What's the betting that now he's back as chairman of the BBC, Micheal Grade will cancel Dr Who again as soon as he gets the chance?
This is exactly what I was thinking on the way to work this morning when I heard the news.
All I can think of is that it is the BBC in its entirety he is in charge of and so may leave things like that to the head of BBC1.
I don't think it would be in his remit. Besides, he had reasons he could argue for the last time. To do so now, with the masses of good publicity surrounding the show would be madness. It would cost a fortune - all those contracts to pay out - and would really shoot himself and the corporation in the foot. Right now they need something to boost popularity and the excitement around the new show is extended to the general public, not just us fanboys.
Also Ecclestton is on Beeb 1 in a minute or two talking about it.
Shit. Thats the first I heard about it. It probably wont affect the return of the doctor, but as an ongoing concern, Im a little worried now....
He'll be too busy touching his toes and gritting his teeth for another 'round' with the 10 Downing Street press office to notice anything else ...
Paranoia reigns supreme here, I think.
Grade was controller of BBC1 then - it was his job then to make decisions on axing or commissioning BBC1 shows. Now he's Chairman of the entire BBC, way above the level of interfering in the daily decision process of specific shows.
If Who fails, it'll be nothing to do with him.
A BBC employee writes:
yup, what Gordon said.
You can't tell that to the die-hard Whoies, though, pete. They're convinced Grade is some kind of evil mastermind whose life is dedicated to destroying the show.
Incidentally, what do you do at the beeb?
He works in the department responsible for kidnapping children and forcing them to sit in the audience on the Beeb's Saturday morning programmes ...
I can take Grade's point on Dr Who, although I was less than happy at the time.
On Room 101, he said he cancelled the programme because it was shit, at the time.
Now, it doesn't look shit. It looks good, even if they do cast Billie Piper.
It's also a limited run.
It may be stating the obvious, but the viewing figures and, to some extent, critical reaction, will be the make-or-break factors.
Even if Grade does have the power to cancel it and we know he won't have - there's no way he would want to if it's a success.
- Trout
I'm in charge of making sure the crew working on the new Dr Who drink plenty of fluids to aid their pissing on the memories of disgruntled Who fans. BWAH-HA-HA-HAAA!
ahem. I work in the Beeb's music library. That's sheet music, before anyone gets any clever ideas about bombarding me with questions about recordings. And nothing whatsoever to do with Dr Who. Got that? NOTHING.
I can exclusively reveal that Petemaskreplica is 96 years old, and has dust and cobwebs in his entirely grey hair.
He's a wizened little man who sits in a tiny, filthy office, surrounded by sheet music, and is still amazed that no-one at the Beeb has realised he's managed to get internet access.
If anyone comes in asking for sheet music, he tells them to fuck off.
Except that band leader guy who used to do Wogan.
And Three Poofs and a Piano.
- Trout
Grade will be playing The Master then, surely?
With a guest appearance by John Birt as Davros.
Was it Dennis Potter who once called Birt a dalek?
"A croak-voiced Dalek", as I recall.
What IS the correct musical annotation for a bloopy synth and a theremin going eeeeOOOOeeeeOOOOeee then?
Fact: The Dr Who theme was created when a flu-addled member of staff in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop sneezed on the sheet music for the theme to Dixon of Dock Green.
- Trout
Heard Christopher Eccleston say he wants to play the Doctor with humour and love interest. AAAAGGGHHH NO! Play him with fear, malice and a general disdain for his assistants.
mystery! that's what i liked about him, you were never quite sure about him and whether he was always do the right thing. i don't want the love thing, that's boring, that's not what doctor who was about. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cought the tale end of 'pm' on radio 4, the last question the interviewer asked was 'are you going to cancel Dr Who again?". Grade laughed, said that when he cancelled it before the governors had gone mad, but the governors (him included) have no saying in what's commisioned and cancelled and that he was happy as long as he doesn't have to watch it.
- pj
I agree with Jen about the mystery thing. As long as the doctor is a mysterious alien character I'm pretty much happy with whatever they do with the series. If he's just some bloke - boring.
Then again, i think there's a lot of media courting going on, so I'm not really worried by anything I've heard. Mention of tabloid trash like Billi Piper certainly gets them in the papers. These guys ain't dumb.
Also, if Grade cancelled Dr Who again, I suspect he might suffer a Fatwah that would make Salman Rushdie blanch.
What IS the correct musical annotation for a bloopy synth and a theremin going eeeeOOOOeeeeOOOOeee then?
There's no synths or theremin on the original version - it's all done with tape loops, and there's not any musical annotation for it because Delia Derbyshire worked it out in her head and never wrote it down.
Synths hadn't even been invented in 1963...
Presumably, Ron Grainer used proper musical writin for his orchestral version - but that sounds crap in comparison.
Ron Grainer scribbled the notes down and handed it over to Delia to realise. He heard it for the first time and asked 'Did I write that?' There's a great radio play about Delia and the moment where they simulate the looping and creation of the theme is magical.
Any orchestral version Ron may have done was after the Delia one.
Eccelstone was interviewed on Brakfast TV this morning.
The video of it is there, if you've got a Real Player.
Link: The doctor speaks.
There's also a transcript of it over at www.gallifreyone.com for those of you in the same technology bracket as me.
Ha ha! I was right. It will be rubbish.
Sometimes, Art, I wonder who's really the most evil person round here.
It'll be great! Honest!
It will!
It won't have Bertie Bassett in, which is a good start!
- Trout
>It won't have Bertie Bassett in, which is a good start!
Are you sure?
"He heard it for the first time and asked 'Did I write that?'"
To which Delia replied, "Most of it..." :)
this is terrible
i now have the DR Who them tune in my head. likely it will stay for the rest of the day now.
thanks for the link Dxb. This Billie Piper seems like a warm and wonderful human being.
Here`s hoping the new Who goes well. No reason why it can`t.
yours nostalgically,
Floyd
ps Devon`s daddy - nummenaman nummernanum, nummernanum...ooooo eeeee oooooo
Any orchestral version Ron may have done was after the Delia one.
Indeed - it's not by Ron Grainer at all, but Eric Winstone and his Orchestra. It's on the 'Who is Doctor Who' CD along with lots of other stuff that needs to be heard to be believed, including no less than three songs by Frazer Hines (the famous non-singing singer).
"This Billie Piper seems like a warm and wonderful human being"
As is her husband.
What's this? Michael Grade, the arch pornographer himself in charge of the Beeb?
Looking forward to the Summer line up then :P
Considering the fact that the writer of the new Who series is the infamous writer of the great Queer as Folk, what does this mean for Chris Eccleston's interest in giving the Doctor a lovelife?
The return of Doctor Who was in fact just a ploy to lure Grade back to the BBC so he can scrap it.
ADE