When Lois interrupted the
meeting in Downing Street, she expected Torchwood to send the 456 packing. but
sometimes when you go into things like Flynn, you wind up making the biggest
mistake of your life. Not every alien creature is going to run and hide because
you utter the word TORCHWOOD. Perhaps if the 456 had heard of the name The
Doctor, it might have considered the consequences of its actions. Except, the
Doctor never turns up in Torchwood, does he?
When Jack and Ianto
reached the 'penthouse suite' in Thames House, harbouring the 456 in its gas
chamber, they weren't expecting the tables to suddenly turn and for them to
face death along with the office staff currently clamouring at the exits,
desperate to escape.
So, how many children are
we giving up to this alien threat?
Deborah Findlay
‘Denise Riley’
'Now
look, on the one hand you've got the good schools. And I don't just mean those
producing graduates, I mean the pupils who will go on to staff our hospitals,
our offices, our factories. The workforce of the future. We need them.
Accepted, yes? So, set against that you've got the failing schools, full of the
less able, the less socially useful. Those destined to spend a lifetime on
benefits, occupying places on the dole queue and, frankly, the prisons. Now
look, should we treat them equally? God knows, we've tried, and we've failed.
And now the time has come to choose. And if we can't identify the lowest
achieving ten percent of this country's children, then what are the school league
tables for?'
A member of the
government, Denise was quite vocal regarding the 456 and Prime Minister Green's
approach to it. She came into herself more in the 5th episode, and surprised us
all with her clear insight into the way Green had handled the situation,
putting Frobisher into the firing line and thus ending his own life and that of
his family. But nevertheless, as a politician, she sat at that table and
discussed, with all of them, which children they could afford to give up to an
alien race.
Since Torchwood, Findlay
has played Miss Tomkinson in Cranford from 2007 - 2009, Mary Carter and Gemma
King in Silent Witness from 2003 - 2010, Rowena Drake in Poirot in 2010. Was
the voice of Sophia Tolstoy in The Trouble with Tolstoy in 2011. Played Philippa
Pawlowski in Holby City a year later. Played Vanessa in Leaving in the same
year. In Coriolanus for National Theatre Live played Volumnia in 2014.
Played Lorna Soane and
Hilary Richards in Midsomer Murders from 2000 - 2015. Was Pauline in Lady in
the Van in 2015. More recently played Eleanor Shaw in Collateral in 2018, and
is currently in The Split as Ruth from 2018 - 2020.
Nicholas Briggs
‘Rick Yates’
'I'm
just saying, if we need to spin this to the public, and God knows, at the
moment, spin is all we can do, then in an age when we're terrified by the
planet's dwindling resources, a reduction in the population could possibly,
just possibly, if presented in the right way, be seen as good. Sir.'
Yates is another member of
the current government. No family. No kids and no worries about sending a bunch
of children off to their fate.
It would be exceptionally
difficult to list all of Briggs' credits, given that they are mostly if not
all, connected in some way to Doctor Who and Torchwood, through the BBC and Big
Finish. As you already know, Briggs is the voice behind the Daleks, Cybermen
and Judoon. He has lent his voice to video games from Doctor Who to Lego
Dimensions as the characters he vocally portrays on the telly.
If we were to list every
single role and character that Briggs has played and voiced since he took up
the reins of Dalek voice etc, it would be like listing Captain Jack's back
catalogue of relationships. We'd be here till the sun explodes!!!
So instead, we can
categorically say that Briggs has been involved in the Whoniverse from acting,
directing, producing and composing since 1998 and is still going strong now,
with Big Finish and the new series of Doctor Who, voicing Dalek's, Judoon and
Cybermen for the 13th Doctor seasons.
We had the opportunity of
interviewing Nicholas Briggs a couple of years ago and you can find it in our
Interview section.
Patrice Naiambana
‘Defence Secretary’
'If
the criteria we use is demonstrably fair and entirely random, then at least we
could defend ourselves.'
He rallied the 'troops'
around the political table to secure the figures for how many children would be
sacrificed to the 456.
Since Torchwood, Patrice
has voiced characters for Tinga Tinga Tales for 37 episodes from 2011 - 2012, played
George Maynard and Tony in Casualty from 2005 - 2010. Been the voice of Luke
the Sight Neuron for Nina and the Neurons in 2013 - 2015. Was the voice of King
Pancake in 101 Dalmation Street in 2019.
Sophie Hunter
‘Venessa’
'According
to our alien friends, in four months time, the virus will mutate. It's a brand
new strain of Indonesian Flu. They claim it could kill up to twenty five
million people. All our research seems to back up their figures. In 1918, the
Spanish Flu outbreak killed something like five percent of the human race.'
One of the 1965 military
who was assassinated by the government many years later, to hide the details
pertaining to the 456. Venessa gave Jack Harkness the job of finding and
offering up 12 children to the 456 for an antidote for the Indonesian Flu.
Hunter’s acting credits
appear to fizzle out on IMDB after 2010, leaving a huge gap in her acting career.
Yet after much research and some interesting discoveries, Sophie is not just an
actress, but an English avant-garde theatre, opera director and playwright.
After 2010, it seems her acting career took a step behind the camera.
Hunter began her acting
credits in the two episodes of Children of Earth in 2009. Since then she went
on to play roles in Short Films, from Woman in the Meadow in 2010, a Witch in
the Great Performances play Macbeth and Maria in another short again in 2010.
Hunter co-founded the
Lacuna Theatre Company and was associate director for the Royal Court Theatre
in the West End of London and the Broadhurst Theatre in Broadway for the play
Enron in 2010. Hunter has directed and performed in theatres across Europe, the
Middle East and North America. She has directed experimental plays such as 69
degrees South in 2013, a New York City play called Lucretia in 2011 and the
2010 revival of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts.
As well as directing,
Hunter has also been involved in music, recording a French language music album
called The Isis Project with Guy Chambers in 2005, releasing an English
Language EP called Songs for a Boy, again with Chambers, six years later. In
2010, Hunter worked with Armin van Buuren for the song 'Virtual Friend' which
was added to Buuren's 2010 Mirage album.
Was artistic director for
Tesla in New York, a concert performance in 2013.
The most interesting piece
of research was to discover that Sophie Hunter married Sherlock star Benedict
Cumberbatch on 14th February, 2015 at St Peter and St Paul Church on the Isle
of Wight. They have two children, Christopher Carlton born June 2015 and Hal
Auden born March 2017.
In that same year, Hunter
was producer of Megan Hunter's dystopian novel 'The End We Start From' with her
husband and Adam Ackland's production company Sunnymarch, along with Liza
Marshall's Hera Productions.
Alan Bond
(Uncredited) ‘UNIT Soldier’
Bond’s acting credits also
begin with Torchwood COE episodes for Days 4 & 5. Since then he has played
various uncredited and credited roles including 5 episodes of The Bill from
1996 - 2010, George in Paco's Men from 2008 - 2010, for 10 episodes. Was a plain
clothed policeman in Law & Order: UK from 2009 - 2013. Was a parent at the
Swimming Gala in Bad Education in 2013. Played several different characters for
Casualty from 2008 - 2013.
Played another parent in
Outnumbered in 2014. In 2015 played a Defendant's Solicitor uncredited in
Broadchurch. Played Yann's solicitor in Marcella in 2016. Played a Presenter
for Bond's Millions from 2012 - 2017 for 10 episodes. In 2018, played a Golf
Course Manager for Rosamunde Pilcher television series.
For films was an
uncredited German Officer for The Monuments Men in 2014.
