Voting might not make much of a difference but complaining sure does

The collective wine of Whovians in the USA has finally been heard by the BBC. Perhaps because they are bowing to public pressure or just because they have finally decided to use good business sense, the BBC decided today to release the Doctor Who season 27 DVD boxset in the USA. It is currently listed as "not yet available" here at Amazon but with a shipping date of Valentines Day 2006, they and others should be taking pre-orders soon.

Source:amazon.co.uk

So now all of us Statesiders won't need to cross any borders or order it from our friendly neighbors up north. Sorry that you have lost our business Canada, but those of us by the border will continue diplomatic relations and watch season 28 on CBC. It was also announced yesterday that The Christmas Invasion, which RTD has said will have more clues about Torchwood, will be shown on CBC just one day late on Boxing Day, a day which is fondly referred to by the more peaceful moniker of "December 26th" here in the USA.

Russell is an ageist!

The AARP is up in arms because of a statement RTD made in an interview on BBC Radio 2 a few weeks ago. He said that in this day and age the Doctor could never be played by somebody over 45. Well actually, it is a human resources consulating firm called Penna that is upset by his statement and their CEO says Doctor Who and the BBC will be in violation of a forthcoming age discrimination law in the UK come October.

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk

While not as young as Peter Davision when he took on the role of the Doctor, David Tennant is a young 34. He will probably need a 50+ year old companion after Billie leaves the show in order for WHO to be in compliance with this new legislation.

John Barrowman is only 38 which means that the mysterious "Gwen" of Torchwood will have to be recruited from the geriatric set as well. So we obviously can't trust all these rumours about RTD trying out teen pop singers for the part. Nope it looks like the writing is on the wall, Gwen will be played by Angela Lansbury.

PS - Torchwood was unveiled as a sexier version of Doctor Who, but I wonder if it will ever get as kinky as this film.

Happy New Year!

No I haven't been on break from the page that long. It is still November. But I just realised I hadn't given you this greeting yet for 2005, so better late than never. It was a year to remember with the revival of Doctor Who! And its now just a month until 2006, a year that of course will go down in history as the year Torchwood premiered.

Source:http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk

As if John Barrowman's December weren't busy enough, he announced this weekend on his page that he will be taking part in the BBC1 televised New Year's Eve coverage. So if you can't get a date for that night, not to worry you can count down the new year with Captain Jack! Or, if you are hosting a Doctor Who themed New Year's Eve party, (and if you aren't, what's stopping you!) make sure to have the television on in the background.

When I think of Doctor Who and New Year's Eve, the first thing that comes to mind is that horrible FOX TV movie from 1996. But let's wash the unpleasantness of that fiasco aside and have a fun time and do it up right this December 31st. We can only hope that the BBC's resolution for the new year is to never ever think about doing a joint production with the USA again.

It's Torchwood's Birthday!

Break out the champagne, today marks the 42nd anniversary of the first broadcast of Torchwood! That makes it the longest running Doctor Who spinoff ever. Here's to another 42 years with Captain Jack . . . Oh wait my mistake, there has been some sort of a mix-up. It has been just 42 days (or so) since the show was first announced by BBC3.

Source:http://www.stakesandstones.co.uk/

In honor of this great anniversary I am going to take my first day off from this blog. Sorry, but unless RTD announces that Tom Baker will be guest starring on the show, or some other such big news, I will be taking the Thanksgiving weekend off from Torchwood.TV.

Before I head off to pig out with family, I do want to congratulate Doctor Who on birthday 42 today. That is no small achievement, I doubt that when they dreamed it up in 1963 they could have predicted that it would be the show to watch on Korean Television in 2005. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors were both born since the show first went on the air.

A certain former WHO script editor made the number 42 famous somewhere or another, and in honor of this ultimate anniversary you can hear Shada, one of his old WHO scripts, brought back to life on the radio in a few weeks.

Torchwood has yet to meet the same test of time as Doctor Who, but then what show has? Don't forget to check back into this blog again sometime around August 2048 when I will be able to save some time by recycling this post.

Is it true blondes have more fun?

During christmas time this year, the song that everybody will be humming will be Springtime for Hitler! This catchy little ditty sung by John Barrowman is the centerpiece of The Producers musical film opening on December 16th. The soundtrack of the film was released today and you can listen to a 30-second sample of John's performance singing Springtime for Hitler at Amazon.com.

Source:http://theatermania.com

Barrowman performed the lavish musical sequence for Mel Brook's camera this past springtime over the course of a week in New York. JB's costar Garry Beach mentions in this interview that not only was JB's hair dyed blonde for the scene but his blue eyes apparently weren't blue enough and he wore turquoise contacts to go along with his full Nazi regalla. JohnBarrowman.com has posted a sneak peak of Barrowman's outfit in the film.

Well we all know the Nazis persecuted homosexuals, but just like in the film Casablanca, where many of the Nazis were in fact played by Jews, the joke is on them, as a gay actor is now sporting the aryan look. While maybe not a marqee role, the dancing and singing stormtroopers will be a big part of the film's promotional effort, so you can look forward to seeing a blonde Barrowman all over the place this month.

Torchwood Club 7

Well it looks like all the tabloids finally noticed the statement Rachel Stevens made about auditioning for Torchwood way back on the 11th and that I discussed on the 16th. It was published this morning in the Daily Mirror and then re-reported on Sky News, My Kinda Place, Drowned in Sound, Monsters & Critics, and Contact Music.

http://www.skins.be

The Mirror used the same quote attributed to New! magazine (Whatever the hell that is) in the original MSN notice. The other articles today sloppily reported that Stevens made this statement to The Mirror directly. What I find most interesting is that The Mirror adds the following bit of information that was not in the MSN piece, "The singer has a final audition to win the part of Gwen opposite John Barrowman's Captain Jack in the post-watershed sci-fi show."

Now last I had checked, Gwen was just a name that RTD had casually thrown out in the context of Torchwood in this month's Doctor Who Magazine. That "Gwen" is in fact a major character in the show, or Captain Jack's partner is far from official. So, either The Mirror has some inside information, or they are getting their news from forums and blogs like this one which have jumped to that same conclusion. Way to go guys! Good work, let's see how many more rumours we can get started!

Jack in the box

In response to some comments yesterday. The DVDs of season 27 (or as the BBC calls it, series one) of Doctor Who are indeed available to those here in the US who want to hunt them down. The complete box set of 5 DVDs with lots of extras including episode commentaries from John Barrowman can be ordered from the UK starting today. Disk 5 has all the BBC3 Doctor Who Confidential documentary programs which featured interviews with JB and others involved. There is a featurette called The Adventures of Captain Jack and a bonus preview of The Christmas Invasion.

For those who are not diehard Doctor Who fans and only want to buy the episodes featuring Torchwood's Captain Jack, then you can purchase Volume 3 or 4 separately. You won't be able to play any of these items outside of Europe unless you have a region-free DVD player. The exact same box set will be released in Canada on Valentine's Day 2006 and will be playable on DVD players here in the States.

Source:amazon.co.uk

I often like listening to DVD commentary tracks more than the actual soundtrack on most movies. SFX magazine has posted some of the more interesting facts you can learn from the Doctor Who DVD commentaries in an article here.

Like, we learn that John Barrowman originally planned to play Captain Jack with a fake English accent when he was introduced in The Empty Child and would speak with it up until the point where he says, "I'm a con man!" Also, during the last filmed take of Jack kissing the Doctor in The Parting of the Ways, (one wonders how many takes they needed to do) JB didn't stop with giving Eccleston a quick kiss. The goodbye was stretched into a serious makeout session with both of them ending up on the floor.

UPDATE: Bowing to public pressure perhaps, the BBC has decided to release this box in the USA as well. You can pre-order from Amazon and it will be shipped on Valentines day 2006.

Barcelona

If you haven't seen the Doctor Who Children In Need mini-episode yet, what are you waiting for? It is online here, go and watch it for crying out loud! Then donate and then come back here and we can talk. Wouldn't it be nice if the BBC could stream Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes all season? It would save us here in the USA and elsewhere from having to find the show using other means. (Here we are almost a year later after the show's original release and still not one word about a broadcast or a DVD release in the States, so sorry but I don't feel at all guilty about finding subversive ways to get Doctor Who. Don't worry BBC, whenever you finally get around to actually releasing the DVDs here, maybe five years time? I will go out and buy a copy)

Source:http://www.gallifreyone.com

So the squirt of information we got last night about Captain Jack is that he is busy rebuilding the Earth following the Dalek attack in Parting of the Ways. That in itself isn't really huge news but the fact that it was the Doctor who gave this information is. This would mean that four minutes after he ditched Jack on Satellite 5 the Doctor knows the Captain is alive and well.

It had previously looked like the Ninth Doctor took off without Jack because he thought he was dead. So either he did some sort of scan for life signs during the opening credit sequence while we weren't watching, he had some sixth sense tell him this, or after kissing Rose he just didn't want any other competition for her affections in the Tardis.

This bridge between seasons 27 and 28 was supposedly filmed after The Christmas Invasion which means it was probably filmed in the last month or so since Torchwood was greenlit. So it is probably not accidental that in between belches during some sort of post-regeneration sickness the Doctor would be casually rattling off information about Jack.

So there are two theories that come to my mind. One: that this is a clue that Torchwood will be set before Captain Jack ever runs across the Doctor and Rose. Because when they leave him on Satellite 5 he obviously has an important job to undertake which has nothing to do with solving crime in modern-day Cardiff. And two: since the Doctor is well aware of what Captain Jack is up to and where he is, he can quite easily pop off to check up on him and say hello (maybe a quick snog) at some point during Season 28 and give him a lift on to Cardiff.

Ok I got the ball rolling, discuss amongst yourselves.

UPDATE: Bowing to public pressure perhaps, the BBC has decided to release the season 27 boxset in the USA as well. You can pre-order from Amazon and it will be shipped on Valentines day 2006.

Tis the season. + Captain Jack on Children In Need.

Now that Billie and Tennant have turned on the christmas lights in Cardiff I suppose that means the greedy . . . oops, I mean festive season is officially upon us. John Barrowman has quite a busy month scheduled. He is finishing up his part in A Few Good Men at the London Haymarket on December 8th. He pops over to the Cinderella Panto in Wimbledon the following day for several weeks of shows, and it was announced today he will be performing in Birmingham on Monday December 19th in a christmas musical with Elaine Paige. The concert will be recorded and air on BBC Radio 2 on Friday December 23rd at 7:30pm.


Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk
As an Atheist, the only reason why I might have ever counted down the days until christmas was because I was looking forward to seeing it through and done with. But obviously it is a bit different this year with the airing of The Christmas Invasion and premiere of the 10th Doctor. (Well, aside from the great little canonical bridge shown today on Children in Need. Check it out online and listen close to the Captain Jack reference. Spoiler. Plus donating to the cause wouldn't hurt.) RTD has also mentioned that Torchwood will be seeded in the December 25th episode of Doctor Who. Wow, that is just over a month away! That means time is growing short if we hope to figure out exactly who or what Gwen is before it is officially revealed.

He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing

Doctor Who has had a large gay following in the UK for some time now. The last two executive producers JNT and RTD have both been openly gay. While the show has had its fair share of innuendo over the years the homosexual attraction of the show is a bit perplexing to us straight Whovians.

The Doctor doesn't have much fashion sense for one thing. In the show he generally picks up an attractive young female companion, shows her around the galaxy, then no sooner after he has dropped her off on a convenient planet, he picks up a replacement. Sounds like a straight guy to me.


Source:http://sterlingtimes.org
With Captain Jack the attraction is quite a bit more obvious, and of course Torchwood will play up to that demographic. It is reported that RTD discusses why WHO has so many gay fans and talks about Captain Jack in this week's edition of The Pink Paper #887 which is a free paper available all over the UK. Sorry can't get my hands on one here in the US and the two-page article is not at their online site, so UK readers feel free to give us the inside scoop in the comments below if you run across one.

I suspect most gays here in the States, like everybody else, could care less about Doctor Who. But that could all change with Torchwood. Captain Jack might be the next Xena!

Late Update: RTD will talk Torchwood in the forthcoming issue of SFX magazine according to this report.

Send in teen pop star #2 please

With little delay, as soon as Charlotte Church got knocked out of the Torchwood picture, in came Rachel Stevens. According to MSN.UK and nobody else, she has talked with RTD about a part in the Doctor Who spinoff.

Source:http://www.rit.edu/~aac9486/imm/project3/25west.html

Rachel Stevens is yet another one of these young British blonde singers who those of us here in the USA are not very familiar with. She even has her own video game you can play online called Jailbait . . . sorry Jail Break. Interestingly enough this press clipping coincides with the tanking of her latest cd and she has also apparently been getting lots of flack in the media. This couldn't be another publicity stunt could it?

Bigger, better and pinker

That was the motto of Cardiff's 7th annual Mardi Gras this past September. The event was attended by 40,000 people and Russell T. Davies was a featured presenter on the main stage.

Source:http://www.cardiffmardigras.co.uk

OK I realise this event is old news, but the photos from the Mardi Gras are now up online. So I came across this one of Russell and Charlotte Church and I thought perhaps I could post it and get those rumours about her and Torchwood flowing again! Since the news broke that Charlotte won't be connected with the show I have had one hell of a time coming up with daily posts.

What's in a name? Pt. II

Russell T. Davies is very particular about names, who else would come up with a character named the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe? Captain Jack Harkness is not the first Harkness in a work penned by Davies. There have been several previous Harknesses on Russel's shows and learning a bit more about them might give us more clues about Jack.

Source:http://www.visimag.com/tvzone

RTD's 1997/1998 series The Grand is set in a Manchester Hotel in the 1920s. One of the long term guests is Esme Harkness, a retired prostitute/madame with the proverbial heart of gold. She just might be a distant relative of Jack's.

She is not to be confused with the other Esme Harkness from Russell's dark 1993 children's series Century Falls. Esme and Alice Harkness apparently were straight-laced sisters who ran a shop and worked against all the demon-raising that was going on in the town. If that weren't enough, Mary Wimbush, the actress who played Esme in Century Falls, played Aunt Lavinia in the only other Doctor Who spinoff: K9 and Company. Coincidence? I think not.

Protect the endangered watershed

Like others in the USA, I had to use the context clues to figure out what on earth the BBC was talking about when they said Torchwood would be shown post-watershed. I have since learned that it is similar to the "safe harbor" period here in the States. According to the UK office of Communications the Watershed is between 9:00pm and 5:30am.


Source: Doctor Who Confidential BBC3

While the watershed is not exactly anything goes, the BBC states that parents should know that after 9pm programming is only suitable for adults. While there is an official "safe harbor" in the USA for "indecent" programming, our current FCC and administration is doing their best to not promote it and scare broadcasters. Any adult's-only window might as well be nonexistant, TV now has to be suitable for everybody 24-7.

Recent news reports say indecency complaints are slowing down in the States, but I maintain this is only because broadcasters aren't pushing the envelope anymore. If things don't get better and the BBC has any intentions of selling Torchwood to the USA, and I'm certainly not saying that should be their priority, they may only be able to sell it to folks like HBO who are currently out of the FCC's reach.

Russell T Davies said he was not allowed to refer to Torchwood as Doctor Who for grownups but lets hope that the show will indeed push the envelope, since good art always does.

It's about time

A question that has come up is, how Captain Jack manages to get from Satellite 5 , where we last saw him in Doctor Who, to modern-day Cardiff which is the setting for Torchwood? By asking this question, you are already making a rather large assumption, that the action in Torchwood will all be taking place after Jack Harkness has met the Ninth Doctor.


Source:http://www.stakesandstones.co.uk
Russell T. Davies has already stated there will be no crossovers with WHO on the show and hasn't made any specific references to where the show will fall in a Doctor Who timeline. We already know Captain Jack was a former time agent and had no trouble jumping forward and backward through time before he met the Doctor.

The show may even be set during those missing two years of Jack's memory. That would of course conveniently answer the question of why he never spoke fondly of Gwen or Torchwood during season 27 of WHO.

What's in a name?

So we now know a bit more about Torchwood then we did last month, for the best summary of what our compendium of knowledge about the new Doctor Who spinoff is so far, visit Wikipedia's Torchwood page. However, what we don't know is still as enormous as Jack's ego, and of course that is exactly how the BBC wants it.

Russell's hint in DWM suggests Captain Jack's partner will be named Gwen. It does seem to be a rather interesting choice for a character name. This name could either be a shortened version of the Welsh names Gwenhwyvar, Guinevere or Gwyneth or of the Celtic Gwendolyn.


Source:http://www.stakesandstones.co.uk
If you are looking for clues, Gwenhwyvar translates to "The White Shadow," Guinevere slept around on King Arthur with Lancelot, and Gwendolyn is the name of a shareware program for finding name origins! The word "white" came up quite a lot in my name research, but that doesn't seem to give us much to sink our teeth into.

Nope, I'm convinced that searching in the name origins arena is a wild goose chase. What has popped out at me, is that one of the most famous Gwens around is the transgendered Gwen Araujo, So that clinches it. When the BBC reveals that Captain Jack's partner in Torchwood will be a she-male don't forget that you heard it here first!

Jack won't go into church

What was reported yesterday has been confirmed today in issue #363 of Doctor Who Magazine. Rumours in the tabloids that Charlotte Church would star in Torchwood were just that, rumours. Also in the interview Russell T Davies mentioned a new Torchwood character named "Gwen." So of course the new rumours will now start. If it's not Charlotte, who will be the female lead in the show? umm . . . maybe what's her name? something Stefani?

Source:http://www.paninicomics.co.uk

For the full story, the magazine is available all over the UK and at some specialty newsstands here in the USA or can be ordered online. Russell also said that Torchwood would have a separate budget from WHO and not drain any of its resources despite sharing some of the same production base. Also, James Hawes is on as a producer and Doctor Who production designer Edward Thomas will have the same job on Torchwood.

So, Torchwood.TV bids a fond farewell to Charlotte Church, gossip about her really helped me get through these first few weeks of starting up the page. Well at least now she will have more time to work on her book.

Anything Goes in the bedroom

John Barrowman likes to do it to Cole Porter according to this interview in The Advocate. JB confesses in the article that, "I like men who sing from the cock." He goes on to explain some of the hidden meanings and background to Porter's lyrics.

Barrowman began his career on the London stage in Cole Porter's Anything Goes and was also featured in the 2004 Porter biopic Delovely doing a duet of Night and Day with Kevin Kline. (a sample here) Captain Jack's most recent album is all Cole Porter numbers.


Source:http://movies.yahoo.com
No shock that Barrowman admires Porter, he was a master of innuendos with lyrics like, " I'd like to sup with my baby tonight, Fulfill the cup with my baby tonight, But I ain't up to my baby tonight, 'Cause it's too darn hot!"

PS - Advance reports are that in tomorrow's new issue of Doctor Who Magazine Russell T Davies will talk a bit more about Torchwood, including that he has never approached Charlotte Church to be in it. Check back for more as it breaks.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is Welsh?

Well perhaps I am the last person to have figured this out, but then I hadn't been investigating too closely. I was indeed suprised when I read Zeta-Jones is from Swansea today. She was quoted in the paper giving advice to Charlotte Church, saying the teen needs to lose her Welsh accent if she wants to break into the movies. I suppose I could spin it one of two ways in regards to Catherine's accent: either demanding that CZJ should just be herself, and use her natural accent more often; or I could commend her on doing such a good acting job that she has managed to pull one over on us Americans! I tend to lean towards the latter, since sporting a yankee tongue has obviously worked out well for her.


Source:http://www.esrf.fr
I do however disagree with her advice to Charlotte. CC's voice sounds fine and most people around the world couldn't spot the difference between a Welsh and an English accent anyway. Wales is a hip place now, the home of Doctor Who and Torchwood! The US is home to The Tyra Banks Show and So you Think you can Dance?

For what it's worth my great great grandfather was Welsh. Here is a list of some Welsh people who have managed to be quite successfull without hiding their heritate. That long list of fine folks includes Dalek creator Terry Nation and of course Russell T. Davies. John Wayne is noticeably absent, even though this doctor seems to have evidence that the American legend was not in fact born in Iowa, but in Cardiff!

Bartender, I'll take a double entendre

Now anybody can tell a filthy joke, but it is a true measure of your size if you are able to be a cunning linguist. Show off your stuff in the innuendo department by entering a unique contest. (I have removed the information about the contest by request as they are trying to keep it a secret from JB)


Source:http://www.concordfoods.com
If you haven't been by the Torchwood Institute lately, it looks like the official Innuendo Squad polo shirts are nearly ready. More information here.

Also, I would like to apologize for being guilty of doing something which I hate when I see others engaging in. Which is, talking negatively about something you don't know anything about. Since my post mentioning Pantos last week, I have done some more research and heard from a few folks who have given me a better idea of what they are. Sorry, but I had just assumed that they were like the "holiday specials" we get here in the States, which are complete insipid drivel.

While I won't promise I won't ever offend anybody here at Torchwood.TV, I always welcome all feedback and comments to make this the best Torchwood site around.

Time to invest in a dalek-proof sofa

The only things that ever managed to get behind the sofa at my house were the remote control, coins and keys. When watching Doctor Who as a youngster I can't remember ever taking the effort to move the end tables, slide the sofa away from the wall, and then somehow squeeze in behind it whenever something scary popped up. Must be a British thing.


Source:http://wikipedia.org/
So there is actually a wee bit of news to go with this post. This interview today in The Sunday Mail with Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat is primarily about how season 28 will be even more terrifying than the last. But Moffat also takes credit for Captain Jack in the article. Moffat wrote the two-part story that introduced Jack Harkness last year and he said Russell T. Davies had nothing to do with creating the character. The Scottish Moffat is slated to write a few episodes for season 28 of Doctor Who but there has been no announcement yet that he is on board for Torchwood.

Steven's quote from the article about John Barrowman's character sums up the Torchwood spirit nicely, "There's something very believable and right about a James Bond character who will literally shag anything . . . if a Dalek's got a short enough skirt!"

Torchwood Opening Title Sequence

Some clever artist has already edited together many of Captain Jack's scenes from season 27 of Doctor Who into a potential opening title sequence for Torchwood. It is set to the theme song from MacGyver (a show Terry Nation wrote for) and available for download at the Delta Wave Site (Pg 2). There are several great homemade music videos presented on those pages featuring John Barrowman and the rest of the season 27 cast. Delta Wave also started up a new Torchwood forum this week.


Opening title sequences and theme songs on TV shows are a dying breed, so it is not even certain if Torchwood will have one. But the opening still serves a purpose in setting the mood and can make or break a show. The horrible K-9 and Company theme was perhaps what led to that show's downfall. If you have any musical talent, get started this weekend on your own ideas. The BBC has a fun flash app for tinkering around with the Doctor Who theme here. The only song for the new show I could come up with so far is the Batman TV theme, with the chorus repeating "Torchwood" instead.

There are no plans for Shark Attack IV yet

You may be unaware that Torchwood's John Barrowman is responsible for one of the most famous lines in b-movie history. In the role of Ben Carpenter, a lifeguard, in the film Shark Attack III, JB improvised an impromptu line to get a reaction out of his female co-star. The naughty line (spoiler) was left in the film and now people are buying this dreadful DVD and sitting through it just to see the famous scene.


Source:http://www.devildead.com
You can download and watch a few clips from the film from this site. Barrowman is in two roughly 20 second WMV files. Unfortunately the famous scene is not included. For that you will just have to go down to your local DVD store, find the bargain bin and perhaps splurge out as much as $5 for this cinema classic.

PS - For those in the UK. Charlotte Church will be on the Parkinson ITV chat show Saturday evening. It looks like she will just be promoting her new album without any Torchwood announcements.

The Sincerity Squad

Torchwood's trio of John Barrowman, Charlotte Church and Russell T. Davies are all folks who could never be accused of being fake. Like me, I'm sure you have listened to far too many interviews with stars who discuss how they could never get a date in high school. It's refreshing when celebrities don't condescend to their fans and don't stress about needing to please everybody.

Barrowman is open about his sexuality and beliefs. He didn't care who he might offend when he said the following to The Glasgow Herald: "Organised religion says gay men are evil. So why would I want a marriage from a belief system that hates me?" In an old interview for US Magazine JB said that after accidently going into a religious chatroom he wrote to them, "You call yourself Christians, so why are you hating all these people?"


Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk
Charlotte Church was just named the most sincere female celebrity in a British poll. We already know she is not shy, but did you know that at the tender age of 15 she was already more insightful than most Americans? In reference to 9/11/2001 she told The Sunday Times after that attack, "People overdramatise and lose perspective."

And Torchwood writer/producer Russell T Davies who came up with the groundbreaking Queer as Folk has made no attempts to hide his homosexuality or Atheism when speaking with the media. In an interview with Spedders.com RTD noted that, "If Jesus Christ were alive today, he'd say 'Gay men? Fantastic. Good for you."

Good for you Russell, and good for us, as it looks like we are in store for a show that is being put together by intelligent adults for intelligent adults.

Coming to a store near you: Torchwood Christmas Crackers

The BBC seems quite sure that Torchwood is going to take off. If you look at their trademark application online you can see they have covered all the bases. If they have the slightest chance of selling a product with the word Torchwood on it they have put it in their request list.


Source:http://www.joeacevedo.com
From Torchwood kites to Torchwood swimming flippers they are trademarking it. It seems quite odd to me however that there are so many toys and kid's type items in their request. After all, isn't this show being called an X-rated version of Doctor Who? There are no Trademark requests at all for any "adult items."

So for my entrepreneurial readers, now is your chance to make a fortune on some items the BBC may have overlooked. The first few that come to my mind are Torchwood Condoms, Torchwood Massage Oil and Torchwood inflatable love dolls.

PS - There was a big spread on JB in the Daily Mail this past weekend. Posted here at barrrowmanonline.

If the glass slipper fits then Captain Jack's heart belongs to you

For those of you outside of the UK who don't know what a "panto" is, then the British christmas musical tradition has not spread to your part of the world. Tickets are on sale for a Cinderella theatrical production being staged in Wimbledon in December featuring Torchwood's John Barrowman.

This show is being put on by Clear Channel. I'm not suprised those bastards are getting into the panto business, since we know Clear Channel is always working hard to insure that all forms of media are entertaining to strictly five-year-olds. But hey, it is your chance to see JB in the flesh (although he probably won't be showing too much skin) and should be fun for the tiny tikes. Here's some pre- Captain Jack footage of JB singing and dancing that should whet your appetite. I wear size 12 shoes so I have absolutely no shot of getting to dance with Prince Barrowman at the ball.