In 1994 and 1995, Mark Gatiss was involved with entries in the indie company BBV’s series of P.R.O.B.E. dramas. While such straight-to-video productions were unable to use any BBC-licensed characters and monsters, they often sought to emulate the general feel of Doctor Who. When Mark came on board, BBV had already produced The Airzone Solution, which starred Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. There was also a supporting role for future film star Alan Cumming…who 24 years later has performed one of the monologues for Mark’s Queers.
“The other day, Alan and I spent about an hour talking about The Airzone Solution!” Mark chuckles. “The strangest link after all these years, who would have thought? But I guess [BBV founder] Bill Baggs had read Nightshade and I think Gary Russell gave him my number. I was living at Arsenal, when Bill said he wanted to do another film.”
Mark perhaps reserves his fondest memories for 1994’s The Zero Imperative, the first BBV film he wrote and appeared in. He admits this one has, “everything in it! A real kitchen sink job: even Exorcist references and all sorts. But I got to write for Jon Pertwee, two years before he died, and he was so kind and encouraging. We shot all his scenes in three days, and he’d had a back operation. He wasn’t well, but he was on good form.”