While I'm entertaining Moggie with this, I might as well write up a profile on the fellow who played Turlough as well.
Mark Strickson is really amusing. The Doctors tend to have personalities fairly close to what they played on the show, but the companions are much more a mixed bag; some of them have a lot in common with their characters, some of them are just actors pulling things out of thin air. Strickson is playing almost entirely against type in that show. He is the very dictionary definition of voluble, in person. To say he talks with his hands is entirely too mild a phrase -- I don't know why he hasn't knocked over many more microphones, to be honest. One of the more entertaining bits I've seen is from a stage panel he did a few years ago (part one, two, three, four) where at one point he actually stands up and moves the chair so that he can give a proper acting demonstration down front, on the floor, in the spot.
I did wonder if conventions made him go ack a lot, or if he just considered them vacation time; he seems to drink quite a bit, in the past at least to the point where his castmates teased him for it. There is in fact footage of the first proper convention the Beeb got him to do for Doctor Who, which, on top of being poorly organized, was also booked onto the same ship as a booze cruise. It was about one-third nerds and two-thirds people power drinking on the way to Amsterdam, and at some point he and Frazer Hines just sort of looked at each other and went 'why not be both?'. I expect that's a screwdriver he finishes while talking, and from the collection of glasses on the table, not his first -- he mentions having had a lot of vodka.
He's slightly more orderly when rambling but otherwise not all that different when he does things where he really must be sober, or at least not obviously hammered. The hand-wavy bit is native, and he has lots of opinions and very little filter. I expect a lot of people find him rather blunt, but it also makes him sound entirely genuine when he says that he does actually like coming back to reprise Turlough for Big Finish Productions. He also seems very genuinely fond of his castmates, both from the original show, and friends like Lisa Bowerman that he gets to work with in audio (she directs for Big Finish, and is quite entertainingly recognizable as the voice of Benny Summerfield in Doctor Who and spinoffs, and as Ruby in the Sapphire & Steel series).
Strickson's not all that much younger than Davison and his claim that the two of them tend to fall into a 'double act' of snark when they run into each other is one that I quite believe. This bit seems fairly typical; evidently they still do it whenever they're together. He keeps trying -- and often failing -- to remind himself to refer to Davison as something more dignified than 'Pete' when talking to other people. Strickson can actually get Davison to venture into some fairly pointy teasing, which is unusual for him, but all pretty clearly in good fun. I've seen less of him with Sarah Sutton or Janet Fielding, the two actresses who played Nyssa and Tegan while he was on the show, but from what I have seen no one seems to dislike him, mouthy as he is.
I have yet to see Strickson do an interview that actually turned out to be an interview. A brace of specially-trained Australian cattle dogs could not herd him back on topic, if he didn't feel like being there. He wants to have a proper conversation. If he can't get the erstwhile interviewer, or the other people on stage, to cooperate, he can and will run a monologue. Despite that, he's pretty good at not just running people down -- he doesn't shout over people, and in fact gives way quite easily when others break in on the flow of words, but he does wait for someone else to interrupt, which is probably a bit overwhelming for quiet folk.
Strickson does still pick up the occasional acting job, mostly down in the Antipodes where he now lives. This one's from about twenty years ago -- he's very blond and a bit titian, depending probably on his hairdresser and how much he's been out in the sun, and was dyed bright copper for Turlough so they could tell him apart from Davison in long shots. Mostly, though, he's been working for National Geographic down in New Zealand, making nature documentaries. You will probably be unsurprised to know that he used to ride herd on Steve Irwin, very early on in his career. I've no idea if Irwin really was that cheerily bats or if he just thought it made TV more amusing, but either way, Strickson is exactly the kind of personality that could actually keep that in check, and evidently he did quite a good job of it.
He also does music, or did, if you're interested in that -- this is from quite a long time ago, but he will still talk about it if asked. The lady's style is not much to my taste, but he's got a lovely light tenor.
Mark Strickson is really amusing. The Doctors tend to have personalities fairly close to what they played on the show, but the companions are much more a mixed bag; some of them have a lot in common with their characters, some of them are just actors pulling things out of thin air. Strickson is playing almost entirely against type in that show. He is the very dictionary definition of voluble, in person. To say he talks with his hands is entirely too mild a phrase -- I don't know why he hasn't knocked over many more microphones, to be honest. One of the more entertaining bits I've seen is from a stage panel he did a few years ago (part one, two, three, four) where at one point he actually stands up and moves the chair so that he can give a proper acting demonstration down front, on the floor, in the spot.
I did wonder if conventions made him go ack a lot, or if he just considered them vacation time; he seems to drink quite a bit, in the past at least to the point where his castmates teased him for it. There is in fact footage of the first proper convention the Beeb got him to do for Doctor Who, which, on top of being poorly organized, was also booked onto the same ship as a booze cruise. It was about one-third nerds and two-thirds people power drinking on the way to Amsterdam, and at some point he and Frazer Hines just sort of looked at each other and went 'why not be both?'. I expect that's a screwdriver he finishes while talking, and from the collection of glasses on the table, not his first -- he mentions having had a lot of vodka.
He's slightly more orderly when rambling but otherwise not all that different when he does things where he really must be sober, or at least not obviously hammered. The hand-wavy bit is native, and he has lots of opinions and very little filter. I expect a lot of people find him rather blunt, but it also makes him sound entirely genuine when he says that he does actually like coming back to reprise Turlough for Big Finish Productions. He also seems very genuinely fond of his castmates, both from the original show, and friends like Lisa Bowerman that he gets to work with in audio (she directs for Big Finish, and is quite entertainingly recognizable as the voice of Benny Summerfield in Doctor Who and spinoffs, and as Ruby in the Sapphire & Steel series).
Strickson's not all that much younger than Davison and his claim that the two of them tend to fall into a 'double act' of snark when they run into each other is one that I quite believe. This bit seems fairly typical; evidently they still do it whenever they're together. He keeps trying -- and often failing -- to remind himself to refer to Davison as something more dignified than 'Pete' when talking to other people. Strickson can actually get Davison to venture into some fairly pointy teasing, which is unusual for him, but all pretty clearly in good fun. I've seen less of him with Sarah Sutton or Janet Fielding, the two actresses who played Nyssa and Tegan while he was on the show, but from what I have seen no one seems to dislike him, mouthy as he is.
I have yet to see Strickson do an interview that actually turned out to be an interview. A brace of specially-trained Australian cattle dogs could not herd him back on topic, if he didn't feel like being there. He wants to have a proper conversation. If he can't get the erstwhile interviewer, or the other people on stage, to cooperate, he can and will run a monologue. Despite that, he's pretty good at not just running people down -- he doesn't shout over people, and in fact gives way quite easily when others break in on the flow of words, but he does wait for someone else to interrupt, which is probably a bit overwhelming for quiet folk.
Strickson does still pick up the occasional acting job, mostly down in the Antipodes where he now lives. This one's from about twenty years ago -- he's very blond and a bit titian, depending probably on his hairdresser and how much he's been out in the sun, and was dyed bright copper for Turlough so they could tell him apart from Davison in long shots. Mostly, though, he's been working for National Geographic down in New Zealand, making nature documentaries. You will probably be unsurprised to know that he used to ride herd on Steve Irwin, very early on in his career. I've no idea if Irwin really was that cheerily bats or if he just thought it made TV more amusing, but either way, Strickson is exactly the kind of personality that could actually keep that in check, and evidently he did quite a good job of it.
He also does music, or did, if you're interested in that -- this is from quite a long time ago, but he will still talk about it if asked. The lady's style is not much to my taste, but he's got a lovely light tenor.
Comments
Post a Comment