Torchwood:Children Of Earth Trailer

In one epic story told over five nights the new series, to be broadcast for the first time on BBC One later this year, promises to be Torchwood's greatest adrenalin-fuelled, high octane adventure yet.

Torchwood: Children of Earth re-joins Captain Jack (John Barrowman), Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) who are still coming to terms with the death of two of their closest friends. Despite their pain, they have a job to do.

This time they are faced with their fiercest threat to date - one which throws the future of Torchwood and the entire human race spiralling into danger. They battle against the odds but do they stand a chance of saving mankind?

The Return Of The Mechanical Dog

K-9 will be returning full-time for the third series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine CBBC & BBC One later this year.

"We've already got 10 scripts at first draft stage, and I can now announce that K-9 is going to make a return to Sarah Jane's attic!" producer Nikki Smith told the magazine. "He's been locked away in that safe, saving the world from a Black Hole, for far too long now. And he's so loved, especially by children, that we wanted him back. Many thanks to his co-creator, Bob Baker, and the estate of the late Dave Martin for allowing this to happen."

She added: "K-9 won't be in every single episode - right now, we estimate he'll appear in approximately six of the 12 episodes. And I can promise that the fun is only just beginning - just wait until he gets to meet Mr Smith properly!"

Source: Whoviannet

DWM 405 - WHO Is Matt Smith?

On sale Thursday 5th February 2009 £3.99

Philip Glenister: Forget Demons and Gene Hunt, my kids want me to be Doctor Who

Even in his new role – as a vampire-hunter called Rupert – actor Philip Glenister is finding it hard to escape his most famous character.

He laughs: “At one point, they tried to have Rupert take out his hip flask and I said, ‘No, that’s too Gene Hunt.’”

Philip shot to fame as the no-nonsense hard-drinking detective in time-travel cop shows Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. And now he’s back as Rupert Galvin, a wise-cracking vampire hunter in new ITV1 sci-fi drama Demons. Philip says: “The whole point of doing this is to get away from Gene.

“If I were 25 and only known for being Gene that would be a problem. But I’m at an age where I’ve done enough stuff. However, you have to remind people in this business that you can do something else.”

More than six million tuned in on Saturday night to watch Philip play mysterious ex-CIA agent Rupert, now a crusader in a war between humans and the half-life in modern-day London.

The new role sees Philip trying his hand at an American accent… and some stunts.

“Actually accents seem to be one of the few things I was born with a head for,” he says.

“I’ve done so many – northern, American, German, I don’t think I could do my own accent anymore. I wouldn’t know how to play myself. I also get thrown over a few cars, I get burnt and I have to fight a demon which involved me wearing a special harness so I could be yanked backwards very sharply – not a comfortable experience."

“I also have this gun – a pulse gun which has to be the most useless weapon in the world. I never seem to kill anyone, I keep threatening people and then I get hurled 25 feet across a car park!”

He may be trying to distance himself from Hunt but the public took the Mancunian copper to their hearts almost overnight when Life on Mars first aired three years ago.

There are now websites devoted to Hunt’s legendary one-liners – “She’s as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot” and “He’s got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course” among the most popular. The success has taken Philip by surprise… not least because he’s become an unlikely sex symbol.

He was recently voted fourth-sexiest man in a women’s magazine, behind Joseph star Lee Mead, Phillip Schofield and Spooks actor Richard Armitage. He laughs: “I didn’t see it but Paul O’Grady told me about it. My friends found it highly amusing. I heard I beat David Tennant – that’s something.

“Of course I know it’s Gene Hunt they find attractive, not me. And no, I don’t get indecent proposals. It’s not like women are flinging themselves at me in Waitrose.”

(Beth Neil - mirror.co.uk)

Wiiliam Hartnell

William Hartnell was born in London on January 8, 1908. He was the only child of his unwed mother, Lucy Hartnell. (Perhaps embarrassed by his background, Hartnell claimed in interviews that he was born on a farm in Devon and raised by both of his parents.)

Hartnell spent much of his early life in foster care while his mother held a nursing job in Belgium. Growing up in poverty, he became a self-professed "street urchin," proficient at shoplifting and sneaking into movie theaters. He soon developed a passion for acting, inspired by his favorite performer, Charlie Chaplin. He later described Chaplin as a "guiding star" who "influenced me more than any other factor in taking up acting as a career."

While boxing at a boys' club, Hartnell met Hugh Blaker, an art collector and amateur poet. Blaker ultimately became his father figure and benefactor, and gave him tuition money for the respected Italia Conti drama school.

In 1925, Blaker arranged for Hartnell to join a theater company led by noted Shakespearean actor Frank Benson. Three years later, Hartnell toured with another company in Canada. During the trip, he met his future wife, Heather McIntyre; they married in 1929.

Upon returning to England, Hartnell successfully made the transition from theater to film acting. He starred in dozens of "Quota Quickie" films, which were made fast and cheap in order to compete with Hollywood imports. Although he played a number of comic parts, he became best known for portraying criminals and other hard-edged characters (he later complained of being typecast as "the eternal 'tough guy' of British films").

Despite his problems with typecasting, Hartnell did land a number of excellent roles. In 1947's Odd Man Out, directed by Carol Reed, he appeared as a bartender who shelters a wounded IRA man played by James Mason. Ten years later, Hartnell won acclaim for his performance as a naval officer in Yangtse Incident. In 1963's This Sporting Life, his role as Johnson, a washed-up former athlete, caught the eye of Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert and led to his casting in the series.

Doctor Who revitalized Hartnell's career, winning him a new generation of fans. In contemporary newspaper interviews, he talked about how he enjoyed pitching his performance at younger viewers. "I communicate fear to children because they don't know where I'm going to lead them," he remarked. "This frightens them and is the attraction of the series."

He also described the role as overwhelming, claiming once that "Dr. Who seems to be taking over." He confessed that working long hours on the series made him "agitated" and "irritable with people."

Hartnell wanted to remain in the part for at least five years, but failing health and disagreements with the production team triggered his departure from Doctor Who in 1966. Once noted for his precision in delivering lines, the ailing actor found himself struggling more and more to remember his dialogue while filming his final episodes of the series.

He returned to the role of the Doctor once, in the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors. He died shortly afterwards, in April 1975.

firstamongdoctors

February 1st Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!

Today, the 1st February is Elizabeth Sladen's 61st Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Early career

An only child, Sladen developed an interest in performing at an early age, beginning dance lessons when she was five and dancing in one production with the Royal Ballet. She eventually turned to acting, and after finishing grammar school, attended drama school for two years.

Following this, she began work at the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as an assistant stage manager. Her first stage appearance was as a corpse. However, she was scolded for giggling on stage, thanks to a young actor, Brian Miller, whispering the words, "Respiration nil, Aston Villa two" in her ear while he was playing the doctor. Sladen was so good as an assistant stage manager that she did not get many acting roles, a problem she solved by deliberately making mistakes on several occasions. This got her told off again, but she started to get more on-stage roles.

Sladen eventually moved into weekly repertory work, travelling around to various locations in England. Sladen and Miller, now married, moved to Manchester, spending three years there. She appeared in numerous roles, most notably as Desdemona in Othello, her first appearance as a leading lady. She also got the odd part on Leeds Radio and Granada Television, eventually appearing as a barmaid in six episodes of the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. Sladen made her first, uncredited, screen appearance in 1964 in the film Ferry 'Cross The Mersey as an extra.

In 1972, Miller was appearing in a play that moved down to London and they had to move along with it. Sladen found city life a bit of an adjustment, but eventually adapted. Her first television role in London was as a terrorist in an episode of Doomwatch. This was followed by guest roles in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and Z-Cars.

Doctor Who

In 1973, Sladen joined the cast of Doctor Who as the show's enduring companion Sarah Jane Smith to Jon Pertwee's Doctor in The Time Warrior. She witnessed the third regeneration from Pertwee to Baker. She left at the end of the serial The Hand of Fear in 1976. 1981 Sladen reprised her role as Sarah Jane in the pilot K-9 & Co. This did not do so well due to a poor script. In 1983 Sladen appeared in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors. She reprised the role again in the 1993 Children In Need special Dimernsions In Time, and in the 1995 independently produced video Downtime alongside former co-star Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewert and Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. This was her last on-screen appearance as Sarah Jane Smith until the 2006 Season 28 (Series 2) episode School Reunion, with David Tennant as the Doctor.

The Time Warrior

The Hand of Fear

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Christmas 2006 saw the Pilot episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, which in 2007 became a fully fledged series and followed by a second series in 2008. A third is planned later in 2009. Elizabeth returned to Doctor Who in Season 30 (Series 4) in the final two of a three part finale - The Stolen Earth & Journey's End, which saw the return of our favourite baddie and Dalek creator DAVROS.

School Reunion

The Stolen Earth

Journey's End

New Wave of Classic WHO Figures

Forbidden Planet has released details on a new wave of Classic Series figures. These five figures are exclusive to Forbidden Planet.

This series includes two versions of the First and Second Doctors (one in colour and one in black & white), and a version of the Sixth Doctor in his all blue costume from BBCi's webcast "Real Time".

These figures are available now for pre-order and will be released in late July.

£24.99 for the above
£14.99

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