Nemesis Doctor Who Confidential

-Action!

-This week, Doctor Who becomes a Doctor Whodunnit.

Solving a murder mystery with Agatha Christie. Brilliant.

It's probably the most unusual script I've had on this show.

# Armchair detective... #

Oh, my goodness!

Bashed on the head, blunt instrument.

-Action.

-# Armchair detective... #

Become an armchair detective and get all clued up with Confidential

as we travel back behind the scenes to Britain in the Roaring Twenties.

Never mind Planet Zog. A party in the 1920s, that's more like it.

It's a murder mystery, but not one you've read before.

-Morphine residue.

-Morphine? Doesn't sound very 1920s.

There's a party atmosphere on location

in South Wales for the filming of The Doctor's latest adventure.

With so many shady suspects on set, it's murder for the director.

And...action.

Good afternoon, my lady.

Topping day, what? Spiffing. Top hole.

And cut. Can I just do, erm...

The making of this was very time consuming because

when you've got nine or ten people in a scene, they all have to be covered.

You've got to do a developing shot, then a close-up of that person, then move round and do that person.

Maybe you want two shots and three shots.

That all takes time. Every time you set the camera up to do a new shot, it's at least 20 minutes each time.

Given the fact that it's a whodunnit, it couldn't be anything other than a big cast.

We kind of knew it was a traditional Agatha Christie whodunnit.

We wanted to take the essence of Agatha Christie.

OK, let's go then, please.

It's essential in a whodunnit, you have to have an ensemble cast.

A big, large cast full of suspects.

And action.

Good afternoon, Professor Peach.

-First, you've got Professor Peach...

-I need to check something in the library.

-Ooh?

-Alone.

..who doesn't make it through the opening titles.

I say, what are you doing with that lead piping?

-But somebody's got to be the first to go.

-No!

Then old Lady Eddison, the lady of the house.

Forgive me, but who exactly might you be and what are you doing here?

Charming, genteel, mannered society lady,

but with a mysterious past.

Oh, my God!

Everyone's got a secret, so everyone's got a motive.

That's traditional in a murder mystery.

-Action.

-My husband.

Then you have Colonel Hugh.

Forgive me for not rising.

Never been the same ever since that flu epidemic back in '18.

Devoted, sociable, clubbable man.

Life and soul of the party.

Don't give my wife ideas.

Who is also harbouring quite a major secret

in that he's been in a wheelchair for 20 odd years and doesn't need to be.

Confound it, Mrs Christie, how did you discover the truth?

45, take 1, B camera only.

Then you have their son Roger.

My word, you ARE a super lady.

'Handsome, charming, with a big secret staring you in the face'

that The Doctor and Donna pick up on straight away.

Typical. All the decent men are on the other bus.

-Then there's Davenport.

-Your usual, sir.

Thank you, Davenport. Just how I like it.

The handsome, charming butler who might

be a little closer to one of the family than he should be in 1926.

Some of these young boys deserve a decent thrashing.

Couldn't agree more, sir.

We had to have the flapper character, in the 1920s.

-Miss Redmond.

-Spiffing to meet you at last, my lady.

Miss Robina Edmond is there, the charm of the London society.

Socialite, funny, wonderful, clever.

Also, strangely, hiding a secret.

So she looks like a suspect early on, but actually is hiding

a completely different layer of motives.

-COCKNEY ACCENT:

-Oh, all right then. It's a fair cop.

She's a scrubber from the East End who's stealing everybody's jewellery.

Go on then, your nobs.

Arrest me.

Then Reverend Golightly, of course.

Ah, Reverend, how are you?

Charming and polite, honourable and decent.

As the Christian Fathers taught me, we must forgive them their trespasses.

He has the biggest secret of them all - he turns into an alien wasp when nobody's looking.

What's to stop me killing you all?

That's probably the bit you wouldn't necessarily find in a traditional Agatha Christie novel.

OK, turning over then, please.

A camera only.

There is a mysterious footman in disguise, creeping his way through the garden party,

drawing attention to himself beautifully,

but is in fact David Tennant's father making a cameo appearance.

49, take 1.

I was coming down to visit David

and I think they must have been short of someone,

but they very kindly invited me to play the part of a footman.

-Sidecar, please.

-And a lime and soda, thank you.

Which has been interesting and I didn't have to learn any lines, so that was good news.

Hello, I'm The Doctor. How do you do?

My lady, where's this special guest you promised us?

Finally, the final guest you bring in is Agatha Christie herself.

Here she is. A lady who needs no introduction.

No, no, please, don't.

Miss Agatha Christie, running away from her husband in 1926 in terrible circumstances.

Thank you, Lady Eddison. Honestly, there's no need.

Finding herself in a situation where the patterns of her own books

are repeating around her, so what's going on?

As two vintage vehicles tootle onto set,

completing the shoot looks likely to be a bumpy ride for the cast.

David and Fenella have just a few hours to get to grips with these classic cars

before filming the climactic chase sequence.

It's exciting just because it's fun to drive these things.

At the same time, you are always aware that the owner of the car is usually there,

looking at you very beadily,

because these cars are by their very nature quite rare and therefore quite expensive.

It's a Morris Cowley, built in 1926.

The accelerator is in the middle.

They didn't standardise until the end of the '20s, so you need to...

When you jump in the car, you know something's different,

but you need to concentrate on that cos the brake is on the right.

It's a different sort of driving experience, and if you're not used to it,

you are aware that you don't want to be blowing the engine or destroying the gearbox.

So second is like third, and third is like fourth.

OK, and reverse is like first. It's all going so well!

It's very different. You're meant to do this double-declutching thing.

We just changed our car for an automatic, so it's even more stressful for me.

-OK, so that's first. Where's second?

-Reverse is straight up.

-Reverse is straight up?

-Yes.

-Oh!

-Accelerator's in the middle, reverse is straight up!

-Easy peasy!

1926 cars, doing a car chase is not easy.

Can you make it, when I say quick getaway,

quite a rapid getaway.

I'll show you what's possible.

As a director, you wanna go, "I just want a shot, you start the engine,

"the next thing is we cut to wheels spinning then they fly off."

Well, old vintage cars don't have wheels spinning!

Lovely! That'll do.

Here we are with a Dick Barton-type of chase, with two cars that can't go

more than 20 mph, so it was hell of a chase!

SHE TOOTS HORN Oh...

I mean, if you look at it and dissect it, the music's doing the pace for you.

The action, The Doctor's doing,

the fast action he's doing, running to the car, getting in the car,

letting the brake go.

The tightness and fast cutting you do gives you the pace.

The lake. She's heading for the lake.

Cut!

I think you get away with it.

All right, it's a chase at 20 mph, that's what it is.

Right, now we're all OK , we're in neutral. I just press that hard and that's it, is that right?

I think so.

-ENGINE STARTS

-Oh, yes! Oh, yes!

Excellent. Right, what am I doing?

MUSIC: "Shut Up And Drive" by Rihanna

-We were slightly struggling to keep up with Nelly, just because...

-# Her car's faster than yours! #

-I went faster than I realised, we were heating.

-I did it in one take, didn't I?

I did. I did it. One take wonder! Way to go!

Maybe I can go up into third...

-On the slope earlier, that's when it died, so I was trying to keep it going.

-I'll slow it down a bit.

Hello!

I could get it going but it didn't have much speed.

It didn't have a lot of poke to it.

Of course, inevitably when you're filming there's a camera car somewhere as well

and you're trying to stay a certain distance in front of them so that they can get a shot.

That's difficult in a modern car but when you're driving something

you don't have all the control you wish for it can be a difficult,

especially when you're going up hills and the engine just doesn't want to know.

We're driving a sewing machine behind you!

I'm sorry, David. Am I showing you up a little bit?

It's not me, it's the engineering.

-Are you sure?

-The engineering of past ages.

You know what they say about lady drivers, David. What?!

-VOICE ON RADIO

-What was that?

-"David's car goes on the low loader, please."

-Ah!

Ah! You're obviously not good enough, clearly.

You're on the low loader!

There's no more driving for David, as the car is secured to the camera truck.

-Action!

-Time is in flux, Donna!

For all we know this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life

-and history gets changed.

-Where's she going?

The lake. She's heading for the lake.

LOUD BUZZING

I enjoyed it and I didn't blow it up. I didn't break it which is always a plus.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.

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