Project: Torchwood: Issue 65

It’s been an interesting few weeks, and a scary one Wednesday night not knowing if John would stay a while longer or hobble out. We’ve also been rooting for Anne, since she’s a Doctor Who fan!

Busy as usual with reviews and articles, we’ve been a little late uploading this month – I’m unable to blame the Weevil on this one – but a certain hour long programme on ITV has held our attention this month.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year!

Welcome to Issue 65 and thank you to everyone who contributed to this Month’s Issue.

Djak

Big Finish Reviews+ Short Trips The Mistpuddle Murders by Tony J Fyler

When in doubt, kill a bunny, says Tony.

This world is divided into two kinds of people. People who read the stories of Beatrix Potter and go ‘Awww,’ and people who read the stories of Beatrix Potter and want to claw their own eyes out while simultaneously giving each and every cutesy-wutesy properly-dressed little fluffball a right good drubbing.

Simon A Forward, writer of The Mistpuddle Murders here contrives a story which smashes talking, properly-dressed human-sized woodland creatures together with a touch of biomechanics and a heaping helping of the likes of Agatha Christie or The Midsomer Murders (from which the title seems gloriously stolen and twisted), to give us murder among the cutesy-wutesies.

Not just murder, as it turns out, but rather a cunning, devious murder, with Tegan and Nyssa playing Poirot, gathering a roomful of furry, flappy and prickly suspects and reconstructing the reality of boiling passions and tensions among them, leading up to the murder.

It’s very much a Doctor-lite story, and it doesn’t stray far beyond the tight, claustrophobic, twitchy-nosed remit it sets itself, but there’s tremendous fun to be had here, with Sarah Sutton giving the reading a headlong run as she delivers not only Nyssa but a not-half-bad and likely-to-get-her-glowered-at Tegan, as well as the full range of cosy-crime stereotypes – the timid village lady, the bumptious military man, the blinking academic or scientist etc – all within the cute-creature concept.

From Beatrix Potter to Alison Uttley, to Wind In The Willows, to Rupert the Bear and Paddington Bear and onward, children’s fiction is littered with anthropomorphic animals. Simon Forward takes us beyond the cute, to give us a laugh while examining what it would be like if animals really had human characteristics.

In a village seemingly created or at least populated by author and bio-engineer Lyndsay Wood, the animals are particularly human – there are burglars…burgling, clandestine affairs to keep quiet, dark double-dealings and seething resentments, all among the fluffy folk. Wood herself has passed on – and who, retrospectively, can say whether that was all it seems? - but her cottage has been bequeathed to Ginger Hopkins, smart bio-bunny of the parish.

The Doctor has gone bounding ahead to meet the multi-talented Ms Wood, unaware of her premature demise. Nyssa and Tegan, in an effort to catch him up, almost run over the hedgehog Professor Pricklethwart with their car. Concerned they’ve turned him into roadkill, they take him to the nearest cottage they can find, and meet Ginger, who offers them help, tea and biscuits.

Minutes later, Ginger Hopkins lies dead in her chair.

Is there bryony in the biscuit barrel? Cyanide in the sugar bowl? Or is something altogether darker going on in the village and its surrounding woodlands?

Without the mysteriously absent Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa investigate – Nyssa analysing the body of the bio-engineered bunny and the toxin that undoubtedly killed her, and Tegan…well, being Tegan.

But who among the locals has the motive for murder?

Colonel Fortingbrush, the fox with a penchant for grouse-shooting?

Professor Pricklethwart, the scientist who wouldn’t say boo to a goose if there happened to be one?

Miss Tabitha Nutkins, the squirrel who keeps herself to herself – or does she?

Reverend Brockley, the badger keen to minister to his flock?

Or Miss Felicity Nightheart, the bat with a very precise sweet ‘tooth’?

It could be any of them – but who has abandoned the morality with which they were written and bio-engineered?

It’s all gloriously tongue in animal cheek, this story, but Forward does his job with care – he creates a murder mystery with motive, complication, misdirection, touches of darkness and an unusual problem, to which the Doctor, emerging when most of the hard work’s already been done, provides a rather straightforward solution – though whether he actually does or not is another strand of philosophical pondering altogether.

It probably shouldn’t work, this smashing together of anthropomorphic animals and cosy crime. Forward almost dances you through it though – clue by clue, motive by motive, suspect by suspect, ending with perhaps the best image of Tegan you’ll have had in a while, and the Doctor throwing in a dark dilemma: if you know you’re a created creature, where does your morality lie? With your creator’s example, or in your own self-determination? Do the animals of Lyndsay Wood have free will? And if they do, where does the animal end and the human begin?

The Mistpuddle Murders is terrific fun with a thought or two provoked at the end, just to give you something to ponder after you finish it. With his previous Short Trip, Mel-Evolent twisting Disney, and this story taking the traditions of anthropomorphic animal stories and cosy villain crime novels and smashing them together till they blend, Simon A Forward’s becoming a go-to writer for pithy social and philosophical shenanigans, but always with a perfectly Doctor Who-appropriate story underneath. Get yourself The Mistpuddle Murders today – it’s the right thing to do.

Big Finish Reviews+ Entanglement by Tony J Fyler

Tony gets entangled in a game of who’s who.

Guy Burgess and Kim Philby are infamous names in British history (Google is your friend).

Here, writers Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky take us back to the pre-infamy days as students at Cambridge for a First Doctor story that has the feel of a pure historical with just a dash or two of Something Very Odd Going On, and a heaping tablespoon of alien judgment on the human race.

Entanglement is a proper, absurd, anything goes First Doctor story, with the Doctor and friends separated from the Tardis while on a Cambridge college campus just a couple of years before World War II.

There’s something altogether irresistible about bringing the Doctor to Cambridge. In many ways, it feels like exactly the sort of place to which several incarnations might have retired, the First among them. A Cambridge college is almost, to this 21^st century day, a world in and of itself – in fact, you could even go so far as to say it’s like a mini-Gallifrey, a place of quiet, patient study, with a wild flood of youth undermining everything it stands for as they grow to understand what it is, and then become a part of it themselves.

Anything could happen in a Cambridge college.

Here in Sedgwick College, there is random deadly aggression which dissipates like a storm. There’s a camera that really isn’t from around here. There’s a suspiciously missing Master of the College, Sir Isiah Hardy, and a peculiar inability among everybody else to remember how long he’s been gone. There are a pair of Proctors who make almost comically little effort to disguise the fact that they’re not from round here either. And there’s a contest. A contest to see who, in the continuing absence of Sir Isiah, who will become the new Master of Sedgwick – the sharp, driven Professor Lewis, played by Philip fox, or the woolly, forgetful don, Professor Woolf, played by Richard Braine.

The opening sequence puts the Tardis irritatingly out of reach, meaning the crew have to go about finding ways to get it retrieved. That means mixing with the locals, and it’s not long before both Vicki and Steven are reporting unusual goings-on, but this Doctor, seemingly willing to take the universe at face value, tells them they’re talking nonsense, and goes off, in the guise of a visiting professor from King’s Lynn, to teach a class full of undergraduates.

That…doesn’t go as well as he expects, and the Doctor joins them in their suspicions.

The odd thing about Entanglement, and one that makes it agreeable, is that while its most natural TV comparison would be with Shada, it actually has the feel of a pure historical for much of the running time – there are mysteries aplenty along the way, but it’s not until quite late in the day that we learn of the researches in which Sir Isiah was engaged, and things start to get altogether more ‘aliens out to destroy the planet’ than ‘The Doctor and friends do Cambridge.’

There is one scene that will stick in your mind though – and in the age of #MeToo and the fightback against male violence aimed at women and girls, it will leave a tinny, unpleasant taste in your mouth. Because whatever is making Cambridge undergraduates into rampaging mobs whose only wish is to tear each other apart also effects Steven and Vicki. It remains to be heard whether Vicki can see Steven in the same way she saw him before this adventure, but be aware, there’s a moment here that will tighten your chest if you’ve ever been vulnerable. Episode 1 cliffhanger, should you need a marker.

As the contest to become the next Master of Sedgwick goes on, the Doctor throws in his lot with one of the pretenders to the crown for reasons of his own, and Guy and Kim are ready to stoke the student body to his cause.

Then, in case you didn’t have enough to process already, things get weirder still when ‘the entanglement machine’ – a nice touch of the Sixties basic-as-all-get-out style of technobabble – is revealed, its power activated, and Sir Isiah discovered, at least by one of the Tardis team.

That’s perhaps the oddest thing about this story – it’s built of a large number of peculiar elements, (one thing you can always guarantee of a Khan and Salinsky script is it’ll never be short of elements! This script, for the initiated, is also crammed to bursting point with references to the Alice adventures by Lewis Carrol) and sees Steven, Vicki and the Doctor each take a storytelling strand, with two rival professors, two dodgy proctors, two Cambridge students, two space MacGuffins, one stranded Tardis and a field of intense vi-o-lennnnnce – and yet it flows for the most part with the energy of a pure historical, the Doctor and friends getting involved in things which no doubt shouldn’t concern them, riiiiight up to the point where aliens want to destroy the world.

The ending is a game of find-the-villain, with contender after contender seeming to fit the bill until, right at the crisis point, the Tardis itself comes to the rescue, and Something Clever traps all the potential villains together, the latest in a series of First Doctor actions that have Steven and Vicki questioning the ethics of his choices.

Entanglement is a story of a kind which was rarely told back in the First Doctor’s time, but which this particular Tardis team would be familiar with – alien interlopers hiding in deep cover and preparing to Do Something Dreadful to the Earth. It has something of the feel of The Time Meddler, in that it spends a while establishing the normality of its world, and then pulls reveal after reveal that shows things are not by any means normal here and need to be stopped.

More than anything, Entanglement is an alien historical romp in a Cambridge college with something interesting to say about the state of humanity, which flies by in very agreeable bites as element after element is revealed. Brace yourself for the Episode 1 cliff-hanger, and Entanglement is a wild pre-war ride among the Cambridge cloisters.

Who Reviews Demons of the Punjab by Tony J Fyler

Tony summons demons. Wouldn’t be the first time.

On the face of it, Demons of the Punjab seems like a straightforward Back To The Future job, of the kind beloved of Doctor Who Annuals and comic strips of the past: the Doctor, against her better judgement but swayed by sentiment and the power of time travel, indulges her companion in a trip to visit her own grandmother in the days of granny’s youth. Deeply irresponsible of course – there’s probably even a paradox very nearly named after it, but what the heck, let’s give it a go or this episode’s going to just be us sitting around the Tardis being bored.

There’s even a somewhat heavy-handed clue to the dangers of what they’re doing in the form of a broken wristwatch – broken time? – which holds a mystery about Yaz’s family history.

Nevertheless, there’s plenty that’s beautiful here – the scenery, the understated performances from the likes of Amita Suman as Umbreen, Yaz’s granny-to-be, Shane Zaza as Prem, the Hindu bloke she definitely shouldn’t be marrying, and the simmering politi-geek anger from Hamza Jeetooa’s Manish – yes, yes, all sorts of yes, this is pretty inspired casting, and the characters work to both bring us into a world with which many viewers are likely unfamiliar, and involve us in the sharpened human emotions of a region being broken in two by politics and religion, a previous harmony being wrecked by law, borderlines and a heightened sense of the differences between people.

The immediate human dilemma is decently delivered – Umbreen is about to marry Prem, not only a Hindu, but also very distinctly not the man Yaz knows as her grandad. Experienced geeks hear his death knell immediately that was revealed – and experienced romantics understand that their love is doomed the moment it’s revealed that the broken watch is his.

But then, just when it looks like this could stand on its own two storytelling feet as a pure historical, showing us the creation of a wave of enmity among people – the demons arrive.

Now, these demons at first look like just what the…ahem…Doctor ordered in a series that’s been significantly lacking so far in actual alien gittery – they’re big and imposing and it seems they’ve killed a harmless holy man on the side of the road. Booo – bad demons.

Finding out they’re a race of perfect assassins is equally reassuring – we’re led to wonder who they’re here for, and why. How can events along the new border between India and Pakistan have enough interstellar impact to warrant sending the ultimate assassins to kill someone?

All of this delivers an extra twist of time travel, space travel intrigue to Vinay Patel’s script, giving the Doctor a chance to Do Something Doctory – and she does, constructing a complex piece of chemical testing kit out of what the Tenth Doctor would deride as ‘a kettle and some string.’ Meanwhile, the human tensions are deepened and sharpened well as Manish refuses to accept his imminent Muslim sister-in-law, even to the point of stropping off from the celebrations the night before his brother’s wedding.

The point of oddness in Demons of the Punjab comes in the form of an alien infodump when the assassins kidnap the Doctor and explain themselves. They’re reformed assassins, as it happens – and the audience’s shoulders immediately slump on hearing that. Yes, yes, it’s great, reformed alien killers now marking the passing of the lonely dead – it’s a thing of beauty, in fact, and a marker that even those previously steeped to the earlobes in the blood of others can evolve to be peaceful, respectful, universe-loving creatures. It just also means you have to cross off another episode on your ‘No Proper Villain’ Series 11 bingo card. They fulfil a purpose in the story, giving the human race something to which we can aspire, even as we’re shown during the time of Partition as being petty and violent and divided against ourselves by notional differences, but in some ways, it feels instinctively like Demons of the Punjab would have been a better, more rounded story had there been no requirement for potential alien aggressors. The benevolent, kind, alien example of how we could be is baked right in to the heart of the show – that’s inherently what the Doctor is supposed to be. Having the Demons underline that point not only raises a storytelling element that excites the audience, only to disappoint when the truth is revealed, it once again leaves the Doctor very little reason to be here, and very little chance to be the Doctor.

Once we know that the Demons aren’t the threat, but that humans are, and that the death of Prem is fixed just a little in the future and can’t be changed because it’s the only thing that makes sense of Yaz’s timeline, Demons of the Punjab essentially becomes a Rosa re-run – the Doctor and Team Tardis having to walk away, forced to not interfere with the more ghastly, gruesome realities of history, and in this instance, having to let someone they really like die for the sake of the bigger picture. Of the two stories, it’s difficult to say which is intrinsically ‘better.’ Rosa deals with a more well-known trigger-point in history, but the sense of history gathering its storm-clouds is better realised in Demons. The alien involvement, which many fans seem to find weak, is actually more intrinsic to Rosa than it is to Demons, but arguably the depiction of the rising human tensions is more effective in Demons. Both stories are eminently re-watchable and probably both deserve a place in the roster of epic Doctor Who, certainly achieving standout status in Series 11 as harsh human history lessons with warm beating hearts and a bit of mostly ineffective alien jiggery-pokery. Probably, on balance, the combination of a certain visual beauty, a music score that elevates the action and gives the episode a unique feel, and the closeness of the story in pure human terms to one of the members of Team Tardis, make Demons of the Punjab more pleasurably re-watchable even than Rosa, and while they’re mostly redundant, the Demons themselves stand as a wider underscoring of the point of Umbreen’s life – she goes on to travel far from home, find love again and have a life and a family she treasures, while the Demons show us the potential to move beyond the savagery and violence of our hot-headed years, to evolve into better people and better citizens of the universe. Ultimately, the real ‘demons’ of the Punjab are the forces of division, rage and violence, from which – if we work really hard at it – we can make it our destiny to move on.

Decades later though, it seems we still carry our demons with us, and that there’s still a lot of work to do.

Articles Where Are They Now: Meat Cast? By DJ Forrest

Broadcast February 6^th 2008

Written by Catherine Tregenna

Directed by Colin Teague

Series 2

When Torchwood investigate a lorry with a suspicious package of alien meat, Rhys finally discovers just who his girlfriend has been working for and finds himself working with the team to uncover and rescue a large sentient creature from a life of living torture at an abattoir in Cardiff.

Loved this episode – so full of witty dialogue, especially between Rhys and Jack.

Patti Clare

‘Ruth’

‘Leighton was their regular. Apart from that first booking, they just went through him.’

Patti Clare played Ruth who worked as secretary to Rhys Williams at Harwood's - You Won't be Sorry with a Harwood's lorry!!!

Since Torchwood, Patti is probably better known for her role as Mary Taylor and Mary Cole in Coronation Street where she's been for 10 years from 2008 - 2018. Patti also played Mrs Palmer in Casualty a year after Torchwood, and Geraldine Buck in Doctors, another medical drama in 2010.

In ITVs Text Santa, she played Mary Christmas for the 2014 edition. Text Santa if some aren't aware of it, is the annual ITV series that supports UK charities during the Christmas period and stars a multitude of well known celebrities.

Lee Baxter

‘Policeman at crash scene’

‘Stay back, please. (to Rhys) You’ll have to move your car. You can check on the vehicle later. (about removal of the lorry) Not yet. There’s something suspicious in the back. Torchwood want to look at it first.’

Lee Baxter (credited as Colin Baxter in episode) played the Policeman at the crash scene. Born in Liverpool in 1970, Lee has played a variety of different characters throughout his career, playing one character twice for a video short.

Since Torchwood Lee has reprised his role as Shawn Wellington for A Writer's Tale in 2008, after playing him in Bathroom Story in 2004. Played Malcolm Bricks in Shut in 2009 and Profile of Fear as Andrew Hanna in 2011.

Lee was in the 90s boy band Caught in the Act which began in 1992. Their first hit in 1995, was Love is Everywhere which reached number 8 in Switzerland. They were extremely successful in Germany even appearing in the soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten. In 1998 they disbanded releasing their final studio album 'Solo 4 C.I.T.A.

Garry Lake

‘Vic’

‘Boys, you should’ve waited for the ketamine injection before doing that. That’s only lidocaine. It’s not strong enough.’

Garry played Vic, who despite his role seemed to hold some level of conscience regarding the alien creature secured in their warehouse.

Since his role in Torchwood, Garry played Owain in Made in Wales in 2013 in the episode Now or Never. He was a reporter in Harley and the Davidsons a mini series on television in 2016 in the episode Race to the Top and played a journalist in the Netflix series The Crown in the episode Pride & Joy in the same year.

Gerard Carey

‘Greg’

‘What happened to the meat? Did anyone see the meat?’

Gerard played Greg, brother to Dale, and partner of the Harries & Harries abattoir company. When Torchwood got wind of the sentient creature being carved up while still alive, Greg panicked and threw money from the safe for a quick get away, but was stopped in his tracks by Ianto Jones.

Gerard was also credited as Greg in the episode From Out of the Rain (noted as credit only) so not sure if he also appeared in the role or had been overlooked in the previous episode??

Since Torchwood, Gerard has played a variety of characters for some well known programmes including Michael Neville in Jack Taylor: The Magdalen Martyrs in 2011, Bernie Doyle in Titanic: Blood and Steel in 2012, Love/Hate as Dave from 2011 - 2014, and finally as Feeney in Paddy's in the Boot, a short film in 2015.

Matt Ryan

‘Dale’

‘You thought the two of you could take us out? Nah, you're not that stupid. Dave, get some ropes, tie their hands. I want every door locked, inside and out. Nobody leaves the building till this is sorted. Move it.’

Matt Ryan who was born Matthew Darren Evans played Dale in Torchwood episode Meat. The brother of Harries & Harries abattoir who had in their possession a cash cow. A meat supply that just kept giving.

Since Torchwood Matt is probably better known to fans as the character John Constantine who appeared in 13 episodes of the series of the same name from 2014 - 2015. Also reprising the role of the character for one episode of CW Arrow in 2015 for the episode Haunted. He was the voice of the character for Justice League Dark for the animated video in 2017, and the movie Constantine City of Demons animation in 2018, along with the animated series in the same year for 10 episodes (so far). He also played the role of John Constantine for 24 episodes of Legends of Tomorrow for a year from 2017 - 2018.

He is currently playing the role of Jake in Adverse, currently in production.

Before his role of John Constantine and after Torchwood, he played a few small roles until he played Mick Rawso in Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour for 13 episodes, appearing in many video shorts in 2011 relating to the series.

He provided the voice of Edward Kenway of Assassin's Creed IV: The Black Flag in 2013.

And played Joe O'Hara in The Halcyon in 2017 for 8 episodes.

Although there were a couple of small role actors in the episode, their names didn’t come up on the credits and so haven’t been able to list them here.

Interviews Daniele Favilli by DJ Forrest

It was the summer of 2013 we finally secured an interview with Daniele Favilli, who was more than happy to give up some of his busy schedule to chat to us for our then, new website. Due to his exceptionally busy schedule and the fact that there were about eight hours’ time difference between us, our questions often took a very long time to be answered. We devised an easier plan, to fit in with his schedule. It worked for a considerable amount of time, until quite recently when his workload became busier and it was impossible for Daniele to reply to all the other questions given not just by me but by the fans. So, although it doesn’t look like a lot was achieved over that period of time, I wanted to at least end 2018 with this Interview, marking five years since it all began.

On 12th June 2013 we caught up with Daniele who had been working on the film Swelter, written by Keith Palmer and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. It would be released at the cinema on 27^th April, 2014. It was an American action film which also starred Alfred Molina and Lennie James. Lennie James plays a Sheriff in a small town who has a dark past that he can’t remember. He has his hands full when his ex-partners arrive in the town looking for stolen money, they believe he has ownership of.

Daniele: Hello! Swelter is done filming. I'm rehearsing for a new film in Rome: Banality of Crime. A gangster story we'll be filming starting July 1st (2013).

Would this be an Italian or English-speaking film?

Daniele: English. But Italian production.

On the 24^th March 2014, Daniele had posted photos of the Rocky Horror Picture Show on his social media page to which we'd posted links onto our Facebook Page. You should still be able to view those.

What role are you playing in The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Daniele: I play Rocky in a Spanish version. Sort of Zorro (winky face emoji)

On 30th March 2016, Daniele had had ideas to make a movie about the Lost Years of Angelo and Jack but after writing to Russell T Davies he'd heard no word back. He considered running a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter but wondered if the support would be there for that from the fans.

I thought it would be, but the media thought otherwise - it seemed that stories featuring Captain Jack were stronger with a certain tea boy named Ianto Jones.

I loved the fact that as an actor who played Angelo in Torchwood, that Daniele was still as passionate about the series that he wanted to replay his character in a little more depth, before the end scenes of his character, trying to prolong his life with alien technology.

Daniele: I wanted to explore the lost time between Episode 7 and Episode 8. Torchwood: Jack and Angelo: The Lost Years.

In Jack's lifeline it could also happen after Episode 8...something like, after the end of Miracle Day, he travels back in time and meets Angelo again...maybe during the 60s or World War II...so it would be interesting because, from his point of view, he saw Angelo die already.

So would this be Angelo lamenting on his past to his grand-daughter and then slipping into the first scene opening?

Daniele: I think it should start with Jack and then as he goes back in time, we'll show what happened before...

It's a Jack story. As the idea is that Jack and Angelo live an adventure together, but Jack does not know it is Angelo.

On the 26^th February 2017 a photo on Daniele's time line showed Daniele sporting a David Bowie style hairdo, naturally I was curious.

Daniele: The hair was dyed and shaved for a movie I did in Italy in December.

I was surprised at how little Daniele had changed over the years, not a crease, or grey hair in sight. He was also still very fit and agile. I was a little jealous, haha!

How do you do it, how do you retain your youthful looks?

Daniele: Maybe it was Captain Jack who passed that to me (winky face emoji)

Daniele posted a photo of a character he played in the Italian film I Peggiori sporting the bleach blond hairstyle.

Daniele: This is the look of the movie in Italy. Pretty hard core, uh?

On the 23^rd March 2017 during research for another article, I had a few questions regarding Daniele’s scenes in Miracle Day.

Where were the scenes for Immortal Sins and the Colasanto Mansion filmed and where Jack and Angelo had their apartment?

Daniele: The locations were mainly at Warner Bros lot in Burbank, California, by the Warner Bros Studios. I don't know about the mansion.

Although you played young Angelo did you also play the part of old Angelo in the hospital bed at the Colasanto mansion?

Daniele: No, it was not me. The old guy was actually cast before me. He kinda looks like me, anyway, uh?

Had you heard of Torchwood before you took the role of Angelo, or had you only heard of Doctor Who prior to this role?

Daniele: I had heard of Torchwood before I was in the show. I watched some of the first season. When I got cast I stopped watching the show because I did not want to know anything about Jack (just like Angelo did not know anything about him).

When did you get the acting bug? Were you a child actor or did you come into the profession at a later stage?

Daniele: I got the acting bug when I was about five or six years old. I was in school and I remember the teacher had us children put up a brief play about Homer's Odyssey and I wanted to play the lead. Unfortunately, she picked another kid. But then, this kid could not remember a single line or focus on the scenes, so I proposed myself and the teacher gave me the role. I remember I thought I wanted that to be my life.

What was your first ever production, on screen, or on stage?

Daniele: The first that was paid well enough was a period film I shot in Italy set in 1789 and called "Il Pianto della Maschera" (The Cry of The Mask). It was a small production but to me it was just like being on the set of Barry Lyndon!

Angelo Colasanto was the first time I got to see you in action and have since followed you on social networking sites. Miracle Day was also the first time that the fans got to see Captain Jack in a full-on naked sex scene, aside from the episode with Brad the barman, Colasanto and Harkness had the fans glued to the screen for longer than a few seconds.

How difficult is it to play a scene such as this and still be able to make it a beautiful moment between two people knowing you are being watched by an entire film crew?

Daniele: So... there was not so many people on set considering the type of scene. The crew was the minimum necessary. In general, I focus on the person working with me. And John was very funny and friendly, so it was fun. He made everybody feel comfortable by making it not a big deal.

In scenes like that I focus on my characters needs and play along with them. Sometimes it is need for love and acceptance (like in Angelo), other times is dominance or secure excitement. I try to figure out what my character is going through and work with it. I'm not saying it is easy, but I personally work very well with very intense scenes.

What are you working on today? More sunbathing or actual working? (question taken from another photo on Daniele's page in 2018)

Daniele: The sunbathing was real work (laughter emojis). An Italian TV series called I Delitti del Barlume (The Barlume Crimes). I am also filming the independent film OKLIM. Which is possible thanks to crowd funding.

What does OKLIM stand for or is it an actual word?

Daniele: Oh no, it is a word. Oklim is the name of the protagonist.

Can you tell us anything about the film or is it all hush hush?

Daniele: Well...it's a super independent production in which the story focuses on the need for deep felt art instead of just the commercial products. Oklim is a pure soul with his deep vision of art in films (Fellini for instance) and hates what is the mainstream today. So, he goes his way. He gets beaten down a lot before finally, somehow, he succeeds. It's quite a bitter sweet movie. Not a tragedy but not happy ending too.

Are these the kinds of films you like getting your teeth into?

Daniele: Sometimes. I like big productions too. I like intense characters. Angelo was intense, and conflicted. That gives you material to work with.

With Daniele’s busy schedule now taking precedence over his social media time, we ended the interview here. Who knows, maybe in another year or two, we’ll catch up with him again and make the interview a two parter???

Thank you so much for a wonderful interview, Daniele, and all the best for the New Year.

Photographs courtesy of Daniele Favilli and

Giovanni Napolito

Pages

Thursday, 6 December 2018

Articles Welcome to Issue 65: WATNOW: Meat

Big Finish Reviews+ Short Trips The Mistpuddle Murders by Tony J Fyler

Big Finish Reviews+ Entanglement by Tony J Fyler

Who Reviews Demons of the Punjab by Tony J Fyler

Articles Where Are They Now: Meat Cast? By DJ Forrest

Interviews Daniele Favilli by DJ Forrest

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