In this weeks Radio Times Karen Gillan is interviewed and talks about acting with Matt Smith and playing Amy Pond…

“We just kind of bounce off each other. The banter that you see on screen – that’s what we’re like all day on set. I sometimes wonder if it’s our way of keeping our energy up between scenes, but it’s all subconscious. And I think we might have been like that if we’d met in any other situation.”

“The one thing I never wanted to do with Amy,” she goes on, “was to base her on any kind of formula, to conform to what works – or what has worked – in a companion; you know, the whole, likeable, girl-next-door business. Amy is likeable, I hope, but she’s not ordinary. She’s quite complicated and there are layers to explore. So I was taking a few risks with her and I think it works.”

There is also an interview with Christopher Eccleston who talks about his Doctor Who exit…

“I didn’t enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in.

“I thought if I stay in this job, I’m going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong.”

You can also see a BBC news article on this Here

It is, according to Richard Curtis, the Hamlet of the television world. A pivotal, career-making role, to be reprised over the years with different actors, always the same, and yet metamorphosing radically with each new incarnation.

We are, of course, talking Doctor Who – and how Curtis, that nice chap who made Hugh Grant into a superstar and Bill Nighy into a pin-up, who made us hoot at Four Weddings and a Funeral in the cinema and Blackadder on the telly, has at last been corralled into Camp DW.

Not that Curtis, 53, was a childhood addict. “No, I wasn’t very dedicated. I seem to remember I liked the Master more than the Doctor, strangely enough.” He says his decision to write an episode was more thanks to the nagging from his four children, now aged from 14 to six. “My kids absolutely love it. We all watched the Christmas special two years ago and my children said I had to do one. Scarlett, our eldest, pointed out that while I’d always promised I would write a children’s movie, by the time I do, she won’t be a child any more. And the great thing about telly is how swift it is by comparison with films.”

While the “Curtis Episode” stars the new Time Lord, Matt Smith, it uses a storyline about Vincent van Gogh that had been in Curtis’s head for a long time. So, the Tardis journeys into The Starry Night. That’s a bit high-end, isn’t it? It’s certainly a long way from the common-as-yuk territory of blood-curdling vampires or nasty underground aliens (to cite just two of the Doctor’s recent experiences). Not at all, says Curtis. In his view, Van Gogh is easily as familiar as an alien or a vampire.

For the full interview see this week’s Radio Times, on sale from today

David Tennant has nothing to say to Matt Smith

David Tennant has admitted he has “nothing to say” to new Time Lord, Matt Smith.

Tennant told Reader’s Digest, in an exclusive interview for the December issue, that he’d spoken to his successor several times “but there’s nothing to say. I think we both thought we’d be able to exchange lots of ideas. But actually it’s none of my business how Matt does it and nothing I say can really help him.”

Talking about his final foray as the Doctor in this year’s Christmas special, Tennant says “This year we’ve done something different. It is still set in Christmas, but it’s perhaps not got quite as much, er…Christmas cheer as before.” Tennant adds that come Christmas Day he’ll be watching his own send off. “Just to enjoy the moment. It’s my last Doctor Who – it will be nice to witness that.”

Tennant is now the proud possessor of his own sonic screwdriver, the Doctor’s signature gizmo. “I have one of the real things! I’ve only once used it to impress a child. It was a charity thing but it was quite cool. He was only about five, so it was a nice, wide-eyed moment.”

While he “doesn’t have any regrets” about leaving the iconic series Tennant is prepared for the inevitable “pangs of jealousy” once he’s handed over the Doctor’s mantle.

But Tennant fans shouldn’t think he’ll be resting on his laurels.

Hinting at possible future plans, Tennant reveals that as a child he loved Marvel’s The Avenger’s, a comic about a team of crime-fighting superheroes. “It’s yet to be made into a film, although I think there are rumblings. I’d be quite happy to be involved.” Indeed the film is in pre-production, with Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson already signed on.

David Tennant, superhero? Fans would say he’s played that role already.

The full piece will feature in the December issue of Reader’s Digest on newsstands on 26 November.

Source: Readers Digest press department.

They as follows…

“I could write you scene one of series four right now”, says Davies in a revealing interview with Torchwood Magazine. “I know exactly how to pick it up. I’ve got a shape in mind, and I’ve got stories. I know where you’d find Gwen and Rhys, and their baby, and Jack, and I know how you’d go forward with a new form of Torchwood.”

The news will come as a tonic to fans of the show, which enjoyed runaway
success in the ratings when the latest series Children of Earth screened
over five nights in July this year. The dramatic finale and the death of
much-loved team member Ianto Jones had fans fearing the worst for the future
of the show, but Davies’ positive comments will re-ignite hopes that
Torchwood will once again return to television screens.

Davies is also confident of writing another compelling series of Torchwood,
regardless of the format the BBC decides to choose for the show.

“If the BBC asked for another 13 one-part stories, that’s what we’d do”,
Davies goes on to explain to Torchwood Magazine. “I’m ready for anything,
but I think it works well as one continuous story. But if the BBC decide
they want 13 one-offs, I’ll suddenly decide that’s the best format in the
world!”

The prolific writer, widely credited with sparking the recent revival of
parent show Doctor Who, goes on to talk candidly about the origins of
Torchwood, and why he thinks the timing was all important for the success of
the show.

“It’s been a very intelligent decision to make hay while the sun shines”, he
says. “Look at the recession that’s sweeping in now. If I’d tried to get
Torchwood off the ground now, they would say there’s no money for it. So
while we had one very successful show, we made a strategic decision to push
our advantage. Julie [Gardner, then Head of Drama at BBC Wales] passionately
wanted a big, strong Welsh drama department ­ but one show is not a drama
department, You’ve got to have more, so we did it while those doors were
open to us.”

After Davies’ incredible successes on British shores, where he has also
penned the acclaimed drama serials Queer as Folk and The Second Coming, the
writer is looking forward to his next challenge across the Atlantic.

Davies tells Torchwood Magazine he believes his trade is taken much more
seriously in the USA than it is at home in the UK:

“The attitudes towards drama there are very different, and their outlook is
more professional in terms of how they approach the job. I heard this
brilliant quote from [acclaimed British screenwriter] Frank Cottrell Boyce
recently, where he said that British writers are essentially amateur and
they want to go home or go to the pub, but in America they can¹t wait to go
in to the office.”

Russell T Davies interview appears in Torchwood Magazine Issue 17

On sale in the UK – 20 Aug 2009
On sale in the US – Sept 15 2009

http://titanmagazines.co.uk/torchwood