Is this the future face of Doctor Who?
The 11th Doctor? ... Russell Tovey as Tintin. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
The big revelation everyone's going to jump on from Russell T Davies' new book is his choice for 11th Doctor; the Doctor he's not allowed to choose.
The big man is about to publish The Writer's Tale, a new book of email exchanges with Doctor Who Magazine scribbler Benjamin Cook. An in-depth mind probe into the regeneration of the Who phenomenon, an extract of which is published today in the Times.
And in it he appears to answer the question that the whole world's been asking since David Tennant started in the part. Tennant's going nowhere anytime soon of course, but deep among the casting news for Voyage of the Damned is the name Russell Tovey. "He's going to be huge, I would make him the next Doctor."
Tovey, the coolest History Boy (sorry, James Corden) was last seen as a domesticated werewolf geek in BBC Three's Being Human, and last seen in Who as the nice-but-dim-but-eventually-brave Midshipman Frame.
After all the talk of Rhys Ifans and James Nesbitt, it seems a more realistic kind of actor might get the part. Davies and Stephen Moffatt, whose decision it will eventually be, have also both suggested Harry Lloyd as the next incumbent, after his electrifying turn as Son of Mine in The Family of Blood, aka The One With The Scarecrows. Now, I find the two suggestions a bit disconcerting since they're both younger than me, which the Doctor should never be, goddamit. But like Tennant, it has to be someone with a massive future who's never had their one defining part. Christopher Eccleston was wrong, wasn't he, thinking back?
Still, that conversation remains a year or so in the future. The Writer's Tale is still a fairly startling memoir. What other high-powered executive producers would be so candid with a journalist about stuff that he could leak at any moment, circle of trust or not?
Who could have imagined that first on Davies' wishlist for this year's Christmas special before the Cybermen was another Shakespeare Code type of story where JK Rowling battles evil wizards of her own creation? Or that Tennant would have the power to veto the idea before it reached the drawing board? What other writer would be so blunt about the BBC's negotiations to try and get him to do series five? (And, oof, wouldn't the stop-RTD internet brigade have hated that!)
Perhaps most reassuring of all to wannabe Who-scribes everywhere is Russell's admission that from his mid-20s to mid-30s he spent his time in Manchester, "out every night - really, every night, even Sundays - dancing, drinking and off my head on God knows what. I'd be out till five in the morning, get into work at Granada at nine, throw up in the toilets, then go and be brilliant at my job."
Russell T Davies is a tall man with a big personality and no small ego. And he didn't do everything right on Doctor Who by any means. But he got it righter than anyone else, in that he made it happen. And how.
We shall see! Although I liked some of the earlier Doctors who were much older, these days, the Doctor seems to do a lot of running so a younger body would be better.Doctor New?
Note: Kylie has agreed to star alongside David Tennant in the 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, and Davies and his team are finalising the casting.
From: Russell T .Davies To: Benjamin Cook
Tuesday June 26, 2007 23:13:50 GMT
A read-through with Kylie Minogue! Marvellous, isn't it? She's going to watch Last of the Time Lords on Saturday with David. Madder and madder! And we've cast Clive Swift as Mr Copper. That's brilliant! (Dennis Hopper, it turned out, isn't available for that many days.) And Geoffrey Palmer is Captain Hardaker, which is glorious. Also, Russell Tovey as Midshipman Frame, which is my favourite casting of the lot, because he's going to be huge, that man. He's amazing. I think I'd make him the Eleventh Doctor.
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I stayed home today, spending most of the morning waiting for the oven repairer (those companies never give a time). It now works and I didn't even know there was an element in the back where the fan is.
Finished watching all the episodes of Rome. Brilliant show.
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