Look At Learners

The DVD cover for Learners has appeared, as you can see above. This is the first film written by Jessica Hynes, nee Stevenson and starring her alongside Dr. Who David Tennant. Don't forget that she wrote a lot of the best stuff in Spaced. This isn't as high profile as Hot Fuzz but, personally, I'm every bit as excited to see it.

Note the 01632 number on the car door. That's the UK equivalent of the 555 area code in the US.

As the DVD is released on September 24th I'd expect the film to air on BBC1 between September 21st and 23rd.

When The Doctor Met Gollum

The BBC have announced Einstein and Eddington, a film retelling the story of Einstein's discovery of relativity. The big brain himself is to be played by Andy Serkis while Dr. Who David Tennant has the other title role, Einstein's pen pal Eddington.

Other stars will include Jim Broadbent, Rebecca Hall and Jodhi May. I'd cast both Broadbent and Hall in We3, I think.

Here's a little something from the BBC Press Release:

This human story chronicles two men who, during the First World War, refused to accept narrow nationalistic boundaries and, against the odds, continued to strive for a greater truth.

Between them, they changed the world and proved one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century.

Opening in 1913, the then obscure German theorist Albert Einstein (Serkis) had spent years working on his General Theory of Relativity, a theory that threatened two centuries of Newtonian certainty and the foundations of British science.

British scientist Arthur Eddington (Tennant) was one of the most prominent astrophysicists and was Director of the Cambridge Observatory, a seat originally held by the father of British science, Sir Isaac Newton.

Eddington's wholehearted belief that "truth knows no boundaries" led him to start a correspondence with Einstein and to solely champion Einstein's theories at a time when the rest of the British scientific community and the public at large were rejecting anything German, due to their role in the war.

Eddington's expedition to Africa to photograph light bending round the sun during an eclipse lead to his proof that Einstein's theory is right, turning Einstein into a worldwide superstar in 1919. A star is born.

Einstein And Eddington is written by Peter Moffat (Hawking, Cambridge Spies), the producer is Mark Pybus and the director is Philip Martin (Hawking, Prime Suspect).

Moffat and Martin are reunited after working together on the award-winning Hawking, BBC Two's 2005 biopic of Stephen Hawking, who is considered the greatest mind in physics since Einstein.

Einstein And Eddington is currently filming on location in Cambridge, Croatia and Hungary and will transmit later this year on BBC Two.

Who, What, Where, When And How

At the end of Doctor Who on Saturday night, the BBC played a trailer for what appeared to be the next episode. It looked surprisingly good.

And now I find out that the trailer was, in fact, for the entire remaining half of the series. What a swizz. No wonder they found forty seconds of good material in six epsiodes or so. That's about their usual ratio, isn't it? Okay, that's not fair - but you get my point.

High-points include sack-headed creepies, John Simm gassing the folks at No. 10 Downing Street, and what appears to be a view from inside a TARDIS - though not necessarily the TARDIS.

Dr. Who Meets Spaced By Way Of Maureen Rees

Jessica Stev... er, Hynes is guest appearing in an upcoming Dr. Who two-parter. her character will, apparently, be marrying the mysterious Timelord after he goes all Superman 2 and passes up his sort-of-immortality.

That's not the end of their onscreen relationship, however. The BBC have now announced Learners, a new comedy drama from BBC Films that will pair them again.

Stev... Hynes has written the script, and will star as Bev, alongside Tennant as Chris and Shaun Dingwall as Bev's husband Ian. Ding...Hyn...Dingwall was also in Dr. Who.

Sarah Hadland will play Fiona, a driving school instructor who encourages Hynes' Bev to take formal lessons rather than suffer her impatient husband's rude and antagonistic sessions. hadland wasn't in Dr. Who. Yet.

A love quadrangle ensues:

Chris, a devout Christian with the patience of a saint, is assigned as her instructor and it's not long before Bev develops a crush on him. However, Chris has feelings for Fiona, but she's having an affair with a married man Gerry, who works with Bev.

Hynes has said "It took me ten years to pass my test – this year I finally did it so I could do the film. I had a great instructor, he taught me to take my time and relax, when I passed I cried with joy."

Francesca Joseph is the director. She directed Jessica Stevenson and Dingwall in Tomorrow La Scala! and brilliantly, she also directed the Driving School reality show that made Maureen Rees into such a 'star'. Coincidence? I think not.

This is Hynes' first script to go into production since Spaced. The pressure's on.

Brothers In Time

Yes, Dr. Who tonight did feature the Doctor claiming he had a brother. Yes, it is a set up for something coming later in the season. Yes, that something is another Timelord. Yes, The series finale is called The Last of the Timelords, and yes it's Davies' reintroduction of The Master.

But, no, I'm not much fussed, personally. I respect Russell T Davies for what he's doing here, but it's hardly Buffy, is it? House remains the only scripted show on TV I will make a date for. Though I did really enjoy Love and Monsters in the last series of Who.