This month marks 20 years since the first BBC Wales-made episode of Doctor Who was broadcast, effectively creating the Welsh drama hub we enjoy today. Aside from a Children in Need special and a TV movie starring Paul McGann, the series had been off-air since 1989 until it was revived in 2005 by the then Controller of BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey.
Production was bestowed on Julie Gardner, Head of Drama for BBC Wales, under the penmanship of Russell T Davies.
Things are going swimmingly in the fictional Dorset village of Fleetcombe, until its pub landlord is murdered. It falls to Detective Nicola Bridge to find the killer, even if it means exposing resentment and deceit simmering beneath the surface of the community.
The novel is part of a two-book deal, and will be published on 27 March 2025 in the UK and 10 June 2025 in America.
A co-production with ITV Studios and Australia’s Stan, the seven-part programme is produced by the same team behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Starring David Tennant (Doctor Who), Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) and Toby Jones (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), it will explore two real-life stories.
Chelsea Peretti (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Tom Davis (Wonka), Denise Black (Queer as Folk), Jamali Maddix (Never Mind the Buzzcocks) and rapper Kojey Radical will all be making appearances. They’ll be joined by Charlie Cooper, in his first onscreen reunion with This Country co-star Daisy May Cooper.
Meet Barrington Jedidiah Walker (Lennie James, The Walking Dead). You can call him Barry.
You don’t have to get a tattoo honouring your favourite production company if you want to get into TV… but it might help.
An audience member at RTS Cymru Wales’s event “How to write a TV drama” revealed that he wrote his master’s dissertation on the Bad Wolf theme in Doctor Who. It was his “absolute dream” to work for the production company, also called Bad Wolf, that makes the show, he declared. And to prove it, he said he had a tattoo on his left arm showing the Tardis graffitied with “Bad Wolf”.
Russell Tovey (Being Human) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki) will star in the five-part series, created by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies. Davies co-wrote the show with Peter McTighe, who has also written for the long running sci-fi staple.
Jemma Redgrave (Grantchester) will reprise her Doctor Who role as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, commander-in-chief of military outfit UNIT, while Alexander Devrient (Ted Lasso) will return as Colonel Ibrahim.
The four-part series will see Coleman play Ember Manning, a detective drawn back to her home town in Lancashire after a nearby fire requires investigation.
