You Just Keep Me Hanging On

Hello everyone.

Due to unexpected happenings in the lives of your intrepid presenters, we’re taking a break. There will be no shows in February I’m afraid but the blog, the Facebook group and the Twitter feed will continue to be updated as and when ’stuff’ happens.

I have my fingers crossed that you’ll hang around and wait in eager anticipation for our return! (or at the very least feel an emotion bordering on apathy…)

P

Show 68: Doctor Who – The Moonbase

"I told you not to press the red button. Now you've shrunk the bloody ship! Look at it! And just how are we supposed to get inside?"

We grumble a lot now about the almost permanent residence of the Daleks in the current Doctor Who, as seemingly no series can go past without their appearance in some way. However it’s easy to forget that in the Sixties the same thing could be said, with a seven episode story in Series 1, two six-part stories in Series 2, a twelve-part epic in Series 3 and a six and seven part Dalek tale topping and tailing Series 4!

Now we add the Cybermen into the mix. This is the second Cyber-tale in Series 4 (a mere four months after the last one) and, in a similar vein to the Daleks there’ll be two in Series 5 (topping and tailing) and an 8 part epic in Series 6!

But (and this is the big question) are they any good? Unlike the Daleks the Cybermen get a design upgrade every time we see them but do the stories…?

As usual you can subscribe via iTunes or download directly from here.

See you in a fortnight…

Castaway?

From the BBC Press Office:

Following on from the innovative and era-defining hits Spooks, Hustle and Life On Mars, Kudos Film & TV is moving into another new world. BBC1 has commissioned a new eight-part drama series, Outcasts.

Created by Ben Richards (Spooks, The Fixer, Party Animals), Outcasts is set on a recently-discovered planet and tells of the dilemmas, loves and lives of a group of people setting up a new world.

This life-sustaining planet is now home to the surviving population from Earth. Here there is a chance to start again, to bring the lessons learnt from Earth and to put them into action on a new planet.

Set in 2040, Outcasts begins on the day the last known transporter from Earth arrives, prompting great excitement on the new planet: Who is on board? Friends and loved ones? Important supplies and news from Earth? But also many questions: Will the new people bring the problems of Earth with them? Will the mistakes that destroyed Earth be repeated? Will the arrival of a new, would-be leader, rock the fragile and precarious equilibrium of our fresh, unified and courageous new world?

And, most importantly of all, how do you create a new and a better world?

This commission marks the latest high-profile scripted drama Kudos has produced for the BBC over the past decade, including such popular, award-winning shows as Spooks, Hustle, Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes.

Jane Featherstone, Kudos Creative Director and executive producer of Outcasts, said: “With his usual wit and insight, Ben Richards has imagined a near-future, when humans are still led by their hearts even though their surroundings have changed. Action packed and full of surprises, we hope Outcasts will have everyone gripped right from the start.”

Simon Crawford Collins, joint MD of Kudos and executive producer of Outcasts, said: “We have a long and highly-successful working relationship with the BBC and are really excited about continuing this on Outcast. Outcasts is as original, contemporary and compelling as our past shows but will take viewers into a new world, literally, as it explores humans’ drive for power, politics and sex in this new post-Earth era.”

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, says: “The Kudos team have an amazing track record in delivering iconic new drama series and with Ben’s truly imaginative but emotional, intuitive writing, Outcasts has the potential to be an intelligent and unmissable BBC drama.”

Outcasts is an 8 x 60-minute series and will be produced by Richard Fell (Inspector Lynley, Blood & Oil, Fantabulosa) and directed by Bharat Nalluri (Tsunami, Spooks, Hustle, Life On Mars).

Shooting starts in South Africa in April 2010 with casting to be confirmed.

Executive Producers are Jane Featherstone, Simon Crawford-Collins and Faith Penhale from Kudos and Matthew Read for the BBC.

Outcasts was commissioned by Ben Stephenson and Jay Hunt, Controller, BBC1.

No, it’s NOT Series 5…

Steven Moffat has been speaking to DWM about why the new series is Series 1…

“It’s Series Thirty-One of Doctor Who, and it’s Series One of Matt Smith’s Doctor, those are both real numbers. I submit that ‘Series Five of Doctor Who‘ means absolutely nothing unless you really believe that Matt Smith is the Third Doctor (Eh? what does that mean?? – Paul). Everyone knows he’s the Eleventh Doctor so that means it’s definitely not ‘Series Five’. Whichever number you choose, ‘Series Five’ is the one that’s flawed. ‘Series One’ is an exciting sentence. ‘Series Thirty-One’ is an awe-inspiring sentence. ‘Series Five’ is a boring sentence – and also a complete lie.”

Er… Following that logic we should really have had two Series 1s since 2005!

Up to now I haven’t really given a monkeys. It’s been Series 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Doctor Who Revival or Series 27, 28, 29 and 30 of Doctor Who as a continuing entity. I wouldn’t even have posted this if it wasn’t for the fact it sounds like Moffat’s had a puff on a funny cigarette…

And that the whole discussion is bollocks.

Series 5 Writers Announced

Doctor Who Magazine has announced the list of writers contributing to the next series of Doctor Who:

Steven Moffat – 6 episodes
The new head writer and Executive Producer. Press Gang, Murder Most Horrid, Joking Apart, Chalk, Coupling, Doctor Who, Jekyll, Sherlock (w/Mark Gatiss)

Chris Chibnall – 2 episodes
Former head writer on Torchwood, now executive producer on Law And Order: UK, and previously wrote 42.

Mark Gatiss – 1 episode
Established and sought after writer and performer. Member of The League Of Gentlemen, previously wrote The Unquiet Dead and The Idiot’s Lantern and appeared in The Lazarus Experiment.

Toby Whithouse – 1 episode
Creator of Being Human, he previously wrote School Reunion.

Gareth Roberts – 1 episode
Previously wrote The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp and co-wrote Planet of the Dead. Also writes for The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Richard Curtis – 1 episode
Blackadder co-creator and scripter of many recent British movies (Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill, Love, Actually, The Boat That Rocked etc).

Simon Nye – 1 episode

Creator and sole writer of Men Behaving Badly.

We know that Moffat is writing episode one, and the first two-parter, scheduled as episodes 4 and 5. Toby Whithouse is writing episode 6 (the one about vampires in Venice) and Curtis is writing the Van Gogh episode.

Assumptions are that Moffat will write the final two-parter. Chris Chibnall must be writing the other two parter, assuming that they stick to the recent pattern of three two-parters).

Show 67: Dead Set

Happy New Year!!

Welcome back to Cadmium2, in all it’s shiny 2010 glory (well… you know what I mean).

What better way to welcome in the New Year with look at flesh-eating monsters that were once human. That’s right: Zombies!

Not my favourite genre it has to be said, but this gem from E4 takes some beating (as do the zombies).

As usual you can subscribe via iTunes or download directly from here.

Enjoy the show and we’ll see you in 2 weeks for our first Doctor Who of the year…