0:00:02 > 0:00:04This week, the Doctor and Amy take in a bit of culture and team up
0:00:04 > 0:00:05with Vincent Van Gogh.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07Come on, capture my mystery!
0:00:07 > 0:00:09Maybe you've had enough coffee now.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13And we canvas Richard Curtis about his latest work.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18I think if you're going to write something about an artist, Van Gogh is the most accessible artist.
0:00:18 > 0:00:24The cast and crew go forth to Croatia, with a cunning plan to reproduce a Van Gogh painting.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30We brush up on our art history in LA, with actor Tony Curran.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34If you stare at this long enough, you do lose yourself in it.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36Episode 10 tackles a problem,
0:00:36 > 0:00:42and a situation, more heartbreaking than probably we have ever encountered before.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09At the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff,
0:01:09 > 0:01:11the Doctor Who crew are setting the scene
0:01:11 > 0:01:13for a very unusual art class.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15Morning.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Action. And action.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23So, this is one of the last paintings Van Gogh ever painted.
0:01:23 > 0:01:30Those final months of his life were probably the most astonishing artistic outpouring in history.
0:01:30 > 0:01:36It was like Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth and King Lear over the summer hols.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39The Doctor travels to the Musee d'Orsay and sees
0:01:39 > 0:01:42in a Van Gogh painting a monster peering out,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44and realises he has to go and talk to Vincent Van Gogh.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46- Wait a minute.- What?
0:01:48 > 0:01:50- Well, just look at that.- What?
0:01:50 > 0:01:52Something very not good indeed.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Look, there, in the window of the Church.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01- Is it a face?- Yes.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03And not a nice face at all.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08We were very lucky to get Bill Nighy to play the part of Dr Black,
0:02:08 > 0:02:10because he is somebody who you pay attention to.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14We needed people to listen to what he was saying about Vincent Van Gogh,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18pick up some of the relevant facts that were going to be important in the story.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Sorry, everyone, routine inspection, Ministry of Art and...Artiness.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25- So, erm...- Dr Black. - Yes, that's right.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27Do you know when that picture was painted?
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Ah, well, what an interesting question...
0:02:29 > 0:02:32- I'm going to have to hurry you, when was it?- Exactly...
0:02:32 > 0:02:34As exactly as you can - I'm in a hurry.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Well, in that case, probably somewhere between 1st and 3rd June.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43- What year?- 1890, less than a year before he... killed himself.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48We have Richard Curtis writing episode 10, which is so exciting.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53He has written a fantastic episode about Van Gogh, and it is actually really quite different.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55It has always been an idea I loved,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58just sitting there in the back of my mind.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02So, the moment I started thinking about Dr Who, I thought, oh, I have got this story I would
0:03:02 > 0:03:09like to tell, because Van Gogh is pretty well the only really, really famous artist, almost in any medium,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13who had no acknowledgement whatsoever during his lifetime.
0:03:13 > 0:03:19I'm also interested in sort of depression, and the price you pay for that. So I'm interested in him
0:03:19 > 0:03:24as a human being, as an artist, and then I had this idea where I loved the thought of making him happy.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32Along with a flat pack Tardis, the cast and crew travelled to Croatia
0:03:32 > 0:03:35to recreate the French region of Provence.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39The job of manning the TARDIS during this 1,400-mile-long journey
0:03:39 > 0:03:42was given to facilities co-ordinator, Bob Gurney.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45How many miles left, Bob?
0:03:45 > 0:03:48509. It's a long, long way.
0:03:58 > 0:04:04Here we are in Croatia, filming episode 10, Vincent and the Doctor.
0:04:05 > 0:04:13There is this really cool scene, that's set in one of Van Gogh's paintings, the Cafe Terrace.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17So, they made up this cafe to look like the painting.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And it just looked incredible. It really did look like the painting.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23In the scene I have a little book of all Van Gogh's paintings,
0:04:23 > 0:04:28and I was just holding it up to the scene, and it was just exactly the same, it was really cool.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31He will probably be in the local cafe.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36Sort of orangey-light chairs and tables outside.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42- Like this?- That's the one. - Or indeed like that.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Yes.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Creating Van Gogh's night cafe for the Doctor and
0:04:47 > 0:04:54Amy's first encounter with Vincent took more than just orangey light and a few tables and chairs outside.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Searching for the right location and transforming it
0:04:57 > 0:05:02for this scene proved to be a complicated assignment for the art department.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Creating the cafe was quite a long-winded process.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10We went around Croatia about four or five times,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15with a postcard book and a laptop with the image of the Cafe Terrace.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20And we eventually found it, and we were very pleased about how it ended up.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23We obviously had to put a big awning up.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26We had to change the windows, we had to do in-fills for the windows
0:05:26 > 0:05:31and the door, and also make a platform to put the chairs and tables on.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37And there's another blue doorway which we married in as well.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40And obviously, just a bit of foliage.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Just matched up the painting as best we could.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49One painting for one drink, that's not a bad deal!
0:05:49 > 0:05:51It wouldn't be a bad deal if it were any good.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55I can't put that up on my wall, it would scare the customers half to death.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Bad enough you being here in person, let alone
0:05:57 > 0:06:01looming over the customers day and night with a stupid hat.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06- You pay your money or you get out. - I'll pay.- What?
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Well, if you like, I'll pay for the drink.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12To paint a better portrait of the real Vincent Van Gogh,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Dr Who Confidential joined Tony Curran at the Getty Museum in LA,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18to meet up with curator Scott Allan,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and take a look at one of Van Gogh's most famous masterpieces.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26But California itself, it is an incredible state.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28And just to come up to the Getty here,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30I come up here quite often, just to...
0:06:30 > 0:06:32look at the art work,
0:06:32 > 0:06:37but it's an incredible place just to be, just to relax.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Situated in the hills of Santa Monica,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44the John Paul Getty Museum owns and exhibits important major art works,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and is home to one of the most valued Van Gogh paintings,
0:06:47 > 0:06:49the Irises.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55This was painted maybe about a year and a few months before he died.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58This painting was done at a particularly...
0:06:58 > 0:07:02- Low point, yes.- ..critical and poignant time in his life.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07In December of 1888, about five or six months before he painted this,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11there was that infamous episode in the south of France,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13where he cut his ear. He was hospitalised.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18He had a few more bad episodes in the coming months, and eventually,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22just out of his own fear of his encroaching mental illness,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24he checked himself in.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29- In many ways, part of his therapy was his painting.- Absolutely.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And the garden was one of, you know, a little corner of nature
0:07:32 > 0:07:35that was readily available to him in the asylum.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38And for the first month or so, he wasn't going outside the walls.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42So you can just imagine him encountering this little patch of flowers.
0:07:42 > 0:07:48He was in the asylum for one year, and he painted 130 canvases.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51So that is a lot, that averages, you know,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54a picture every two or three days. So he is painting fast.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57If you stare at this long enough,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59you really... It's wonderful,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02you do lose yourself in it, I find, anyway.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05I mean, you look at it in the context of the gallery,
0:08:05 > 0:08:10and the painting pops off the wall, compared to everything else, the intensity of the colours,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14and also the really sharp, graphic quality that everything is drawn with.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16- Thank you.- All right, pleasure.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21All that remains for the Doctor and Amy to do
0:08:21 > 0:08:25is to show Vincent what becomes of his art in the future.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30- Where are we? - Paris, 2010 AD and this is the mighty Musee d'Orsay,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33home to many of the greatest paintings in history.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Because it was such an emotional, high point of the story,
0:08:36 > 0:08:38it was important to find a way of conveying
0:08:38 > 0:08:41exactly how this would impact on Vincent Van Gogh.
0:08:41 > 0:08:47To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence
0:08:47 > 0:08:52was not only the world's greatest artist, but also
0:08:52 > 0:08:55one of the greatest men who ever lived.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59I think he definitely would have been overjoyed to see
0:08:59 > 0:09:04that people appreciated his work, most definitely.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Thank you, sir. Thank you.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11You're welcome.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14If you're going to write something about an artist,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Van Gogh is the most accessible artist.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18That's one of the things that makes him loved.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21I think it's a brilliant depiction of depression,
0:09:21 > 0:09:28but it's at the heart of a wonderful, glorious, life-affirming Doctor Who fable.
0:09:28 > 0:09:34The only thing which might slightly seem complicated or oblique to a younger viewer
0:09:34 > 0:09:39would be the question of having a thought about mental illness.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42But it's such a big subject in our society,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45one in four people suffer from depression at some point in their lives.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Maybe it's not a bad idea to try and introduce it young.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53We have here the last work of Vincent Van Gogh,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56who committed suicide at only 37.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00If anybody who watched it has gone away with that understanding,
0:10:00 > 0:10:05that they have to be considerate and patient and interested in people who have mental complexities,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07then that would be great to me.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13The real meat of the story is the Doctor meeting someone he can't save
0:10:13 > 0:10:15because he can't save people from themselves.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17That's beyond his power.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Even though he can at times re-write time as Amy wants him to at the end,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24he cannot do it this time because, simply,
0:10:24 > 0:10:31the demons that assail Vincent are far beyond the Doctor's reach.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35That is very much what Richard wanted to write about and I think,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38daringly and beautifully, that's what's realised
0:10:38 > 0:10:41in this absolutely heartbreaking final scenes.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:11:03 > 0:11:06E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk