GardenersCardiff answers:

BBC Three’s Torchwood is back for a second series but this time it will premiere exclusively on BBC Two as confirmed by Jane Tranter, Controller of BBC Fiction, and BBC Two Controller Roly Keating.

Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, Torchwood has captivated audiences and smashed records.

It attracted an audience of 2.4 million viewers for the broadcast of its first two episodes – securing the highest-ever audiences for a BBC Three programme and the highest-ever ratings for a non-sport programme to air across all channels in digital history.

Created by award-winning writer Russell T Davies, with Chris Chibnall as co-producer and lead writer, the high-octane sci-fi thriller follows a team of modern day investigators as they use alien technology to solve crime, both alien and human.

Set in Cardiff, Torchwood delves into the unknown – battling against the impossible in the highly volatile underworld of savage aliens and monsters whilst trying to maintain their every day lives.

Roly Keating said: “Inventive, intelligent and unpredictable, Torchwood is a brilliant piece of 21st century fantasy drama. I’m delighted that its second series will be premiering on the channel.”

Julian Bellamy, Controller of BBC Three, said: “Breaking all records on BBC Three is no mean feat and we’ve been proud to help build Torchwood into one of the most talked-about and eagerly-anticipated series of recent years.”

Jane Tranter said: “Torchwood is a modern and innovative drama that has truly captured the imagination of its audience, and we are very excited that there will be more of the adrenaline-fuelled, action-packed adventures of our team of Torchwood heroes.”

Russell T Davies said: “The whole team is bristling with ideas and we are delighted that Cardiff is going to be home to more monsters and mayhem.”

Torchwood will be executive produced by Julie Gardner and Russell T Davies.

Filming is due to start in Cardiff in Spring 2007 and the series will hit screens later next year.

I have heard however that the series will be aired in January but I cant find conformation anywhere apapart from John Barryman’s comments on Radio 2 last month.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Torchwood is a British television science fiction and crime drama created by Russell T. Davies and starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles. An initial 13-part series was commissioned by the BBC as a spin-off from the long-running science fiction series Doctor Who. An in-house BBC Wales production for digital television station BBC Three and BBC One, it is the first television spin-off of Doctor Who since the unsuccessful pilot of K-9 and Company in 1981 and the first to be commissioned for a full series. The Canadian network CBC is co-producer of the series, with exclusive rights to broadcast the North American premiere of the show.

The title “Torchwood” is an anagram of “Doctor Who”. BBC Wales Head of Drama Julie Gardner will serve as executive producer alongside Davies. Torchwood is set to premiere in October 2006 on BBC Three.
Overview
Torchwood is to be set in contemporary Cardiff, and features a group of “renegade” criminal investigators. Aside from investigating human and alien crime, they are also charged by the British government to covertly investigate alien technology without the knowledge of the United Nations. The Doctor Who episode Tooth and Claw establishes that the fictional Torchwood Institute was commissioned in 1879 by Queen Victoria.

The main writer alongside Davies will be Chris Chibnall, creator of the BBC light drama series Born and Bred, and other confirmed writers include P.J. Hammond, creator of the cult 1980s ATV series Sapphire & Steel, Toby Whithouse (No Angels and Hotel Babylon), Doctor Who script editor Helen Raynor, Si Spencer, and Doctor Who cast member Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), who gained acclaim for his screenplay for the film Kidulthood. According to the December 2005 issue of SFX and Doctor Who Magazine #368, Russell T. Davies will write just two of the thirteen episodes, including the first. [1]

In the announcement, on October 17, 2005, BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy said, “Torchwood is sinister and psychological… As well as being very British and modern and real.” Davies himself has characterised the series concept as “a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humour — The X-Files meets This Life.”

According to Davies, the name originated during production of the new Doctor Who series, when television pirates were eager to get their hands on the tapes. Someone in the production office suggested that the tapes be labelled “Torchwood” instead of “Doctor Who” to disguise their contents en route to London. Davies thought it was a good idea and remembered the name.

As it is scheduled to be shown post-watershed — that is after 9.00 pm — it is also expected to have more mature content than the parent series. Davies told SFX:

“We can be a bit more visceral, more violent, and more sexual, if we want to. Though bear in mind that it’s very teenage to indulge yourself in blood and gore, and Torchwood is going to be smarter than that. But it’s the essential difference between BBC One at 7pm, and BBC Three at say, 9pm. That says it all — instinctively, every viewer can see the huge difference there
Davies also joked to a BBC Radio Wales interviewer that he was “not allowed” to refer to the series as “Doctor Who for grown-ups

Cast and crew
John Barrowman as Jack Harkness and Eve Myles as Gwen CooperThe series will star John Barrowman as Jack Harkness, one of the Ninth Doctor’s companions from the 2005 season of Doctor Who. Issue 363 of Doctor Who Magazine, published in November 2005, revealed that the series will feature another regular named Gwen, and reported that Doctor Who director James Hawes would produce. The series will also share Doctor Who’s production designer, Edward Thomas. In an interview with the magazine TV Zone, Hawes announced that he would be the lead director for the series.

However, in January 2006, it was announced that Hawes would in fact not be producing Torchwood, and another producer would be assigned in his place. According to Doctor Who and Torchwood executive producer Russell T. Davies in Doctor Who Magazine #366 (dated March 1, 2006), Hawes’s direction of the BBC Four drama The Chatterley Affair had led him to change his mind about producing the series. “James Hawes has been having such a good time… That he’s decided directing is his greatest passion, and as a result, he’s stepped down.” The same magazine also announced that Helen Raynor and Brian Minchin would be the script editors on the programme. DWM #368 announced that the first episode of the series, written by Davies, would be called “Flotsam and Jetsam”, and that Brian Kelly would be directing the first block of episodes.

Tabloid newspapers The Daily Star and the Daily Record both reported that singer Charlotte Church would be making an appearance in the series as a “raunchy, Satan-worshipping character”, but this was denied by Davies in DWM #363. On 11 November 2005, msn.co.uk reported that singer Rachel Stevens had auditioned for a permanent role in Torchwood. This has not been confirmed by any official source.

On February 23, 2006, news leaked that the role of Gwen Cooper will be played by Eve Myles, who previously appeared as Gwyneth in the Doctor Who episode The Unquiet Dead; this was later confirmed in a midnight release It remains to be seen if Myles’s two similarly named characters are linked in any way. It was also announced that Richard Stokes would produce.

Commenting in The Western Mail, Myles describes her character:

“Gwen starts off as a police officer in Cardiff and then gets involved in the Torchwood team.
She’s a very down-to-earth girl, kind and generous, but extremely ambitious, feisty, intelligent and witty. But she’s also very human – she’s really the girl next door. Because I’m playing her, I put a lot of me into it and I take a lot of my own characteristics
In an April 10, 2006 interview with Davies in The Independent, it was mentioned that actor Burn Gorman would be appearing in the series.This was confirmed by a BBC press release on April 24, 2006, which stated that Gorman will play the role of Torchwood medic Owen Harper. The same release confirmed that Naoko Mori will reprise the role of Toshiko Sato that she originally played in the Doctor Who episode Aliens of London.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Torchwood is due to start, February 2009 sometime, but I think the date is till to be announced. Try checking the Torchwood website for updates on the news.

As for Doctor Who, sadly, there will be no series 5 this year and instead we are getting a few Specials instead, a bit like the Christmas ones, except not Christmas! The next one is due for Easter, and again, news on the website will probably come up nearer the time!

Have a nice day!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Well, I think it is meant to be a sort of “mini-series” with only FIVE episodes. So disappointing! But I bet the episodes are really good, it looks like they’ve got great actors to guest-star.

I think it is meant to air in February sometimes… Over a week, or maybe they said one every week, I can’t remember.

There hasn’t been a lot of news on Torchwood, so I really don’t know, but you can check here:

http://planetgallifrey.blogspot.com/2008/09/torchwood-s3.html

This website is great for all the rumours and information on the new series, though it is mainly about Doctor Who rather than Torchwood.

Can’t wait for Torchwood! It looks great, oh, and Doctor Who today *grins-massive-great-grin*