RoD Update (16/6/2022) + 60th Anniversary Location Report (w/SPOILERS & SPECULATION!)

Hey all,

Hope everyone's keeping well! Here's just a little update regarding RoD!

Today sees the release of our interview with the lovely Chris Chapman - it was so nice having him in and we think it's a great episode. We hope you enjoyed it too, so let us know what other kinds of interviews you'd like to see from RoD. There are certainly more plans in motion and a willingness to get more people on, and I think the occasional guest popping in every now and again will vary the conversations we have and provide another voice on the sofa/at the table so expect some friendly faces!

Matt and Billy saw Doctor Who filming in Bristol don't you know? David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Neil Patrick Harris were on location in the city centre (apparently Wilf too, but we didn’t see Bernard Cribbins himself, might’ve been a body double) and the boys went down to see the circus. It was a fantastic experience, especially with such great company - so many people came up and said how much they enjoy the podcast, so thanks to Andrew, David (photo of us all together comes courtesy of him!), Steve and everyone else for your kind words.

Pictured above (L-R); Sophie Iles, Matt, Billy, David and Kieran Highman (who’s in the UK for 6 months, so we ought to have him on the podcast at some point really - same goes for Sophie!).

As for spoilerific things we unearthed, there's not much to say; except, we may have worked out that part of the episode is set around the mid/late 1920s (thanks to Annie's expertise in historical clothing and Billy's guess of 1924 being the closest, according to a member of production, likely one of the set builders/designers). NPH was barely glimpsed (among the hundreds of people who had turned out to watch the filming) twirling around and dancing with Doctor Number 10 while red confetti fell around them and extras (playing members of the general public) rioted and fought one another. There was a damaged taxi, a burnt out Mini belching flames, lots of smoke and debris littering the streets. Car tires were squealing, and according to one video, cars were bumper-to-bumper, having loud shoving matches which DT was trying to separate. Look out for 1920s Henriks posters plastered around the Mr. Emporium shop (which was just 'round the corner from the main filming described above). And next door to the unit being used as the aforementioned toy shop is a hairdressers called Grades, which looked suitably twee enough to look totally incongruous next to the altered and set dressed toy shop next to it. We thought it was a reference to Michael Grade, who cancelled Doctor Who as Controller of BBC 1 back in the 80s. We speculated that the toy shop was a red herring and in fact the "greatest enemy" that Russell referred to in NPH's casting announcement was in fact a reference to Michael Grade and he would be a meta-villain in the 60th Anniversary special. But Google revealed that the shop had always been there and had always been called Grades (but part of me wonders if they'll keep it as is, given it is such a perfect reference for an anniversary story and it looks like it fits the time period). There was an umbrella shop constructed by the production team in another store front a couple of doors down, but nothing question mark shaped was spotted in the window. The team on location were lovely, so special shout out to Andrew and Andrew who were lovely Andrews in their respective Andrew ways (one was minding Broad Street where the toy shop was located and the other was managing crowds and access to production cars on Clare Street where the main action was occurring). A Magpie Electricals logo was spotted on a prop TV on set too. But here's the big bit of speculation that I've not seen someone pick up on. In the middle of the rioting crowd, slap bang in the middle of the action was a street preacher with a cardboard sign around their shoulders. They were prophesising and gesticulating as people fought over "toys" (I think I saw a purple cuddly bear being used in a game of tug of war between two crazed civilians) around them. And on the front of their cardboard sign, the words "THE END OF TIMES" was graffitied. So I'm going out on a limb and say that 'The End of Times' might be the name of one of the specials.

You can listen to Billy's (non-spoilery) assessment of the filming, David Tennant's return to the role and other things in a phone chat he had this morning with John Darvall on BBC Radio Bristol here: https://youtu.be/FccsxCxI5hU 

Next up on RoD is our review of 'Attack of the Cybermen' which will likely be twinned with a chat about the above filming. Then we're on to July which will see reviews of 'The Curse of Peladon' and 'The Doctor's Daughter'. We are also pencilled in to do a special live episode of the podcast as part of a Pickaxe showcase streaming live on Yogscast's Twitch channel, which is cool - that should be happening late July. We’ll let you guys know what happens with that and when it will be!

See you in the funny pages,

- RoD xx