Peter Capaldi has admitted to first day nerves during his first day of filming for BBC's series 8 of Doctor Who:
"New job, first day, slightly nervous. Just like the Doctor, I'm emerging from the TARDIS into a whole other world."
You can say that again! Variously expected in trepidation by fans the world over for not being like 'their Doctor', will never be as good as the previous incarnation, is too young / old for the role, or just plain...plain, each Doctor goes through this stage. One thing is for sure though, which is by Christmas this year we'll all love him! Standing next to Jenna Coleman, new script in hand and wearing Matt Smith's eleventh incarnation outfit, there was not much that we could glean from this single publicity shot; except perhaps that TV sets are always a let down when viewed from the back and that the two of them look genuinely happy to be 'on it' together. Showrunner Steven Moffat added, like some sort of old time music hall MC advertising TV striptease in reverse:
"First the eyebrows! Then, at Christmas, the face! Coming soon, the whole Doctor. In the Cardiff studios, the Capaldi era begins."
The Director for these initial two episodes is Ben Wheatley. Also a life long Who fan, like Capaldi, Mr Wheatley is best known for the grisly thrillers Kill List and Sightseers. Does this imply a return to more gothic horror for the show in the new era, I wonder? His first scenes seem set for Victorian times and he was joined by familiar characters Madam Vastra, Strax and Jenny. Known recently for playing the acerbic Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, 55-year old Capaldi actually has a very long and distinguished history in film and TV having won an Oscar, no less, as a Director in 1995 in the Best Short Film (Live Action) category for Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. His first film was in 1983 alongside Burt Lancaster in the unforgettable Local Hero. In between, he has spent time in the theatre before steadily building on his TV career, appearing in an array of British programmes including Peep Show, Waking The Dead, The Crow Road and The Devil's Whore and also 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons - the list goes on. He won a BAFTA Television Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role for The Thick of It in 2010. Nerves? If that's what nerves do for you then bring on the stress, now!
Hello, I'm Paul Hammans, terminal 'Who' obsessive, F1 fan, reader of arcane literature about ideas and generalist scribbler. To paraphrase someone much better at aphorisms than I: I strive to write something worth reading and when I cannot do that I try to do something worth writing. I have my own Dr Who oriented blog at http://www.exanima.co.uk
