The DNA of Dr Who

A nice, if navel-gazing, piece on BBC Radio 4 just now.  About Douglas Adams' time as a writer and then script editor on Dr Who.  Introduced by John Culshaw who slipped from time-to-time into Dead Ringers mode to impersonate Tom Baker.  (Adams was part of the show during the tenure of the Fourth Doctor).

Several good stories, including John Lloyd remembering that DNA had asked Tom Stoppard to write an episode of the show - apparently he gave a very short reply.  Lloyd describe it as one of the few times that Stoppard turned down a commission from a writer better than he is.

Mostly sycophantic responses about what a wonderful writer Adams was, and ending with a puff piece for the more recent (2005 onwards) sequence, which was claimed as being in the mode of City of Death. That is, with a strong leavening of humour.  Stephen Moffat was very happy with the idea.  However it was also said that Adams did something only he could get away with - he broke a cardinal rule, allowing a funny Doctor in a funny situation.

One piece of information I hadn't known: Lalla Ward (Romana II) is married to Richard Dawkins, after meeting him at a party thrown by Adams. (Something like "He and Stephen Fry were having a head-in-the-clouds conversation two or three feet above our heads, so I had to talk to him"). 

More famously - not mentioned on the radio she was also briefly married to Tom Baker.

So anyway, I looked on the InterWeb which confirmed the story, also stating that it was Adams' 40th birthday party, and that Dawkins and Ward were the only ones who only turned up on time. 

And IMDb asserts that she had an uncredited part as Romana in The End of Time: Part 1.

Sigh.

William and the Don

R4 yesterday gave us a new production of Shadowlands in the afternoon play spot. Now, I'm not absolutely sure a new production of this piece was needed. There is quite a good film with Anthony Hopkins available, for example. That being said, I like the play. So I listened to it.

Partner said that C.S. Lewis was played by Stephen Fry, but I was sure that wasn't right. No -there was something out of kilter. Then I got it. Bloody Martin Jarvis. From then on the whole piece had a peculiar echo of William Brown standing just behind it and off to one side. At times, when it got too much, the other Inklings began to seem like Douglas, Henry and Ginger. The weirdest experience. Sigh.