The first recording today starts with a trail for Newsnight on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
There’s also a trail for The Passion and a promo for 1Xtra Live.
Then it’s another repeat of Torchwood – From Out of the Rain.
Media Centre Description: Science-fiction crime drama series set in Cardiff. When an old cinema re-opens, past horrors emerge to stalk the streets of Cardiff. As bodies are found caught between life and death, Torchwood must act fast. Who are the Night Travellers and how can Torchwood capture these mysterious killers?
Recorded from BBC TWO on Wednesday 19th March 2008 20:58
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Wednesday 19th March 2008 21:00
After this there’s an explosive trail for Eastenders which features the return of Patsy Palmer as Bianca.
Then the recording stops with the start of the next programme.
The next recording overlaps with the last one, so starts with the end of Torchwood.
Then, it’s an episode of Torchwood: Declassified.
Russell T Davies talks about the circus set and the budget. “They did an incredible job of setting up that circus because it has to be said we’re on a budget. And when that script comes in and there’s a budget with strongmen and fire eaters and mermaids and stuff like that, you go, oh, my God. It’s a very clever piece of design, a lot of which is sleight of hand. You feel like you’re in a circus when actually there’s very little there.”
Bev Gerard introduces the set.
Richard Stokes: “The circus is one of those great things in design where it looks 10 times bigger and 10 times more expensive than it was. There’s actually incredibly simple construction. And we placed that in a completely empty area of Bute Park in Cardiff. It was sort of away from anywhere, so it didn’t have any of the sort of 21st century trappings of the city in the distance.”
Camilla Power: “We were kind of in the middle of the park when there was nothing else around. And then there was this sort of eerie little tented village.”
Writer Peter J Hammond: “In shows in the past, I’ve used people coming in and out of photographs. I thought it was too good to lose. I wanted to extend it and take them in and out of moving film. So the thing was to choose the right sort of villains to inhabit that film.”
Chris Chibnall: “The idea of a circus ringmaster and Pearl going through the streets of Cardiff as serial killers, completely insane, completely terrifying, completely wonderful.”
Ray Holman: “I found a head and shoulders of a traditional wooden ringmaster puppet. So as soon as everybody saw that, they said, yes, that’s the feel.”
Marie Doris: “The look for Pearl for me was that I wanted her to look like she lived in water. I wanted her to be iridescent looking. I knew they were going to get wet a lot and there’s only so far that you can take waterproof makeup. We could do three, four, five takes. So I wanted to make it quite a clean cut, simple looking makeup that should it not last, I could do it very quickly on set.”
Jonathan Fox Bassett: “In the bus stop scene, we wanted to create quite a heavy rain there because I wanted to make that scene very atmospheric. And we had quite a big set up there to create rain. You have to sort of be quite precise in what you’re doing, otherwise it can not look real. And because often you’re coming down through the rain, which will kind of show up any lack of depth you’ve got in the rain.”
Ben Foster on the music: “It was clear from this, from the offset with this episode that it needed to be a mixture of kind of fairground style, slightly innocent childlike themes, but mangled so that you get that horror element. And that’s quite a familiar device. And we have a theme for the Ghostmaker and we have a theme for Pearl. And those are the two main themes in this episode.”
Media Centre Description: Torchwood Declassified goes behind the scenes as Captain Jack Harkness and his team go to a fright night at the movies. Talking to writer PJ Hammond and executive producer Russell T Davies, this episode sees just what it takes to shock an audience.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Wednesday 19th March 2008 21:43
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Wednesday 19th March 2008 21:45
After this there’s a promo for 1Xtra Live and a new trail for Gavin and Stacey.
Then the recording stops with the start of Room 101 featuring Ricky Gervais.
The next recording starts with the end of 60 Seconds – there’s an ominous headline. “No charges are to be brought against CBBC presenter Mark Speight after the death of his fiancee.”
There’s another Eastenders trail and one for Gavin and Stacey.
Then, it’s a new episode of Torchwood – Adrift. A young man is walking across a bridge on his way home. His mother texts him and he texts back. Then there’s a bright light and a spinny camera, and he’s gone, leaving his mobile phone behind.
Yay! It’s PC Andy. We haven’t seen much of him this series. He’s telling Gwen about the disappearance seven months ago, and how there’s been no sign of young Jonah since then. He also has CCTV of Jack arriving on the bridge an hour after Jonah appears. They also talk about why Andy didn’t go to her wedding, and learn that Andy is jealous of Rhys.
Jack seems cagey about why he was there.
Ruth Jones plays Jonah’s mum, who’s still looking for her son.
She organises a support group for other families of missing persons. At first, only Gwen and Andy turn up, but pretty soon there’s 40 or 50 people, all with missing family members.
Tosh has discovered that there was reverse rift activity when Jonah disappeared, and has found more examples. Gwen gets the details of missing people, and they correlate with the rift spikes. She finds dozen of missing people where rift activity was present.
When she brings this information to Jack, he shuts her down telling her there’s nothing they can do about it.
Later, Gwen walks in on Jack and Ianto having sex in the office. Weirdly, at no point does anyone have to go on an HR training course about appropriate behaviour in an office.
Gwen has a package on her desk. Show shows it to Andy. It’s a GPS device (although it looks like a PDA to me) and it points to an island off the Welsh coast.
Gwen travels to the island, after ditching Andy in case there’s scary stuff there, looks around and spots Jack walking somewhere. She finds what looks like a hospital, with lots of people in private rooms. She recognises the names from her wall. Jack appears, tries to get her to leave it, but she’s found Jonah’s room, and gets Jack to open it for her. Jonah has grown a bit since we saw him. And been through a lot. “There was a light. I woke up and the land was on fire, there were flames, for miles on end. A man pulled me from the flames. Took me to a building, where they tried to work on the burns. I thought I was going to die. I don’t remember when the ground started shaking, and then I realised it wasn’t a building after all. It was a rescue craft. The last off a burning planet. We watched the Solar System burn. It was so beautiful.”
Jack explains. “When I took over Torchwood, there were two, just like Jonah. Ravaged from falling through the rift. Being kept in the vaults, neglected. I wanted them looked after. I set this place up. Told the staff these were experiments gone wrong.” “How many are there?” “Seventeen, last count. It’s increased over the last year. Like the rift is trying to correct its mistakes.” “But not all the missing return.” “No.” “You can’t keep them hidden. They have families who deserve to know…” “Gwen, they’re sick. In ways you could never imagine. We can’t fix them. We just care for them.”
Gwen brings Jonah’s mother to see him. It’s a shock, but he tells her things only he could know about, and she finally realises he’s really Jonah. And it is all about the hugs.
But we can’t have a happy ending. Nikki wants to take Jonah home but Jonah’s “good phase” doesn’t last for long. He has a downswing, and starts howling. “Before the rift returned him, Jonah had looked into the heart of a dark star. What he’d seen had driven him mad.”
Media Centre Description: Science-fiction crime drama series set in Cardiff. When a local teenager disappears Gwen is drawn into an investigation that reveals a darker side of Torchwood. Hundreds of people have disappeared without trace, but why is Jack obstructing attempts to find them? The answer seems to lie in the rift, and as Gwen follows the trail she makes a shocking discovery.
Recorded from BBC THREE on Wednesday 19th March 2008 21:58
BBC Genome: BBC THREE Wednesday 19th March 2008 22:00
After this, there’s a trail for Pulling and a promo for 1Xtra Live.
Then there’s 60 Seconds of News.
Then the recording stops with the start of The Things I Haven’t Told You.
The next recording starts with the end of an episode of The Late Edition. with Marcus Brigstocke talking to Nick Clegg. Remember when he was everyone’s favourite?
There’s a trail for The Frost Report.
Then it’s Mark Lawson Talks to Galton and Simpson.
Media Centre Description: Steptoe and Son creators Alan Galton and Ray Simpson in conversation with Mark Lawson.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Wednesday 19th March 2008 23:05
BBC Genome: BBC FOUR Wednesday 19th March 2008 23:05
The next recording starts with the end of the previous programme.
There’s a trail for The Curse of Steptoe.
Then, the programme itself, The Curse of Steptoe and Son.
Burn Gorman and Rory Kinnear play Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, hot off Hancock, and (as the describe in the previous interview) they’re offered 10 hslf hour comedies, one of which is “The Offer” which because the pilot for Steptoe and Son.
Roger Allam plays Tom Sloan, the BBC producer who commissioned them.
Jason Isaacs plays Harry H Corbett
Phil Davis plays Wilfred Brambell.
Zoe Tapper plays Sheila Steafel, who was Corbett’s first wife.
Clare Higgins plays Joan Greenwood, the theatre producer who’s not very impressed with Corbett slumming it in television, and indeed most of the drama comes from him feeling trapped by the role.
Here’s someone else’s upload. Wrong aspect ratio, I’m afraid.
Media Centre Description: Drama telling the moving story of life behind the scenes of Steptoe and Son. Two actors find themselves trapped together on the celebrated long-running sitcom.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Thursday 20th March 2008 00:05
BBC Genome: BBC FOUR Thursday 20th March 2008 00:05
After this there’s a trail for Hancock and Joan.
Then the recording stops with the start of a repeat of The Late Edition celebrating 5 years of the Iraq War.
