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Doctor Who and I, Claudius

C

Chris227

Lieutenant Commander
It's interesting how many actors WHO has used from I, Claudius over the years. Granted, they're both BBC productions, but it's still nifty.


Also, I can't help but wonder, was John Simm's incarnation of the Master inspired by John Hurt's Caligula? Caligula hears constant noises in his head, just like Simm's master (and to an extent jacobi's, as well). It's worth noting that Simm also played Caligula in a BBC production. Also, Jacobi's Yana's somewhat oafish-but-brillant appearence does somewhat recall his Claudius.


Brian Blessed (Auigustus) of course was King Ycarnos in TRIAL OF A TIME LORD-MINDWARP, George Baker(Tiberius) had a role in FULL CIRCLE, Patricia Quinn (Livilla) was in DRAGONFIRE, and Fiona Walker (Agrippina) was Lady Peinforte in SILVER NEMESIS. Frequent WHO quest star, the late Kevin Stoney also played the prophet Thyrassulus.
 
Well Britain has a smaller pool of actors to draw upon than say the US, so I think the whole industry gets a bit incestuous in terms of people being in other things.

For example there is a 33.85% possibility of Marc Warren being in anything on TV at the moment...:p
 
Yup, there's nearly as many UK actors cross-pollinating with WHO as there are Aussie soap opera actors appearing in Every Aussie Programme Ever Made.

:D

Another small example of UK actors from the same show appearing in WHO:

Tracy Ann Oberman
Simon Pegg
Catherine Tate

All were in the sketch show Big Train. There was even a sketch featuring Pegg and Oberman that referenced the (pre-WHO) career of one Billie Piper....

:D
 
I, Clavdivs and just about every other UK television production from 1960-1990 have at least one cast or crew member with a Doctor Who connection. It's quite fun picking them out when you watch repeats on BBC4 or ITV3.
 
Tomalak said:
I, Clavdivs and just about every other UK television production from 1960-1990 have at least one cast or crew member with a Doctor Who connection. It's quite fun picking them out when you watch repeats on BBC4 or ITV3.
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Can't think of the exact term but in the past it's been a bit of thing for U.K actors to appear in Doctor Who.
 
Well obviously, where else would they come from! Bascially Doctor Who was on the circuit that jobbing actors found themselves on, along with long running programmes like Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars, Corrie, The Avengers and all those other ITC shows. You name it really.
 
wamdue said:
im betting if I bothered to look alot of Doctor Who actors, have been on theBill or Casualty
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As David Yip (Destiny of the Daleks) put it when he appeared in the Bond film A View to a Kill: "Of course I've been in Doctor Who, I'm a British actor."
Same goes for Casualty and The Bill - and in the 1970s, Z Cars and Softly Softly, and in the 1960s, The Avengers. If you were getting work, you'd appear in it sometime.
There might though be a gap in appearances in Who by actors who're maybe 40 to 50. They'll have been in Casualty and The Bill ( which started in 1985 and 1983 respectively), but they'll only have had the chance to appear in Who as the 'guest star' once it came back: not as the 'red shirt' at the start of their career: like Peter Capaldi (Fires of Pompeii), who's said that the reason he went into acting because he might be able to play the Doctor. If he'd been offered a part as 'First quickly killed rebel' around 1991 he'd have taken it, just to be in Doctor Who!
 
im guessing the US has the same with the L&Os and CSI franchise, whilst neither is on every week of the year, they do produce alot of episodes between them, and need many guest stars in each episode.
 
wamdue said:
im guessing the US has the same with the L&Os and CSI franchise, whilst neither is on every week of the year, they do produce alot of episodes between them, and need many guest stars in each episode.
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Probably more so for L&O which films on location in New York which means they pull from locally availalbe actors for the major of the guest appearances and there would be a lot small pool to draw from than if they filmed in L.A
 
Ah, checking for incestuous appearances from actors in multiple BBC productions is a very entertaining pasttime. I nearly fell out of my seat when Craig Charles (Lister from Red Dwarf) showed up as a patient in Holby City!

I'm not surprised there's so many actors doing both Who and James Bond (both are after all, British institutions), as is being discussed in another thread on this board.

Anyway, there may soon be another alumnus of I Claudius appearing on Who soon, if the rumours are true... A certain 24th century starship captain, adding another classic SF universe to his CV.
 
It always sort of weirds me out that the female Brigadier from Battlefield was also the female Lister!
 
And the council leader in Only Fools and Horses - she gives a civic award to John Lumic, then disguising himself as "Trigger".
 
Tomalak said:
And the council leader in Only Fools and Horses - she gives a civic award to John Lumic, then disguising himself as "Trigger".
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That was the one with Del Boy and Rodney as Batman and Robin, wasn't it?
 
Stalkers said:
Well Britain has a smaller pool of actors to draw upon than say the US, so I think the whole industry gets a bit incestuous in terms of people being in other things.

For example there is a 33.85% possibility of Marc Warren being in anything on TV at the moment...:p
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'Twas ever thus. My father used to call them 'season ticket holders'.
 
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