Production Notes DWM 369 / 27 April 2006

BELIEVE THE HYPE

It’s weird, writing Production Notes at this time of year, cos you’re just getting into the new series, while we... well, we’ve gone home. Maybe not all of us – stop howling, all you editors, dubbers, FX-folk, back to your cages, back, back! But the actual filming has stopped. Cast and crew have scattered to the four winds, trailing pink pages behind them. So while I sit here wondering how Series Two is doing, let me tell you about the last days.

Tuesday 28 March, and Jane Tranter, the controller of drama commissioning, comes down to look at our new studio. We have big meetings to run through the plots of Doctor Who 3 and Torchwood 1, and then it’s off to the Millennium Centre for this year’s Press Launch. Oh, the hype. The bloody hype begins again. It’s a second series, which is harder to hype than a first, so we decide to go for the shrapnel attack, hitting as many targets as possible. Doctor/Rose kiss! Female Doctor! Satan! Contracts! Awards outrage! Why have one headline when you can have five? I find myself with a modulating voice, ready to adapt to whoever’s wielding the microphone. Wales Today (deep and lilting) ‘It’s all so Welsh!’; Newsround (light and breezy) ‘It’s such fun!’; The Guardian (fast and wired) ‘I’m so angry!’; The Mirror (sly and winking) ‘More kisses to come!’; Farmer’s Weekly (oo-arr) ‘Apple grass!’ Sometimes, the modulation runs out of control. On the Aled Jones Show for Radio Two, I find myself saying that I adore something. Adore? Adore? Who the hell says adore?! I’ve never said “adore” in my life! I spend my next three sentences wondering why I said it. And on the fourth sentence, I’m so obsessed, I say it again, I adore something else! Oh my God. I can’t stop. I adore. I am adoring. I’m an adorer. But it’s worth pointing out, there’s so much extra to hype – not just Tardisodes and podcasts, but literally, more Doctor Who than last year. More actual minutes, on screen, for you, from us. During Series One, as we learnt how to make the show, and tackled the cold Welsh winter, we found a couple of episodes underrunning their 45-minute slot. I think The Empty Child came in at something like 41’ 58”! Thank God, the Saturday night schedule allows us a bit of leeway, cos it’s easy to give the news or the Lottery an extra minute. But this works both ways – episodes can be longer as well as shorter. So this year, we’re much closer to the desired running times – more footage, I tell you, more! – with one episode running so long, at 46 minutes, that for the first time, we’ve dropped the Next Week trail. Which episode? Keep watching! (Let me just add that they’re not called trails any more. These days, they’re called Throw Forwards. Yes, that’s right, Throw Forwards. So. That’s told you.) Anyway! Wednesday 29 March, another day of meetings and final mixes, but in the evening, there’s a cast and crew screening of New Earth and Tooth and Claw. It’s party week! And blimey, these people deserve it! I pop along, cos a cast and crew screening is the best audience you’ll ever have. They’re slightly biased! I have a good time, though I’m quietly horrified too; there are people I’ve been working with for nine months, and I’m still not sure of their names. Must do better.