it's grudgingly), I keep expecting them to throw a curve ball and make him the leader of the pirates anyway.

Then you've got Madeleine Issigri and her metal hair (though, for some reason, as I listened through today's episode, I kept picturing her as Miss Kelly from The Seeds of Death). From the moment she first turned up in the story I'd decided that she must be working with the pirates, then I figured that was too easy so started to think otherwise. Now it would appear that she is working with them, but only because she's in too deep now to withdraw. I rather like that. I'd assume that she was in it simply for the money (we've been told several times that the old Argonite mines are all but dried up, meaning that she's head of a dying company), but it turns out that she entered this operation with the best of intentions, when it was a simple 'salvage mission'.

As if that wasn't enough, you've then got the reveal today that her father - a man we've been told is dead - is alive and… he isn't well, but he's a live at least, and locked up in his old study not all that far away. I have to confess that I knew he was going to be turning up at some point, because I read an article in Nothing at the End of the Lane a few days ago all about the costumes in this story, and there's an image of his in there. Still, it makes for a nice reveal, and adds yet another layer to everything.

The problem with all this is that I've sort of lost track of who's chasing who. I know that the pirates are planning to set Clancy, the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, and Dom all free in the LIZ 79, with the intention of sending it up for the Space Corps to find, but I'm not now sure if the Space Corps are still after Clancy or not. They discuss it a lot today as they try to piece the puzzle all together, but I'm sorry to say that they left me behind somewhere along the route.

One of the things that I am really enjoying about The Space Pirates is that we've got Jack May in as General Hermack. May is often familiar for playing Simms the butler in Adam Adamant Lives!, a series that I've got a lot of love for (indeed, I watched an episode a few months ago during The Tenth Planet to see Patrick Troughton's last acting work before becoming the Doctor. How fitting that May should then turn up in Doctor Who so close to Troughton's departure!), and it's great to see him here. I also didn't realise until today that May was also the voice of Igor in Count Duckula, a series that I was only praising a few weeks ago during The Invasion! It's a small world, British telly, innit?

And I think that's one of the key things about this marathon for me. For man years, my interest in archive television only really stretched as far as Doctor Who. I'd make the occasional excursion into Green Acres, but in terms of British television, it was all about the TARDIS. When I watched an old episode of Doctor Who then, for the most part, the actors were only familiar to me from that story, and nothing else. In some ways, I rather liked that. I quite enjoyed the fact that all of the Doctors were simply the Doctor, for example. I didn't know them as anyone else (though it blew my mind when I realised that Partrick Troughton was the priest in The Omen).

Over the last few years, though, my tastes have changed and I've taken quite a liking to lots of archive telly. I'd say at least half of my shelf is made up of series made before the 1970s. It's meant that as we've gone along, there have been plenty of instances of people turning up in the series that I know better from somewhere else, and I've really enjoyed that. It's not simply confined to the actors, either. Verity Lambert was producer of the previously mentioned Adam Adamant Lives!. Sydney Newman was the creator of The Avengers. Many of the writers have turned up across a great many of these different programmes, and it's been fun to watch their style crop up in all these different formats.

In a little under two weeks, I'll be exploding into colour with Spearhead From Space, and moving onto the 1970s. It's an era of British TV than I'm far less familiar with. Of all the titles on my shelves only three were made in the 1970s - Whodunnit (hosted from Season Two by Jon Pertwee, so there is still at least one connection!), the 1970s volume of Coronation Street, and the Morcambe and Wise box set. I'm hoping to use the marathon as a chance to explore other television as I go along (though I'll probably not be keeping much of a track about it in this blog - you're here to read about my journey through Doctor Who, after all!), but I am going to miss being in an era which I have such a strong love for. It's been an interesting experience, and it's helped to make the marathon all the richer.

Louise Jameson is set to star in Mark Gatiss' upcoming directional debut of 'The Tractate Middoth'.

This new half-hour drama is a chilling adaptation of M.R. James's short story and will see a return of the cherished ghost story to BBC Two at Christmas.

She will be joined in the cast by Sacha Dhawan (Last Tango In Halifax, Being Human; The History Boys), John Castle (I, Claudius), Louise Jameson (Doctor Who, Doc Martin), Una Stubbs (Sherlock, Til Death Do Us Part), David Ryall (The Village); Eleanor Bron (Bedazzled, Women In Love, Absolutely Fabulous); Nick Burns (Nathan Barley) and Roy Barraclough (Coronation Street).

In a quiet academic library, John Eldred (Castle) seeks out the help of young Mr Garrett (Dhawan) in his search for a seemingly obscure Hebrew text. But there is something unusual about this book and something not entirely scholarly about Eldred’s intentions. Soon, Garrett's hunt for the Tractate Middoth provokes terrifying apparitions in the library and a vengeful menace from beyond the grave.

Mark Gatiss says:

"The wonderful adaptations of MR James's tales that I saw on TV as a child have been a lasting inspiration to me. I'm delighted to restore the tradition of a BBC 'Ghost Story for Christmas' and bring to life a personal favourite - The Tractate Middoth - one of James's most atmospheric, thrilling, and downright scary tales."

Mark Bell, Commissioning Editor for Arts, says:

“In his ghost stories MR James displays a beguiling mixture of dry wit, singular erudition and a joyful enthusiasm for the macabre. Mark Gatiss shares the same attributes and it is tremendously exciting to be working on both a new drama and a documentary investigation of what made this great British eccentric tick."

The drama will be complemented by a documentary, M.R. James: Ghost Writer (w/t) in which Mark Gatiss steps into the mind of M.R. James, the enigmatic English master of the supernatural story. A long-time admirer of James, Mark will explore how this donnish Victorian bachelor, conservative by nature and a devout Anglican, created tales that continue to chill readers more than a century on.

Viewers will join Mark on an atmospheric journey from James's childhood home in Suffolk to Eton College and on to King’s College, Cambridge, the two institutions where James spent most of his life, venturing into ancient churches, dark cloisters and echoing libraries along the way. By following in James’s footsteps, Mark will attempt to uncover the secrets of his inspiration.

[Source: BBC Press Office]

BBC Consumer Products have sent DWO the details for the Doctor Who Blu-ray release of The Complete Series 1-7.

The Complete Series 1-7 Box-set (Blu-ray)
Featuring: The 9th, 10th & 11th Doctors

The only thing better than watching Doctor Who is watching it in high definition, which is why BBC Worldwide is celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary with the release of Doctor Who: The Complete Series 1-7 Blu-ray Boxset on 4th November 2013 with an RRP of £255.31. The set includes the complete adventures of the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston, Thor: The Dark World) and Tenth Doctor (David Tennant, Broadchurch, Fright Night), available in newly remastered Blu-ray versions at full 1080p resolution for the first time ever, sitting alongside those of the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) in this high definition collection. 

BBC Worldwide has gone above and beyond to bring fans the best possible Doctor Who experience, and has also fully remastered the complete Tenth Doctor Specials as well as The Complete Fifth and Sixth Series (previously available on Blu-ray), to full 1080p resolution as well. Throw in the new Doctor Who: The Complete Seventh Series Blu-ray set along with hours and hours of bonus features from the past collections PLUS 120 minutes of bonus material that has never previously been available on disc, as well as more goodies than you can shake a sonic screwdriver at, and this is one blue box that just might actually be bigger on the inside.

With 29 blu-ray discs of episodes, specials and bonus features, this limited edition gift set will keep on giving for years to come. So share it with a friend or keep it for yourself, but don’t miss your chance to pre-order this limited edition set.

Special Features:

•  “The Doctor Who Ultimate List of Lists” from BBC AMERICA’s The Brit List - BBC AMERICA’s pop culture correspondent, Asha Leo (@ashaleo), is joined by special guest John Barrowman (“Torchwood,” “Doctor Who”) to announce the rankings of the “Top Five Companions,” “Top Five Scariest Moments,” “Top Five Best Monsters,” “Top Five Guest Stars” and “Top Five Things You’ll Only See on Doctor Who.” Rankings are based on votes from readers of BBCAMERICA.com’s Anglophenia blog.

•  Doctor Who at the Proms 2010 - Doctor Who’s own Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill host a spectacular evening of music from the series played live by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall.  Includes video projections, appearances by the monsters and a special guest appearance from 11th Doctor Matt Smith.  For the first time, the collection will include the full 90-minute concert and has been remastered in 5.1 Surround Sound.  

•  Doctor Who: The Best of the Christmas Specials - This previously unreleased special from December 2011 takes an inside look at the very best moments from the incredible Doctor Who Christmas specials that have captivated audiences around the world. A collection of fans from the celebrity, comedy, sci-fi and digital worlds discuss their favorite moments from both David Tennant and Matt Smith era Christmas episodes.

+  The Complete Series 1-7 is released on 4th November 2013, priced £255.31.

+  Preorder Now from BBC Shop for just £167.25
+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: BBC Consumer Products]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 248: The Space Pirates, Episode Four

Dear diary,

As anyone who's been reading these entries for a while will know, I'm really not the biggest fan of missing episode recons. For one reason or another, they usually fail to hold my attention, and the ticker-tape descriptions of the action move far too quickly for me to get me head around. With the odd exception for an animated instalment, or occasionally dipping my toe into the world of the recon (I couldn't actually get through Marco Polo without watching one - how times change!), I've experienced pretty much all the missing episodes in the form of the narrated soundtracks.

It's been a perfectly good way of going through the stories, and I really don't feel that I've missed out on my thing by going the purely audio route a lot of the time. They're all incredibly well produced, with fantastic linking narration (even if the script for The Space Pirates' narration really is going out in a blaze of glory. At one point today, Hines takes great delight in opening a scene with the words 'the Doctor is busily twanging his tuning fork…' Is he indeed!?), and they've been great to listen to on my way home from work each day, lasting just long enough to end as I step through the door, or thereabouts.

But last night, having not enjoyed Episode Three of The Space Pirates as much as I had Episode One, and realising that this really is the end of an important stage in the marathon, I felt all nostalgic. I decided that before I move on to the era in which everything exists in the archives, I needed to give reckons one last chance to prove themselves. I'll admit, there were one or two selfish reasons for it, too. The Space Pirates is one of the Doctor Who stories with the least surviving visual material, no tele snaps, and there's even a few characters we don't have any photos of. I wanted to see how a recon would cope with such a situation.

The answer, it seems, is 'pretty well'. I did have a moment, about three minutes in where I decided that it just wasn't going to work, so muted the recon and keyed up the right place in the soundtrack so that I could actually follow what on Earth was happening. I think I probably looked like a bit of an idiot sat in front of the computer screen with my headphones plugged into my phone, but there we go.

The reconstruction overcomes the lack of available images by creating plenty of its own, and pretty cleverly, too. There's several shots of the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe taken from the surviving second episode of the story, and some which I'm pretty sure are taken from elsewhere. One particular image of Milo Clancy came up so frequently that I worried the image may be burned onto the screen for good, but it did the job. For the actual space pirates themselves, the recon used CGI people. I have to confess that it's not a style of CGI that I've ever really liked, but it works pretty well in this instance.

Sadly, watching it in this form hasn't really helped me enjoy the story any better. I'm genuinely quite disappointed, because having enjoyed the first third after years of being told how rubbish the tale was, I was hoping to be all contradictory, stand proud and say how much I liked it. And there is an awful lot to like! Troughton is - of course - on fine form, and there's a wonderful moment after their fall in the cliffhanger resolution in which he moans in pain and produces a handful of drawing pins that he's landed on. When Zoe asks him what he's carrying the pins for, the Doctor replies simply; 'I like drawing pins!' If anything, it put me in mind of the Second Doctor we had back in Season Four, who is a little bit weird, a little bit 'kooky', but completely loveable, and totally 'the Doctor'.

It's a shame to see him using his tuning fork as a means to break out of their cell, as I was hoping the Sonic Screwdriver was here to stay after it had turned up for a second appearance in The Dominators. Maybe he still hasn't managed to work out all the kinks in the design, and it just won't work on locks yet? It's either that, or the door is made from wood (which, for all we know, it might have been).

Things seem to have gone off the rails a little, it's true, but The Space Pirates is still not as bad as everyone would have you believe. I'm hoping we can make it through the next two episodes relatively unscathed, and it might be able to redeem itself just a bit…

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 247: The Space Pirates, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Something that I've always really enjoyed about the Troughton era is that it spends so much time looking at the future that's just within reach of the audience. Many of the adventures over the course of the last three seasons have taken us into the Twenty-First Century, which at the time must have felt remote and distant enough to really be 'out there'.

It's conceivable, though, that a ten year old watching in the late 1960s would be around to witness mankind's evolution into the type of world we see in these stories, in which the weather for the entire planet is controlled from the Moon, goods and people can be teleported across the globe in a split second, and we'd have all manner of high tech space stations in near-Earth orbit, just ripe for a Cyberman invasion.

Admittedly, it can be a bit tricky to tie everything together from time to time, and the dates given to these stories from years of 'fan wisdom' don't always make the task easier. The second volume of the About Time series makes a pretty good stab at it, and I've had their timeline in mind as I've moved through the last few months. It gives placements to stories such as The Enemy of the World, The Wheel in Space, The Moonbase, and stretching out beyond this era of the programme, Warriors of the Deep (placing them in that order, chronologically, starting from around 2030 and moving through the the 2084 stated on screen for Warriors).

It's in a more recent book - A History of the Universe in 100 Objects, by James Goss and Steve Tribe - that Milo Clancy and the era of Argonite mining is really slotted into the equation. It speculates that the political troubles of the 2080s are what gives rise to the era of lawless spacefaring we've heard spoken of in this story. Clancy likely left the Earth at about the same time the Silurians and the Sea Devils were teaming up to fight the Fifth Doctor, and then the Space Corps were set up far more recently, after the turn of the century.

While I'm not a fan who spends a great deal of time obsessing over making sure that everything 'fits' absolutely within the Doctor Who universe (for a programme that's lasted in some shape or form for half a century, with literally thousands of stories told in all different media it would be entirely impossible for everything to click), I'll admit that it's nice when there's a kind of internal consistency like this.

I'm sorry to report that this episode hasn't really grabbed me in the same way the first couple did, but there's still plenty to be going on with. I think the main thing I'm enjoying is the fact that Zoe is still being used as… well… Zoe. Back during The Wheel in Space, I considered that her character would probably have been washed down the TARDIS' waste system before long and we'd end up with Victoria in all but name.

Actually, though, she's faring pretty well on the whole. Her intelligence has been a key part of the plot in every story so far (with the possible exception of The Dominators, but you know what? That was weeks ago, and I can't actually remember anything other than the drilling scenes towards the end), wether it be in the form of blowing up an annoying computer or - as in today's episode - working out the best way to get the TARDIS back. It's great to see her coming across so well, and I'm finding myself really enjoying Wendy Padbury more and more. I'm so glad, as it's moments with her, Patrick Troughton, and Frazer Hines that really do help to perk up even the most lacklustre of episodes.

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 246: The Space Pirates, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I believe that I'm going a little bit against the grain when I say that I really enjoyed today's episode! It turns out that the visuals to The Space Pirates really do help it. I'm eve so pleased, because when I put the Lost in Time disc into the drive today I had to really fight myself to not select The Web of Fear Episode One from the menu instead.

The first thing to note is that, despite my complaints about the effects shots of the beacons exploding yesterday (which are housed on the same DVD, as a special feature), the spaceship models on show here are actually rather good. I'm somewhat surprised by the clarity of the shots, too - I thought all the stuff on the Lost in Time sets was unrestored, but they look really sharp. The designs of the spaceships are nothing particularly unusual, they're your standard sci-fi fare, but they look fab and they're filmed very nicely indeed. My only real complaint is that the background to all these bits is just solid black. Would it have killed them to poke a few pins through the backdrop and create some stars? I think it would really add to the effect.

Elsewhere, we've got the introduction of Milo Clancy to proceedings. He comes in for a bit of stick amongst Doctor Who fans (as do many members of the cast from this story) because of the accent, but you know what? I love him, too! Haha! He comes across as totally normal amongst all the high tech spaceship stuff on display. It's highlighted in one very simple moment when he gets a call to his ship, and rather than moving his breakfast, standing up and walking over to receive it, he simply shuffles his chair closer to where he needs to be. It seems like such a ridiculous, insignificant thing (and it is, really), but it adds something very real to the character.

His dialogue is all tailored in such a way that you can't help but enjoy his presence in a scene, too. It must be the kind of thing people talk about when they discuss Robert Holmes' writing being so good. My personal favourite has to be when Clancy - mid conversation with his captors - asks if he can blow his nose, or if that's an offence, too. It's the kind of sarcasm that you'd expect to get in this type of situation, but which most science fiction takes itself too seriously to include.

I also love that they've dressed him simply as an old west prospector. In The Seeds of Death, they set out to show us that we're in the future by making everyone where the same style of 'futuristic' uniform, and then mark out the Professor as being a bit of a rebel by giving him a kind of futuristic cardigan to wear over the top. There's a shot in today's episode when Clancy is surrounded by the crew of the Space Corps, and he looks so out of place by being dressed so casually.

If anything, it puts you on his side at this stage; all the other characters look ridiculous, playing at space cowboys with their ridiculous collars and uniforms. Clancy looks like he's just milling along, trying to get by and enjoying himself. It's only in the cliffhanger that we really turn against him, even though by they stage we've had it more-or-less confirmed to us that he's working with the pirates. Thankfully it gives an already great cliffhanger even more impact, when he simply walks in to the beacon and shoots Jamie.

Yesterday, I made a reference to Revelation of the Daleks and mused that people often complained about how long it took the Doctor and Peri to actually get involved in the action of that story, meeting up with the rest of the cast and such like. I only brought it up because it took the TARDIS so long to arrive in this story, and it seemed an apt comparison. Truth be told, I almost didn't mention it, because I knew someone would pipe up and complain that in that story it took them until the second episode to actually interact with our main guest characters.

Well this one's an even slower burner! Although the Doctor and his friends find themselves shot at by members of the Space Corps in Episode One, and then encounter Clancy making his way inside the beacon at the conclusion of today's episode, they still haven't gotten caught up with the main characters here. It's going to be Episode Three now before our regulars are really caught up with events, making this surely one of the longest lead ins for the Doctor ever.

In short: this is brilliant stuff. There was even a point when I thought the episode might be heading for an 8/10, but I'm afraid that anything that includes a woman wearing a wig made of metal isn't going to reach quite that high. It had to be said, though, it's tricky looking at that costume without picturing the ivory headpiece from Community.

The ninth instalment in a sensational series of stories celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is written by Charlie Higson, actor, comedian and author of the phenomenally successful Young Bond books and the cult thriller series, The Enemy.

Following on from short stories by Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott, Marcus Sedgwick, Philip Reeve, Patrick Ness, Richelle Mead, Malorie Blackman and Alex Scarrow, Charlie Higson has written the ninth adventure in the series, based on the Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. Higson commented:

“I grew up with Doctor Who and have always been a massive fan so it's a great honour to be involved in this anniversary celebration. Russell T Davies did a great job of rebooting the series with Christopher Eccleston so to be able to write the Ninth Doctor story was a great opportunity to say thanks to the Doctor and thanks to Russell.”

Synopsis:

When a girl called Ali pockets a silver orb that falls from the sky, little does she realise it’s her ticket to seeing the universe!

Desperate to retrieve the mysterious object, the Ninth Doctor agrees to let her join him on a dangerous trip to ancient Babylon.

Together they must join forces to stop a giant Starman from destroying Earth before it’s too late! 

Eleven Doctors, eleven months, eleven stories: a year-long celebration of Doctor Who! The most exciting names in children's fiction each create their own unique adventure about the time-travelling Time Lord.

About the author:

Charlie Higson is a successful author, actor, comedian and writer for television and radio. He wrote the phenomenally successful Young Bond series which has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and been translated into over 24 languages. The first novel in his bestselling cult thriller series, The Enemy, was published to critical acclaim in 2009. It was followed by The Dead (2010), The Fear (2011) and The Sacrifice (2012). Charlie is a huge fan of horror films and books and even studied gothic literature at university.

Higson started writing when he was ten years old but it was a long time before he got paid for doing it. On leaving university he was the singer in a pop group (The Higsons) before giving it up to become a painter and decorator. It was around this time that he started writing for television on Saturday Night Live. In partnership with Paul Whitehouse, he went on to create hugely successful comedy series The Fast Show, in which he also appeared. Other TV works include The Harry Enfield Television Programme, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars, Randall and Hopkirk Deceased, the film Suite 16 and Swiss Toni.   

His work for radio includes the award-winning spoof radio series Down the Line (BBC Radio 4), which became the television comedy series Bellamy’s People (BBC 2). Charlie’s other books include the thrillers King of the Ants (1992), Happy Now (1993), Full Whack (1995) and Getting Rid of Mr Kitchen (1996). He lives in North London. 

+  The Beast Of Babylon is released on 23rd September 2013, Priced £1.99.

+  Preorder this eShort from iTunes for £1.99.
+  Preorder this eShort on Amazon for £1.99. 

+  Check Out Charlie Higson's Website.

[Source: Puffin Books]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 245: The Space Pirates, Episode One

Dear diary,

I've often seen people complain about some of the Sixth Doctor stories, where it takes him a long time to actually get involved with the action. Revelation of the Daleks is the big one - the Doctor and Peri don't actually meet up with any of the guest cast until the second episode, having spent forty-five minutes roaming the snowy countryside and fighting zombies.

At least in that episode the Doctor is actually present, even if it is on the outskirts of the action! The TARDIS doesn't turn up in today's instalment until almost fifteen minutes in. I'm pretty sure that I'm right in saying this is the latest into a story that the Doctor ever arrives.

The time before the arrival of our heroes isn't all wasted, though, and you get the distinct impression that it may have been quite exciting. I know, that's not something that anyone has ever said about The Space Pirates. The thing is, if you're six years old and sitting down on a Saturday evening to watch Doctor Who, your disappointment at the lack of the Doctor is likely to be held off while you've got pirates roaming around in a space ship, blowing up all these beacons.

This is the point where I'd usually say 'and the tele snaps show us exactly how awesome/average/awful (delete as applicable) these sequences were', but by this stage, John Cura had finished providing his services due to failing health. Indeed, Cura died not long after this, between Episodes One and Two of The War Games. It means that The Space Pirates is one of very few stories for which we have absolutely no tele snaps, giving us little indication as to how things would have really looked.

Thankfully, we do have the destruction of one beacon preserved as a brief clip in the archives. It's not… well, it's not the best thing we've ever seen. There's something about the way that the station splits onto several nice, even chunks that puts me in mind of a wheel of cheese being cut, and that's probably not the effect they were aiming for…

Fittingly for our last story with missing episodes, the soundtrack feels like they're really going for it. Frazer Hines is back on narration duty and his opening line ('Far out in space, amongst the stars…') sets us up for a more richly detailed audio than usual. Not long afterwards, we get space described as a 'velvet, star-studded blackness', which sounds as much like a description of Hollywood than anything.

On the whole, though, it's a positive start. I'm not blown away, and the episode is little more than average for the programme at this point, but it's not the complete disaster that people always describe it. I imagine that things will go downhill before too long, but if it sticks like this all the way through, I think I can handle it!

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, Melbourne-based improvisational theatre company The Impro Box is bringing back its sell out improvised Doctor Who show, Time Lord, devised and directed by David S. Innes.

The season once again stars Rob Lloyd (Who, Me, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Live on Bowen) along with The Impro Box players. Show details can be found below:

Venue: Club Voltaire, 14 Raglan Street, Melbourne, Australia
Dates: 3rd-7th September 2013
Time: 7:30pm
Prices: $15 (Full), $10 (Concession & Cosplayers), $45 (Season Pass)
Tickets: http://www.trybooking.com/58329

+  For more info visit the Time Lord website: http://www.theimprobox.com/time-lord/
+  Follow The Impro Box on Twitter: @ImproBox

[Source: David Innes]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 244: The Seeds of Death, Episode Six

Dear diary,

As has often been the case with stories like this, I've been making a note for several days now to mention the titles for the episodes. In The Seeds of Death, the title captions for sac episode are shown against a backdrop of the Earth and the Moon, hanging in space as the camera moves slowly across the scene to show us this view from a few angles. It's a lovely little shot, but it's the music that accompanies it which I've really liked.

The music to the entire serial is quite good, on the whole, although on occasion it feels a little out of place. There's a moment today when Troughton is creeping around with his new solar weapon and something causes him to jump. You assume that the (loud!) music will follow the same cue and perk up at this moment, but it's actually going through a more subdues phase at that precise moment.

It's only a minor niggle, though, as on the whole the work being down on this story has been rather good. I've already called out Michael Ferguson's direction for praise a few times, but I have to add that today he produces one of my absolute favourite shots, as Troughton stares down the Ice Lord (they're not actually called this on screen in this story. I'm assuming that it gets brought up in one of the Pertwee stories, or I've just made it up…) during their final confrontation. 'You have destroyed our entire fleet!' the Ice Lord (I'm sticking with it) hisses, to which the Doctor's reply is simple - 'You tried to destroy an entire world'.

In a story that's given Troughton a fair amount of chances to play his more comical side of the Doctor, this is a great moment, and it's one that I'm surprised doesn't get mentioned all that often. Maybe it's because his sideburns are still trying to take control of the programme?

Despite me just assigning names to the Ice Warriors that seem to sit right in my head, I'm rather impressed with the way that they're treated on screen in this story. The title 'Ice Warrior' was given to them by one of the humans back in, er, The Ice Warriors, and I worried that by this stage that's simply what everyone would be calling them. They actually only seem to gain this title amongst our new guest cast after the Doctor or Jamie has already used it, which is a lovely touch. I'm not sure if it's entirely intentional (Brian Hayles did create the creatures, after all, so you'd think if anyone would remember that the name was simply assigned to them, it would be him), but it works really well. Another one of those little things which makes me smile.

Speaking of which - Jamie manages to redeem himself with this episode! Hooray! Since somewhere around the start of The Krotons, Jamie has been the subject of a fair amount of abuse (yeah, yeah, including from me). His intelligence keeps being called into question, and he doesn't even seem to be the Doctor's favourite companion anymore. In Episode Five, the Doctor video conferences with his two companions at one point, but specifically only addresses Zoe. He doesn't even seem to notice Jamie stood there with him.

Much as I've started tiring of Jamie lately, I found it to be something of a 'punch the air' moment when he took Zoe to one side and asked her to send him up to the Moon to save the Doctor. Jamie may not be the smartest person currently travelling in the TARDIS, but he'd never let anything happen to the Doctor, and that's where his real strength lies. Fair enough, I guess he can stick around for now.

Right then! The next story should be interesting. The Space Pirates is the last Doctor Who tale with episodes missing, and was rated the worst of the 1960s stories during the Doctor Who Magazine 'Mighty 200' poll. To say that I'm not exactly thrilled to be synching the audio to my phone is putting it mildly…

Researches for a forthcoming biography of a ‘60s Doctor Who writer have turned up an intriguing curio: a draft script of William Hartnell’s final episode which doesn’t end with the Doctor regenerating.

William Hartnell’s Doctor bowed out in October 1966 with the four-part adventure “The Tenth Planet”, a story which not only introduced the concept that the Doctor could change his appearance, but also saw the first appearance of the Cybermen.

Now author Michael Seely, who’s working on a biography of the story’s co-author, Dr Kit Pedler, has unearthed draft scripts of all four episodes which predate the decision to write out William Hartnell.

“I found these scripts and two more from ‘The Moonbase’ (known then as ‘The Return Of The Cybermen’) among a very large collection of Kit’s papers which one of his children had kept in their attic,” explains Seely. “As I looked through it, I realised it was the first draft [script editor and co-writer] Gerry Davis prepared when Kit fell ill in June 1966."

"The structure is more or less the same, though a lot of the dialogue is different. Some things were cut, especially involving the Cybermen. For example, the Cybermen planned to convert [companion] Polly and the Doctor into Cybermen towards the end of the story, and kept them prisoner in what they described as a waiting room. The most eye-catching difference is what didn’t happen at the end of the episode.”

The fact that this script was written in June 1966 and rehearsals for the story began on 14 September only underlines that the actor’s departure was decided upon rather late in the day (Hartnell’s wife’s diary records that he told her on 16 July 1966).

“Gerry Davis and [producer] Innes Lloyd were always very diplomatic and tactful in their interviews,” says Seely. “Both died in 1991, long before ‘warts and all’ interviews became the norm. We know that William Hartnell was being persuaded to give up the role he loved over the summer of 1966, and that they were sounding out replacements. He only decided to leave in the middle of July, the month after this draft was written.”

The cache of Pedler’s papers also includes five original storylines for Doomwatch, the 1970-1972 eco-thriller TV series he co-created with Gerry Davis - including several that were never made - as well as proposals for further TV shows, a couple of never-recorded radio plays, and various unfinished books and short stories.

+  The Quest For Pedler by Michael Seely is due for release in Early 2014. Visit www.miwk.com for more details.

[Source: SFX]