KNIGHT NUI

Five years caught in our documentry...

5 Years of Us!

You'll be able to find all our 5-year celebrations up here. There's going to be some great stuff.

Last week we raved on about Richard Curtis, legendary British comedy writer, who was getting his first stab at Doctor Who, scripting Vincent & The Doctor. This week, however, we have a similar reason to shout about your favourite TV series. Two words: James Cordon.

If you’re a bit behind, you won’t know the actor who has become a superstar in the UK over the past 12 months or so. It was Welsh sitcom Gavin & Stacy that put him on the map in the first place, but since then he’s grown and grown, doing team talks for the England football team and giving Andy Murray training sessions. He’s even one half of the duo behind this year’s World Cup anthem, Shout, alongside Dizzy Rascal.

But now Cordon has turned his sights to Doctor Who, and is set to become the latest Elton Pope or Sally Sparrow, as she takes up the role of ‘Main character in the one where the Doctor/Companion isn’t in it much’. Craig Owens is a nice enough bloke, into football, a bit lazy... The usual. In fact, Cordon plays a very similar character to that of Smithy from the Barry Island –set comedy, the kind of role he’s expected to play.

But Craig isn’t the only attraction of the episode. It’s written by Doctor Who stalwart Gareth Roberts, of The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp (Infamously KN’s episode of the year in 2008) famous for his hilarious but equally intriguing plots. While we don’t want to set you up for another comedic fall, Roberts’ track record and the use of a comedy actor suggests that this time around, we will get a funny episode.

But before you spread the cream pies, it may be worth noting that regular readers of Doctor Who Magazine may recognise parts of the story, as it was originally a comic strip in that very magazine, but expanded. Where as in the original the Doctor was stuck in a house with Mickey Smith, this time around he’s with somebody he doesn’t know and there’s a new threat for them to deal with. (The comic resulted in the Doctor realising the alien invasion ‘Wasn’t major’, and almost doing nothing about it.) Think of it as a What I did on my Summer Holidays to Blink-like enhancement, rather than a Human Nature-style adaption. And if it’s anything near as good as those two, we are in for a treat tonight, whether England win or lose...