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| Nesbitt and Moffat New Who Team ? By Jason Deans / Television 10:19am James Nesbitt is being lined up as the new Doctor Who, with Steven Moffat taking over as executive producer/showrunner, according to today's Sun. Is this the right duo to take the show forward successfully? It seems increasingly likely - though not officially confirmed by the BBC, unless I've missed something - that both David Tennant and Russell T Davies will be leaving Doctor Who after next year's fourth series. So let the speculation begin about their replacements... Personally, I think the BBC could do a lot worse than the Nesbitt/Moffat combo. I'm a Nesbitt fan, although it does occur to me that he would perhaps be a little bit too much like Tennant - affable, likeable, bit of a cheeky chap, & with a slightly manic energy on screen. So is my colleague Daniel Martin, on another Guardian blog today. Moffat has written my favourite episodes in each of the three Doctor Who series so far - The Empty Child, The Girl in the Fireplace & Blink. But as at least one commentator has pointed out on previous Organ Grinder blogs about Doctor Who, there must be a danger that taking on the burden of being showrunner would detract from Moffat's excellent writing. Which would be a terrible shame. |
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| Was Jekyll just James Nesbitt's audition as the next Doctor Who? The hyperactive yapping, lightning wit and physical jerks are all 'a bit Tennant'. And if so, does that mean Michelle Ryan is his new sidekick? That would be delicious. Yesterday, I blogged here about the end of Jekyll, and the news that, alongside wanting to bring back his cult teen drama Press Gang, its writer, Steven Moffat, is tipped to take over at the helm of Doctor Who once Russell T Davies (probably) quits next year. Seems there's no smoke without fire - this morning, the Sun reported rumours that James Nesbitt, the star of Jekyll, is likely to take over when David Tennant (probably) quits at the same time. Now, of course, rumours are all these are, but the tabloids got it more or less right on most of the series' big casting developments - David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, John Simm, Kylie Minogue. And of all the actors who've been tipped for the role (Robert Carlyle, Jason Statham, Hugh Grant?!), Nesbitt seems one of the few with both the right stature and the right sense of mischief. Take away the murderous tendencies and superhuman libido, and his portrayal of Hyde can be viewed quite credibly as an audition for the Doctor. The hyperactive yapping, lightning wit and physical jerks are all 'a bit Tennant'. Plus, there's previous: Tennant's turn in Casanova with Who scribe Russell T Davies was widely seen as a screen test for his turn as the Time Lord. Of course, Nesbitt's a bigger name now than Tennant was then, but he was still untested in the fantasy realm. In fact, the only drawback could be that, at 44 by the time he would be likely to debut, is he too old to play the part that Tennant has reinvented as more of a dashing action hero? In fact, could the BBC - not knowing, at the time, that she'd be cast in Bionic Woman- have put Michelle Ryan in Jekyll opposite Nesbitt as a similar road-test? Just how delicious would a Who series penned by Moffat, with Nesbitt and Ryan as the leads, be? Delicious enough to banish memories of Catherine Tate, certainly. Of course, these rumours will rumble on for about a year. We've still got another season from Tennant (and the return of underrated Freema) to look forward to before any of this matters. But there is still one, even more tantalising, rumour of the week. Noel Clarke, who played Mickey Smith, has dropped clanging hints that he himself might return next year. Mickey, of course, was left stranded in the parallel world after the Battle Of Canary Wharf. Presumably, the void would have to re-open to allow Mickey back to rejoin the Doctor. And who else is stuck living on the parallel world? A girl called Rose Tyler ... |
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| The James Nesbitt story is a total fabrication. Made up. A fantasy. Just a guy sitting at a desk and just inventing stuff. I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm getting embarrassed for the deeply wonderful Jimmy Nesbitt. So tell everyone please, cos it's getting very silly. Steven Moffat |
| QUOTE (Phillip Culley @ Aug 3 2007, 08:32 PM) |
| The Nesbitt thing is all bollocks. |
| QUOTE (Phillip Culley @ Aug 3 2007, 07:32 PM) | ||
| The Nesbitt thing is all bollocks. To quote Moffat himself:
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