#whoBtsUnicorn

[mizgnomer]

Behind the Scenes of The Unicorn and the Wasp (Part Six)

Excerpts from Jason Arnopp’s article in DWM 396:

DWM: How did you like working with Christopher Benjamin [who played Lord Eddison] David Tennant: It's glorious. Although I have to say, it's one of those casts where you're delighted with everybody. I've worked with Fenella [Woolgar, who plays Agatha Christie] a couple of times, and I'm proud to announce to the world that her casting here was my idea! I think it's the first time a casting suggestion of mine has ever been taken up. And Tom Goodman-Hill [who plays Reverend Golightly] is a fantastic actor. He was buzzing brilliantly in the readthrough. DWM: You auditioned for the part: were you sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of Christie-alikes? Fenella Woolgar (Agatha Christie): Yes, that was hilarious. And even funnier, because there was another audition going on next door which couldn't have been more different: some guy was shouting, "I'm gonna kill your effing mother!" So I was standing there, thinking, "No, no, it's 1926! Focus!" DWM: You've known David Tennant for a while, right? Tom Goodman-Hill (Reverand Golightly): Since drama school days, so we've got lots of mutual friends. I remember talking to him, just after he got the Doctor Who job, about how we grew up on Tom Baker and Peter Davison's Doctors. Although I'm a little older than David, so I also remember a bit of Pertwee.

Link to [ part one ] of this post, or click the #whoBtsUnicorn tag, or the [ full episode list ]

[mizgnomer]

Behind the Scenes of The Unicorn and the Wasp (Part Seven)

Excerpts from Andrew Pixley's article in DWM 525:

When scenes and dialogue compete for space, there are often casualties in the cutting room. Some actors are ultimately never heard. If they’re very unlucky, they aren’t even seen. Major restructuring to The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008) was undertaken prior to transmission. This left the main 1926 narrative intact with the young Agatha Christie, but eliminated the bookending scenes with her older self in 1976. “Although it was a lovely sequence, it just seemed unnecessary,” said director Graeme Harper in a podcast commentary, while on the DVD showrunner Russell T Davies explained: “You got the feeling that everything was taking part in the past tense … It took all the drama out of it.” This meant the loss of two cast members: Daphne Oxenford as ‘Old Agatha’ and Natalie Barrett as her nurse. Fortunately the Complete Fourth Series DVD box set includes these touching sequences of the famous novelist in the final days of her life, resolving the one mystery that had baffled her

Link to [ part one ] of this post, or click the #whoBtsUnicorn tag, or the [ full episode list ]

[mizgnomer]

Behind the Scenes of The Unicorn and the Wasp (Part Five)

Excerpts from Jason Arnopp’s article in DWM 396:

David’s favorite detective, we later learn, is Columbo. He’s shocked to hear that, when asked, none of his fellow cast members chose Peter Falk’s scruffy sleuth.

“I thought everyone would say Columbo!” he frowns. “What did they choose?”

Well, Tom Goodman-Hill (Reverend Golightly) and Leena Dhingra (Ms Chandrakala) voted for Sherlock Holmes. Felicity Jones went for Dick Tracey (”He has a good hat”), while Fenella Woolgar (Agatha Christie) understandably chose Joan Hicksons’ Miss Marple. Then there were some relatively obscure ones from novels.

“Oh,” he chuckles, “they’re just trying to prove how bloomin’ exotic they are. It’s like those people who go on Desert Island Discs and choose all classical music, when actually all they’ve got at home is a few Beverley Craven albums. And there’s nothing wrong with a Beverley Craven album! But I’m sticking with Columbo - he’s just so cool.  A mind like a trap, hidden in a body like a dung-heap.  There’s also something quite Doctor-ish about him, so that’s probably why he appeals to me.”

Cripes! If The Unicorn and the Wasp’s cast and crew had to kill someone, what would be their murder weapon of choice?

Catherine Tate: “Sarcasm”

Russell T. Davies: “A great big gun, and then an axe, and then a steamroller. If I want ‘em dead, they’re dead. Failing that, I’d send in Jackie Tyler”.

Graeme Harper: “I like the idea of killing someone with a pointed piece of ice. Then it would melt, and no one would be able to tell how you’d done it!”

Fenella Woolgar: “Kindness!”

Gareth Roberts: “I would read them the Collected Columns of Polly Toynbee and bore them to death.”

David Tennant: “Something that didn’t make it too painful for them. Although, presumably I’d be killing them because they’d slighted me in some way. But I’d hope that, even in that state of psychosis, I’d manage some empathy. I’d like it to be a painless poison, so they’ll slip away into a sleep. Either that... or a gunshot to the face.”

Other parts of this photoset: [ one ] [ two ] [ three ] [ four ]

[ Other behind-the-scenes photosets available here ]

[mizgnomer]

Behind the Scenes of The Unicorn and the Wasp (Part Four)

Excerpts from Jason Arnopp’s article in DWM 396:

DWM: Flashback time: what’s your favorite Doctor Who memory?

David Tennant: Hmmm, gonna say... the trailers for Terror of the Zygons. Because I was just old enough, for the first time, to kind of know what that meant. I could only have been five or something, but I knew that the trailers meant this show that I was becoming very passionate about, was coming back on TV. I couldn’t tell you what was in the actual trailers, but I think there were a few point-of-view slots thought the eyes of the deer’s head on the wall.

DWM: Flashback time: what’s your favorite Doctor Who memory?

Sandy McDonald (David’s Dad): I suppose The Christmas Invasion.  As David has said many times in Doctor Who Magazine, he’s been a Doctor Who fan from the moment he was old enough to watch and take part: even before he went to primary school. As he grew up, of course he wanted to be an actor and he fulfilled that. But the Doctor Who thing was always there: he’s had all the books and the early tapes, and still has a massive collection of that. So when Christopher Eccleston chose to move on and David got the opportunity, it seemed like a dream come true. When the Christmas episode came on, we were all together as a family and there he was, as Doctor Who. That was a very special time, which David even filmed for his video-diary on Series Two.

Other parts of this photoset: [ one ] [ two ] [ three ] [ five ] [ Other behind-the-scenes photosets available here ]