Other Doctor Lives: Royal Wedding (2010)

I wound up enjoying this made-for-TV movie more than I thought I would. While I had a certain idea of what to expect based on the title, it actually goes in quite a different direction. Pretty nice leading role here for Jodie Whittaker. (Side note: the copy I watched was a fairly low-quality video, which I think had the effect of making me feel the film was lower-rent than it actually is. I’m trying to push back on that perception.)

In 1981, a small-town neighborhood in Wales prepares for a street party to celebrate Prince Charles’s wedding to Diana, complete with a potluck, a live DJ, and lookalike contests. Linda’s 15-year-old daughter Tammy is a Diana superfan and the mastermind behind the event, but Linda herself has anything but the royal wedding on her mind. She’s just been laid off from her factory job, and she’s not sure how they’re going to make ends meet—her husband Johnny, with his floundering music career and plethora of “next big thing” schemes, isn’t going to be much help. She’s been having an affair with her boss, who asks her to run away with him. It all comes to a head at the street party.

I’m reminded a little of the new Who story “The Idiot’s Lantern,” which also takes a historic moment for the British monarchy—the coronation of Elizabeth II—and uses it as a backdrop for the personal drama of a working-class family as they watch the event on TV. That episode ends with a street party too! It’s interesting as a thematic tool, with everyone in town eager for Diana’s fairytale wedding while Linda, who’s gotten used to her dreams not panning out, is weighing the few choices she seems to have available to her. Diana is both a glamorous princess in a frilly dress and a powerful woman rising to prominence in the country. Meanwhile, Linda is just one of many women who are being laid off at the factory (because the available jobs need to be “preserved” for the men,) and she’s felt stuck in her dead-end town after getting pregnant at 15. The pomp and circumstance of the royal wedding, juxtaposed with the messy uncertainty of an ordinary woman’s life, makes for a nice contrast. Throw in the dramatic irony of knowing how things turn out for Diana, along with Magaret Thatcher’s role in the economic conditions that are putting Linda in dire straits, and it gets pretty interesting.

I didn’t realize it until I looked on IMDb afterwards, but the movie was written by Abi Morgan, who was the creator of The Hour. This definitely tracks—in both, she does a nice job exploring women leading lives of quiet desperation, whose opportunities have been limited by sexism.

Besides Whittaker, there are two other Who alum in this film. Rebekah Staton, who was in the “Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood” two-parter from series 3, plays Linda’s friend and coworker Beverley. And I was excited to see a baby Jacob Anderson pop up as Wesley, a quiet boy with a crush on Linda’s daughter Tammy. Even better, he spends most of the film dressed as Robert Smith from The Cure (although people keep insisting he’s going for Michael Jackson, because he’s a Black boy in a small Welsh town in the ‘80s.)

As Linda, Jodie Whittaker offers up an interesting lead performance. She’s spent years in a life she feels stuck in, complete with a dead-end job and a husband who doesn’t pull his weight. Her affair has given her pleasure, but it’s only a temporary escape from her frustrations and dissatisfaction. And yet for all that, Linda isn’t resigned to staying where she is. When she’s laid off, Johnny assures her, “Hey, we’ll manage!”, but Linda replies, “I don’t wanna just manage. I wanna do something, you know?” While she might be stuck right now, she doesn’t see that as an inevitability, which I appreciate.

Whittaker does a nice job showing Linda’s inner conflict—her desire for something more/better vs. the things that are keeping her here. A big part of the latter, of course, is her daughter. Linda has a lot of regrets in her life, but Tammy isn’t one of them, even as Linda is anxious to ensure Tammy doesn’t repeat her mistakes. There are some really lovely scenes between the two of them. I like when a late-night talk between them turns into singing as Tammy recalls Linda’s stories about the night she met Johnny, with Whittaker giving us a lovely rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” I also really like a moment where Linda finds Tammy upset in the middle of the street party. “Come on, Tam,” she urges gently. “You can’t cry on your big day.” I love that, because all the royal wedding stuff feels a little silly and frivolous to Linda, but she knows how much it means to Tammy and gives that the respect it deserves.

Accent Watch

Welsh.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. It is very “made-for-TV movie,” but I came down on the side of enjoying it.

Jodie Whittaker – I think I would. It’s a decently complex role, and Whittaker does well with it.

Warnings

Language, sexual content/references, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Good Omens: Series 3 – “The Finale” (2026)

*Premise spoilers, which include spoilers from the season 2 finale*

Here it is: the finale of Good Omens.

Obviously, getting here was a rocky road. The horrific abuse allegations against Neil Gaiman prompted a very necessary retooling of the final season. First and foremost, the survivors of his abuse deserve to have their voices heard, and they deserve justice for what was done to them. Full stop. The fates of the adaptations based on his work are trivial matters compared to all that.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when good works of art are tainted or disrupted by predators who are involved with them. There are shows and films I loved once that I can’t bring myself to watch anymore. There are those I choose not to watch anymore. There are those that were canceled or cut short so as to stop associations with those predators. In the case of Good Omens, pre-production on season 3 halted and Neil Gaiman was removed from the show going forward. When the dust settled from that much-needed removal, we were left, not with a full final season, but with a single 90-minute finale, and stewards of the series (including Terry Pratchett’s daughter) had to fight to get that much.

So while it’s not the final season that fans were hoping for, 1) we very easily could’ve gotten nothing at all, ending on Crowley in the Bentley and Aziraphale in the lift, and 2) there are much more important considerations here than just the ending of a TV show. Gaiman’s been poking his head out again recently, creating more harm even as he tries to reclaim his reputation, and we can’t lose sight of the terrible pain he caused.

Okay, let’s talk about the actual episode. It’s been years since Aziraphale and Crowley’s heartbreaking separation—the Metatron urged Aziraphale to replace Gabriel as Supreme Archangel, sweetening the pot with a promise that he could restore Crowley’s angel status. But Crowley wanted nothing to do with Heaven and begged Aziraphale not to go. A plea, a desperate kiss, a fracture. Since then, Aziraphale has been busy in Heaven, organizing the Second Coming of Christ, while Crowley wallows in a drunken depression back on Earth. Right on the heels of the Second Coming, the newly made-flesh Jesus disappears from Heaven and the Book of Life is stolen, which leads pieces of reality to start being unmade. Frantic to fix everything and bring about “universal happiness,” Aziraphale returns to Earth to ask Crowley for help.

Right out of the gate, there’s not enough time. We pretty much knew that was going to be the case going in—how could it not be?—but it still hurts a little to watch the characters hurry through trying to wrap everything up while simultaneously introducing the biggest crisis Aziraphale and Crowley have ever faced. There are dangling threads, the conversations we’ve been waiting for happen in truncated versions between the larger action, and it’s just not enough. That said, the pacing is less of a fault than I might have expected. Although critical moments obviously get shortchanged, it doesn’t feel like the finale is just racing through a series of plot points to check off a list. There are scenes that get space to breathe.

Because the big headline here is what happens to Aziraphale and Crowley, it’s easy to feel dismissive of the apocalyptic goings-on. Something like that needed to be happening, of course—for one, it takes something big to put them in the same room again, and for another, part of what we love about these two is watching how they work together against the forces of both Heaven and Hell. But there are points where the whole Book of Life calamity feels less suspenseful and more of a “we have to up the ante to make this The Biggest Deal of All Deals!!!!” situation that just takes away from what we really want to see.

None of this, however, applies to Jesus, who is just wonderful. Both the writing and Bilal Hasna’s earnest performance create something really beautiful here. Jesus has just become corporeal again and His memories are a little hazy—He longs to speak with one of the humans He cherished the last time He was on Earth, but of course, everyone He knew is long gone. I just love that, when He wonders why He doesn’t have scars, He doesn’t mean scars from the crucifixion. “I had good carpenter’s hands,” He says. Throughout the finale, He radiates goodness and an honest desire to connect with people, regardless of what bigger plans Heaven has for Him.

And there’s Aziraphale and Crowley. I’ll save my more detailed thoughts for a spoilery post, and by then, I might have sorted out how I feel about it a little better. These are my first impressions: some scenes feel like too little, others too much, and others just right. On the whole, there’s a lot of Crowley expressing his hurt at Aziraphale and Aziraphale offering explanations for his actions without showing much acknowledgement of Crowley’s pain. Crowley goes along with helping Aziraphale even as he argues that he won’t, and Aziraphale proves more than once that he wouldn’t get very far without Crowley. As for the very end, all I’ll say is that I’m still thinking about it.

The thing is, though, amid all the busy rushing around and the lack of time, they’re still Aziraphale and Crowley. We get another very early flashback for them, showing a period the show had never depicted between them before. We get Aziraphale being a bit bowled over all over again by the depth of Crowley’s care. We get the Bentley in a ridiculous disguise. We get ice cream and dim sum and costume changes. We get heartbreak and anger, bickering and protectiveness, jokes and quiet overtures. I would’ve wanted a lot more, but I am grateful for what we got.

Over and over, Michael Sheen and David Tennant demonstrate just how excellent they are in these roles, not to mention how splendidly they play off one another. As Aziraphale, Sheen is repressed yet hopeful, avoidant yet longing. When he finally expresses what he hasn’t been saying, it’s a long time coming.

Meanwhile, Tennant is as fantastic as ever as Crowley. In the early scenes, he manages to be numb and a raw nerve at the same time, which is an impressive feat. And once Aziraphale arrives on the scene, his pain sharpens into a focused point. Crowley is both transparently upset and badly trying not to show the extent of his grief, but the latter keeps spilling out into the former. And despite how angry he is with Aziraphale, Crowley still keeps looking out for him and helping him.

Just a few snippets, some of my favorite non-spoilery bits from Tennant here. Crowley leaves a plant of his with Mrs. Sandwich while he goes out for a while, and when he comes back, he croons to it, “Were you good?” One of Crowley’s biggest weaknesses continues to be the way he cares about people and things—Aziraphale knows this about him and uses it to draw him out. Tennant has such a distinctive smitten smile. As I’ve said before, he uses the exact same one for the Tenth Doctor looking at Rose and Crowley looking at  Aziraphale. Crowley is still a little shit when it comes to dealing with both Heaven and Hell. This is a great exchange:

CROWLEY: “I quit, Dagon. Did you get the memo?” 

DAGON: “You didn’t send a memo!” 

CROWLEY: “Well, that’s because I quit.”

Even though I’m still deciding how I feel about the finale, I am glad we got to see these performances one more time.

Accent Watch

Not heavy RP, but a bit posh.

Recommend?

In General – Yes (although if people don’t want to watch a show where Gaiman was involved in the first two seasons, I totally get it.) This was a special series, and it meant a lot to me.

David Tennant – Absolutely! This is the performance that “unlocked” Tennant for me as an actor. He’s so superb in this role!

Warnings

Thematic elements, irreverent humor towards religion, violence, sexual references, language, and drinking.

Joel Fry-days: Fortune’s Smile (2011)

This is an odd little short. Its tone kept me off-kilter, and it took me a while to decide whether or not it seemed to be going for some type of magical realism, though I ultimately came down on the side of liking it. And look, I know that I’m biased, but Joel Fry is really great in it!

Ivan’s call center job is sucking the life out of him. One night, when he happens to walk into a pub called The Fortune, he contemplates new possibilities for himself. An encounter with an eccentric old writer reignites his own writing dreams, which he’d all but given up on, and Ivan starts to hope for a different path for his life.

As I said, the feel and tone of the short is a little elusive. When Ivan first walks into The Fortune, I found myself wondering if this was going to be like the pub version of the mysterious shop that sells you an enchanted object and isn’t there anymore when you try to go back. Some of its clientele—like Lester, Ivan’s new writer friend, and Harriet, a former It Girl turned theatrical producer—are larger than life and lend a slightly unreal quality to the whole thing. Contrasted against the droning monotony of Ivan’s job, I can see why he’d be taken with it.

The script is all right. The voiceover is used too sparingly to really fit, and the dialogue relies a little too often on characters repeating one another’s lines back to each other, a la, “I thought you were all through with that!”, “Well, I’m not through with all that.” Still, there are some nice bits here. I like the air of mystery and romance Lester very intentionally cultivates for himself, there are some well-used quotations, and I enjoy how things come out in the resolution.

The best part, though, is Joel Fry’s performance as Ivan. He turns in some lovely, understated work here. Ivan reminds me a little of both Hugh from Bank of Dave and Trevor from DogBoy, in that he’s insecure, soft-spoken, and generally uncomfortable. Each of these characters still feels distinct and different, though, which I imagine isn’t easy with characters who are a bit wallflower-ish.

With Ivan, we see Fry’s physicality coming through in his discomfort, or lack thereof. When Ivan is at work (and sometimes when he’s with his girlfriend,) he’s constantly rubbing/touching his face or fiddling with his hair. He largely averts his eyes from other people’s, and he apologizes as he stumbles over his words. But when he’s with Lester, listening to the old man’s stories or thinking about his own writing, Ivan is eager and fairly relaxed. He smiles, he speaks more confidently, and he’s more likely to look people in the eye. In any given scene, all you have to do is look at him to know if it’s draining or invigorating for him.

There are so many small moments of his that I really like. Compared to Day Murch’s Lester and Sadie Frost’s Harriet, Fry’s work is very understated, which makes for an interesting contrast with their more colorful performances. When Ivan’s girlfriend is griping about him getting back into the play he’s been writing, he tries to tell her about Lester encouraging him. She flatly responds, “Has he read it?”, and Ivan’s face crumbles in the smallest, quietest way before he admits, “Not yet.” I also really love a scene where Ivan is talking to Harriet. I won’t spoil the details, but Fry is so good here! As Ivan begins, he’s nervous but excited, and over the course of the scene, we see his confusion growing even as he hangs onto his hopeful smile. Just wonderfully done!

Accent Watch

Sounds like his usual Southern British English.

Recommend?

In General – I might. It’s kind of a weird one and the script stumbles a bit, but on the whole, I liked it.

Joel Fry – Yes. I know I’m sounding easy to please here, because I’ve loved him in practically everything I’ve watched for Joel Fry-days, but I do honestly love what he does with this character.

Warnings

Drinking/smoking, language, suggestiveness, and thematic elements.