Other Doctor Lives: The Importance of Being Earnest (2025)

I’ve been waiting for this production to come to National Theatre Live ever since I first heard about it last year. Ncuti Gatwa doing Oscar Wilde? Yes, please! While the play isn’t up on the streaming service yet, it was available to stream on YouTube for one week only back in March. So, since I’m taking a break between Twenty Twelve and W1A, I obviously knew what was the first Other Doctor Lives project I wanted to review in the interim!

Algernon gets quite the tale from his friend Ernest—who, it turns out, isn’t Ernest at all. He confesses that his real name is actually Jack. A respectable young man with a country estate and a ward under his protection, Jack invented a “wicked brother Ernest” in London, giving him an excuse to go into town whenever he wants to drink, play cards, and generally be less than respectable. Only now, he’s in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen and wants to marry her…but first he has to confess who he really is. Meanwhile, Algernon’s never been to Jack’s house in the country, and if his friend is giving up the name Ernest, it seems like the perfect time for Algernon to start using it in his stead.

This production is so much fun! I read The Importance of Being Earnest back in college, but this is the first time I’ve seen it performed. It’s just a terrific romp all around. Oscar Wilde’s dialogue sparkles, as it rightly should: the sly commentary, the cheeky witticisms, the winking references. All fantastic! The staging keeps the farce brisk, the romance is frothy with a bit of spikiness, and the banter volleys between the characters like a tennis match. Also, there are some nice interstitials in front of the curtain to keep things moving during the set changes, such as Algernon modeling wardrobe choices while he packs for an excursion.

And can I just say: for a play that prominently features two male/female romances, this production is so gloriously gay! Algernon opens the show playing the piano in a pink ballgown. There’s flirty banter between Algernon and Jack and a homoerotic rivalry between their respective love interests. There are Outfits!!! galore. Everything is camp, everything is arch, everything is fun. There’s voguing during the curtain call. This is the gayest ostensibly straight show I’ve ever seen, and I think we can all agree that’s what Oscar Wilde would’ve wanted.

The whole cast understands the assignment and plays their roles to the letter. Hugh Skinner is great as Jack, bewildered by the tangled web of his own making and incensed at Algernon for cheerfully making everything worse. Ronke Adekoluejo is a firecracker as his would-be fiancee Gwendolen, and Eliza Scanlen (Beth from the Greta Gerwig Little Women) is an absolute hoot as his ward Cecily. Sharon D. Clarke, who played Grace during the Thirteen era of Doctor Who, is a splendidly imposing Lady Bracknell, serving court every time she enters the room. Meanwhile, Julian Bleach, another Whoniverse alum (most recently as Davros during the Twelve era) does double duty as both Algernon and Jack’s manservants.

And then we have Ncuti Gatwa, who is just a delightful force of nature as the incomparable Algernon Moncrieff. The costumes are excellent, the poses are camp, and the wit is delicious. He handles all of Algernon’s clever lines with charm and humor, and he handles all the scheming with puckish enthusiasm.

I loved Algernon when I read the play, and I adore Gatwa’s performance here. This is a man who is utterly and inescapably himself, even when he’s pretending to be someone else. Regarding his piano playing abilities, he declares, “I don’t play accurately—anyone can play accurately. But I play with wonderful expression.” He eats when he’s hungry, bored, stressed, excited, etc., and makes no apologies for it. He lives for drama and has an answer to everything. He causes trouble and refuses to be shamed for it. Gatwa plays Algernon with music in his movements and a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Yes!!!

Accent Watch

RP.

Recommend?

In General – Definitely. This production is such a good time!

Ncuti Gatwa – 100%! Gatwa is totally in his element here—he just exudes Algernon!

Warnings

Suggestiveness, drinking, and thematic elements.

Yu tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 5 – “AFO” (2020)

*Episode premise spoilers, which include a few spoilers from previous season 2 episodes.*

Another strong episode. Not as many moving pieces as some—today, the action is centered around a few main plots, with different characters moving in and out of each one.

Walt’s team has received intel about the friction between Sinaloa and Tijuana, and they have a prime opportunity: with the Sinaloans removing all their cocaine from the Tijuana plaza’s warehouse, they hope to catch the Sinaloans trying to move it across the border. While that goes on, Enedina and Isabella make moves on their own operation. Meanwhile, Félix finally has everything in place to get the Colombians where he wants them, and he takes Amado along with him to the meeting. But as we’ve seen with Félix’s dealings with Cali in the past, things don’t go as expected.

Chapo’s big plan in the last episode, of course, was to construct a tunnel to cross the border from below. The Sinaloans toil to set their plan in motion, but as they move their coke, they have both the DEA and a resentful Benjamín on their tail. It’s interesting to watch Walt’s team investigate here. Part of what’s been holding them back is their superior attitude toward some of the traffickers they’re trying to bring down, and we get some nice dramatic irony as we see them laugh about the prospect of the Sinaloans simply trying to drive trucks full of cocaine across the border, when we the audience know what they’re really up to.

Isabella can be a frustrating character. Her whole thing in season 1 was about wanting to be a player, getting angry when she felt like Félix strung her along without ever really intending to give her her due. But watching her try to build her own enterprise this season, her plays aren’t thought through very well; it’s only now that she’s partnering with Enedina that things are starting to happen. Isabella never seems to think big enough, while Enedina is the one who comes up with a savvy, strategic plan. Don’t get me wrong—I think sexism played a definite role in Félix dismissing her in season 1. But I also think he probably recognized that she has more ambition than ingenuity and wasn’t overly useful to him beyond her connections.

In the first half of the episode, we see Félix more from Amado’s perspective than his own, which makes for an interesting shift. Amado is jumpy when Félix shows up unannounced in Juarez, and he quickly tries to cover for Acosta, then gets swept off on a mysterious trip to Panama. We often see how the plaza bosses are intimidated by Félix as they talk about him in their interactions amongst themselves, but when Félix is in the scene, he’s typically the focal point character. Following Amado in these early scenes gives a different insight into him.

This is an instance where Félix’s careful calculations fail him, because they depend on people doing the logical thing. And in their business, where power often has greater currency than money, that just isn’t something he can rely on.

Not that Félix is entirely driven by financial sense, of course. He’s been quietly seething over the Colombians all season, and he thinks he finally has them where he wants them, that he can force their hand into more favorable terms for his cartel. If anything, based on his past dealings with Cali, he’s too confident, calmly telling Amado, “I’ll explain the Colombians’ future to them.” That’s why, when the rug gets pulled out from under him, it hits so hard.

Once again, Diego Luna is fantastic, but in an entirely different way than he was in episode 4. There, Félix knew he was on thin ice from the start with the CIA but had to walk into the belly of the beast anyway, risking his neck with his eyes wide open. Here, he thinks he’s realizing the culmination of months of planning, only for Pacho to knock him so casually off kilter. As with Stechner in the last episode, there’s a sense that Pacho is enjoying taunting Félix, although he’s doing it in a more unspoken manner. And Félix, in turn, has to try not to react, not to let the Colombians see him get rattled.

It's not until after he gets home that he lets his fury out. Félix is definitely a character who holds grudges, but he frequently keeps them contained, plotting instead of lashing out. In this episode, we get one of the rare examples of him truly exploding at someone, venting his anger at the weak link in his chain. He’s incensed about the disrespect, but also the pure fact that someone has upset his carefully laid-out plan, going for the easy money grab and quick dig rather than sticking with his meticulous long-term payout. And this outburst doesn’t bring him any satisfaction or resolution—when he puts down the phone, he’s plainly in distress, physically sick as he tries to figure out what he’s going to do next.

Other Doctor Lives / Joel Fry-days: Twenty Twelve: Series 2, Episode 7 – “Loose Ends” (2012)

*Spoilers for episode 6*

The finale of Twenty Twelve doesn’t have much to offer in the way of Joel Fry/Karl, but luckily, we’re not quite through with the character yet. More on that in a bit!

Things are getting down to the wire for the commission. The start of the Games are rapidly approaching, and Ian is eager to take care of all the last-minute details before he hands the reins to the team that will be running the actual Games. Amid that mad scramble, the shortlist for the post-Games director of posterity position is released, which several members of the commission have applied for.

At the eleventh hour, things for the commission are as disaster-prone as ever. The fireworks at the opening ceremony are in danger of triggering Britain’s automatic ground-to-air defense missiles—so, you know, not good! Kay installed slow-charge stations for the fleet of electric cars to ferry athletes around the Olympic Park, but based on the 10-hour charging time, they’re projected to have zero cars available by day two. And Siobhan is auditioning composers for a piece to be played on church bells on the morning the Games start, and let’s just say she’s not finding the cream of the crop.

Some nice David Tennant narration today. Here are my favorite lines of his from the finale:

• Fun bit, in reference to the whole fireworks debacle – “In the last few weeks, a growing conflict of interest between the creative team behind the opening ceremony and the Ministry of Defense has become potentially explosive.”
• “Meanwhile, it’s a different day altogether, and just six days to go until handover” – hee!
• Love this line – “Despite how high the stakes are, Ian knows he has no option now but to keep thinking on his feet until he finds out where it is they’ve taken him.”

For some reason, Siobhan also needs a celebrity for this church bell thing. She’s promised someone on the level of Paul McCartney or Sting, and when she finds out Sting is in Tuscany and doesn’t want to come back for the Olympics, she shouts into her phone, “He can bring his fucking lute! You know, get over it!”

So, since her overly ambitious pitches aren’t available, it’s up to her team to track down a smaller-scale celebrity. This is perhaps the natural progression of the dynamic Siobhan and her team have with Karl, because Karl doesn’t even take part in this meeting despite being in the same room. While Barney and Coco fill Siobhan in on how their respective celebrity hunts went, Karl is sitting in the background, wearing headphones and looking at something on his tablet. It’s not clear if he realizes there’s a meeting going on behind him.

Which is fine with everybody else., Siobhan asks about him as an afterthought once she’s heard from Coco and Barney, but she balks at Coco’s offer to get his attention. “No, no, no, no, no, leave him,” Siobhan insists, adding, “Yeah, that’s like, don’t wanna know,” if he was able to secure his celebrity (who I’ve never heard of but who is evidently an embarrassing choice.)

As such, Joel Fry’s time on Twenty Twelve ends with a bit of a whimper, but it’s not the last we’ve seen of Karl! He also appears on a handful of episodes of the spinoff W1A. I don’t know much about that show. I just know it features some of the Twenty Twelve characters, including Ian and Siobhan (which makes sense, given Karl’s presence,) as well as some new ones, including a character played by Jonathan Bailey. And of course, W1A will also feature narration from David Tennant, so we’ll continue with the Other Doctor Lives posts too!

Still, we’ll wrap up Twenty Twelve, and there will be a bit of a break before moving on to the spin-off. I just found out Joel Fry’s new series Alice and Steve is coming out at the start of June, and I don’t want to drop those reviews into the middle of W1A, so until I’ve finished that show, I’ll pivot to something different for both Joel Fry-days and Other Doctor Lives.

Final thoughts on Twenty Twelve:

Accent Watch

David Tennant – Scottish.

Joel Fry – Southern British English.

Recommend?

In General – A soft maybe. It’s entertaining, but it’s not a knockout.

David Tennant – I don’t know if I would. While Tennant always gets the job done, I’m not sure if it’s worth it just for his narration.

Joel Fry – Yes! I don’t care that he’s only in one-to-two scenes for each of his episodes. Karl is wonderful!

Warnings

Language, smoking, and mild thematic elements.