Look who’s talking

Caleb Woodbridge meets Russell T Davies, Billie Piper, David Tennant and the team behind Wales’s TV-superhit, Doctor Who

By Caleb Woodbridge

Something strange has been happening to Cardiff. In recent months we have seen the city transform from the Highlands of Scotland to a space station in the year five billion. The cause of this phenomenon is the return of Doctor Who to our television screens, filmed in and around the capital by BBC Wales.

Star of the show David Tennant has enjoyed filming in Cardiff. “It’s been great,” he told the hordes of journalists that assembled to cover the launch. “In London people are so hacked off with film crews, but everyone in Wales is so pleased to see us.” Billie Piper was just as enthusiastic. “Someone even brought us home-made Dalek cakes to the set when we were on Florentia Street.”

Might they be tempted to leave Britain for the sunnier climes of Hollywood? “Maybe if the right project came along,” says Billie. “but there’s some great telly about at the moment, and I’m excited about what’s happening here.”

David is similarly not struck by the lure of movie stardom. “I’ve never had a Soviet five-year plan for my career! Television is taking over… people like Russell T Davies, Paul Abbott, Andrew Davies and Tony Marchant are writing some amazing stuff.”

The stars of Doctor Who may love Cardiff, but why has the new series exchanged London for South Wales as the aliens’ landing ground of choice? Show-runner, Russell T Davies, has the answer.

“Hooray for gair rhydd!” he boomed when approached, as he began reminiscing about his days doing postgraduate study in Cardiff. “You never know,” he says. “You can study in Cardiff and end up writing Doctor Who!” The Swansea-born writer was the brains behind such critically acclaimed dramas as Queer as Folk, The Second Coming and Casanova, and was recently awarded the Dennis Potter Award for Outstanding Television Writing at the BAFTAs. So why was Doctor Who revived in Cardiff?

“That was me, partly. I knew Wales, and I knew Julie Gardner, and I wouldn’t have necessarily been happy making Doctor Who in London,” he revealed. “The BBC has also been pushing production out of London generally.”

A new drama empire is emerging under Julie Garner, Head of Drama at BBC Wales, one of the fruits of the BBC’s efforts to move production and investment out of London and into the nations and regions. As well as producing Doctor Who, her network commissions for BBC Wales include high-profile dramas such as Life on Mars and Casanova.

More shows are on the way from BBC Wales, including Torchwood, a post-watershed science-fiction crime thriller spin-off (try saying that three times fast) from Doctor Who, featuring Captain Jack, played by John Barrowman. It’s also the reason the TARDIS will not land in Cardiff this series of Doctor Who. The Torchwood team will be based in Cardiff Bay, so “we can show off the city with Torchwood!”

To house these new developments, BBC Wales has just built Camelot, a new studio complex which will be home for Doctor Who and Torchwood with plenty of room to spare. The studios have facilities for production, post-production and filming all on one site, and is a long-term investment in Welsh drama.

The revival of Doctor Who has achieved many things. But Russell T Davies wants the show’s contribution to Wales to be celebrated. “I’m proud of it!” he said. “It’s a huge industry now.” BBC Wales are busy nurturing new talent, he said, “giving eight placements to do twelve months in the design department.” Of all Doctor Who’s achievements, it’s the show’s contribution to Wales that he feels is most undervalued. “It’s created work for hundred of people in South Wales. Literally, hundreds. Seriously, I think that’s amazing and I don’t think it’s recognised enough.”

With Torchwood hitting our screens in October, series three of Doctor Who already commissioned and a commitment to developing new talent, you don’t need to travel by TARDIS to see a bright future for drama in Wales.