April 2022 – Page 2

Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils air time and episode length confirmed

7 April 2022 admin Comments 0 Comment

Lethbridge-Stewart: THE END BEGINS

5 April 2022 admin Comments 0 Comment

Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce the first book in its final series of Lethbridge-Stewart novels.

The final year of Lethbridge-Stewart novels is split in two halves, with the first a trilogy of novels set during Lethbridge-Stewart’s time as a teacher at Brendon School. This first of these, A Most Haunted Man, sees the return of Sarah Groenewegen to the series, with her first novel since 2017’s The Daughters of Earth, although her most recent short story featured in the UNIT: Operation Wildcat collection.

The 2022 series was put back a little when it was discovered the book planned to open the year was a little too close to the events at play in Ukraine. Thus, Spheres of Influence has been put on indefinite hold. Hopefully it will see the light of day at some point but, for now, and to make up for the delay, Candy Jar Books have also decided to reprint the very first Lethbridge-Stewart novel, The Forgotten Son: Special Edition, with a brand-new cover by Richard Young.

Forgotten Son

Head of Publishing Shaun Russell says:

“When it became apparent that the themes and events depicted in Spheres of Influence too closely echoed current events, Andy Frankham-Allen and I quickly came to the decision that to release it at this time would be, at the very least, insensitive. Putting it on hold did mean bringing forward the rest of 2022’s books, and finding a replacement. Fortunately, Andy quickly solved that problem by commissioning a third Brendon novel, turning the first three titles into a loose trilogy. For myself, I decided it would be a nice idea to reprint The Forgotten Son with a new cover, to hopefully make up a little for the delay. I must stress, however, that the content remains the same from the previous revised version.”

A Most Haunted Man Cover

A Most Haunted Man is set two years after the Brigadier’s traumatic encounter with his future self in the Doctor Who television serial, Mawdryn Undead.

Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says:

“This is another of those books which started an idea that came up through discussions with Shaun – a good two years ago, at least. It was a while before I realised it was the perfect fit for Sarah. I’d been wanting to do another novel with her, and she came back for a short story in The Laughing Gnome: The HAVOC Files, so it was great when she agreed to do another novel for us. The only real prerequisite, other than the core idea, was that it had to be set during the Brig’s time at Brendon when he’d lost all memory of the Doctor.”

Sarah Groenewegen says:

“I adore writing for the Brigadier, and being able to explore different facets of this much-loved character has been great fun. When I was offered another novel in the series, this one set in 1979 and during the Brig’s post-army career as a school teacher, I immediately said yes. It’s an honour to be asked to contribute a novel to the final season of Lethbridge-Stewart novels, which has proved to be a terrific series of stories.”

Sarah’s previous novel, The Daughters of Earth, dealt with the breakdown of his relationship with his then-fiancée. In this book, Sarah’s dealing with a breakdown of a different sort.

Sarah says:

“I wanted to explore how he deals with strange goings-on when he has forgotten so much, and when he doesn’t have his soldiers to call on to help. My brief was to write a psychological thriller, in which the Brig’s identity and life is stolen from him. The novel allowed me to explore the nature of identity theft, and memory loss, and the combined uneasiness of not being able to trust your own mind. I added a set of identical twins to the mix, a boy at Brendon, and a girl at a local comprehensive. They are at the cusp of their own change from creepy kids who enjoy playing tricks on people, to young adults facing choices.”

Setting the book in 1979 also freed Sarah up from the ongoing narrative, and gave her a chance to explore a different facet from the usual setting of the early-70s.

Sara continues:

“The setting was apposite because of the feeling of being on a cusp of change, but without knowing its direction. In that, it parallels much of today’s politics. I found it cathartic to explore similar themes of being seduced by the apparent certainty of authoritarianism — even with the attendant feeling it could turn on its own to destroy at a moment’s notice. 1979 proved to be a watershed year in Britain. The full assault on the unions, LGBTQIA people, and appeals to jingoism of the worst kind were all yet to come; and for a while the political turmoil that brought much of the UK to a standstill ceased. It’s hard to think that in this day and age of TV-on-demand, the stations that are now ITV were off air for much of the year. 1979 was an amazing year for British pop music. Punk began to segue into the New Romantic movement, and rap, reggae and disco attracted huge numbers of fans. It was fun delving into the music of the time through a few of the kids who are important during the story.”

The cover is by popular artist Martin Baines, returning from the success of his recent cover for UNIT: Operation Wildcat.

Martin says:

“I was partially inspired by a German poster of a classic British film. My last Candy Jar cover I did was for the UNIT anthology, Operation Wildcat. It was very flash, bang, wallop. Because of this, I enjoyed tackling a more psychological concept for this book.”

Blurb:

In 1977, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart suffered a shock so great that he was hospitalised. Not that he can remember what happened. Teachers found him, knocked out cold beside the obelisk on the hill. No signs of an attack. No bumps on his head, and no memory of why he lay where he fell, who he’d been with, and great chunks of his past torn from his mind.

It wasn’t like any form of amnesia described in the textbooks. The clinic discharged him back to Brendon Public School and he resumed his duties as a teacher of mathematics and rugger.

Two years later and a series of nightmares send him back to the clinic. Then come the pranks played by identical twins, his own erratic behaviour and short-term memory loss leading to a breach of the Official Secrets Act. Someone else is living in his house, driving his car, and making changes to the school he loves.

It seems that the demons haunting him prove too big for him to fight on his own.

The final series of Lethbridge-Stewart will be split in two parts over 2022, the first half is the Brendon trilogy and will continue with Legacy of the Dominator by Nick Walters, and The Overseers II by James Middleditch. The second half will be the final in the road to UNIT narrative which began in 2015, with novels by Natasha Gerson, John Peel, and Jonathan Blum.

June Brown: 1927-2022

4 April 2022 admin Comments 0 Comment

BBC One - June Brown playing Lady Eleanor in the Doctor ...

It has been announced today that actress June Brown known to millions as Dot Cotton / Branning in EastEnders and of course as Lady Eleanor in Doctor Who: The Time Warrior (1973) has died at the age of 95.

We're sad to report the passing of June Brown OBE, MBE, who appeared in 'The Time Warrior' in 1973 https://t.co/KpbankkGu9 pic.twitter.com/pV458YpAkW

— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) April 4, 2022

June Muriel Brown OBE (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera EastEnders (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside Soap Awards and received the Lifetime Achievement award at the British Soap Awards. Brown was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to drama and to charity. In 2009, she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, making her the second performer to receive a BAFTA nomination for their work in a soap opera, after Jean Alexander. It was announced in February 2020 that Brown had decided to leave EastEnders permanently, at the age of 93.

Brown was born on 16 February 1927 in Needham Market, Suffolk, the daughter of Louisa Ann (née Butler) and Henry William Melton Brown. She was one of five children, although her younger brother John Peter died of pneumonia in 1932 at 15 days old, and her elder sister Marise died in 1934 aged eight from a meningitis-like illness. Aside from English, she had Irish, Scottish, and from her maternal grandmother, Sephardic Jewish (from Algeria, the Netherlands, and Italy), ancestry. Through her grandmother, she was descended from noted Jewish bare-knuckle boxer Isaac Bitton.

Brown was educated at St John’s Church of England School in Ipswich and then won a scholarship to Ipswich High School, where she passed the school certificate examinations. During the Second World War, she was evacuated to the Welsh village of Pontyates in Carmarthenshire. During the later years of the war, she served in the Wrens and was classically trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in London’s Lambeth area.

Film and television

Brown had a long television career, with small roles in Coronation Street as Mrs Parsons (1970–71); the Play for Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman as Clara (1971); the Doctor Who story The Time Warrior as Lady Eleanor (1973–74); the nursing soap Angels; the history-of-Britain Churchill’s People; long-running comedy drama Minder; the police drama soap The Bill; and cult sci-fi series Survivors. She had a bigger part as Mrs Leyton in the costume drama The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), and played Mrs Mann in Oliver Twist (1985).

She also starred in the wartime big band comedy Ain’t Misbehavin (1997), and played Nanny Slagg in the BBC’s big-budget production of Gormenghast in 2000. She was cast in small roles in several movies, appearing as the grieving mother of an undead biker in British horror flick Psychomania (1971), as well as Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Sitting Target (1972), The 14 (1973), Murder by Decree (1979), Nijinsky (1980), The Mambo Kings (1992) and the Mr. Bean movie spin-off Bean (1997). She also appeared as Tom Hedden’s wife in Straw Dogs (1971), although her scenes were cut from the film. In 1984, she featured in the TV mini-series Lace which starred actress Phoebe Cates.

In 2006, Brown appeared as Aunt Spiker at the Children’s Party at the Palace, an all-star event to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday. In 2010, Brown took part in the annual Christmas special of Strictly Come Dancing. Brown said “I’m terrified and apprehensive about what I’ve let myself in for, I must be barmy and I’m not sure what’s come over me… I just hope I can remember the steps to the routines. I’m looking forward to working with the professional dancers and the other contestants.” Her dancing partner was Vincent Simone, with whom she danced the tango.

In July 2012, Brown hosted a documentary for the BBC called Respect Your Elders, which looked at society’s treatment and attitudes towards the elderly.

Theatre

Brown was also active in British theatre. She directed Pin Money by Malcolm Needs in London, and Double D by Matthew Westwood in Edinburgh and London. She played Mrs Danvers in a touring production of Rebecca. Other plays include An Inspector Calls, The Lion in Winter, A View from the Bridge, and numerous pantomimes. During her early career, she played the roles of Hedda Gabler and Lady Macbeth. In 2009, Brown played Jessie in the West End production of Calendar Girls at the Noël Coward Theatre. Also in the play were former EastEnders stars Anita Dobson (Angie Watts), Jill Halfpenny (Kate Mitchell) and Jack Ryder (Jamie Mitchell).

EastEnders

Brown was recommended to producers for the role of Dot Cotton in EastEnders by one of its original cast members, Leslie Grantham, who played Den Watts. Brown played the role from 1985 to 2020, with a break between 1993 and 1997.

On 31 January 2008, Brown became the first and, as of 2020, only soap actor to carry an entire episode single-handed. The episode, titled “Pretty Baby….”, featured a monologue looking back over her character’s life, dictated to a cassette machine for her husband Jim to listen to in hospital following a stroke. The fact that co-star and close friend John Bardon (who played Jim) was recovering from a stroke in real life added extra pathos to the episode. In 2009, Brown was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Brown’s nomination came as a result of her “single-hander” episode of EastEnders, the director of which she praised.

On 30 April 2012, it was announced that Brown was to take a six-month break from EastEnders and planned to write her autobiography during her time off. In October 2012, it was announced she had returned to filming, and she appeared on screen again from January 2013. Her autobiography, Before The Year Dot, was published in 2013.

In May 2015, Brown revealed that her eyesight was failing due to macular degeneration. Later, in 2016, a storyline for Dot where her eyesight was deteriorating was introduced. Speaking about the condition in April 2019, Brown said that it had worsened since undergoing surgery in 2017, and that she did not go out socially because of her eyesight: “I never go to soap awards or suchlike now. I don’t recognise people that I know and they would think I was snubbing them.”

On 20 February 2020, Brown announced she had left EastEnders.

Personal life and death

In 1950, Brown met and married actor John Garley; he suffered from depression and took his own life in 1957. In 1958, she married actor Robert Arnold. They had six children in seven years, one of whom died in infancy. The couple were together for 45 years, until he died in 2003 of Lewy-body dementia. Thereafter, she lived alone in Surrey.

Brown was a supporter of the Conservative Party and told The Guardian in 2009, “I wouldn’t vote Labour, dear, if you paid me. I vote Conservative.” Like her EastEnders character, she was a Christian.

Brown was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours, both for services to drama and to charity.

Brown died on 3 April 2022, at the age of 95.

Awards and recognition

Year	Result	Award	Category	Film or series	Character
1999	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Most Popular Actress	EastEnders	Dot Cotton
2000	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Most Popular Actress
	Nominated	The British Soap Awards	Best Actress
	Nominated		Best Single Episode – Ethell’s Emotional Death
	Nominated		Best On Screen Partnership – shared with Gretchen Franklin
	Won	TV Quick and TV Choice Awards	Best Actress
2001	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Most Popular Actress
	Nominated	The British Soap Awards	Best Actress
	Nominated		Best Dramatic Performance
	Nominated		Hero of the Year
	Nominated		Best Storyline – Dot’s Schizophrenia Plot
	Won	Inside Soap Awards	Best Actress
	Won	Inside Soap Awards	Best Storyline – Dot’s Schizophrenia Plot
	Nominated	TV Quick and TV Choice Awards	Best Actress
2002	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Most Popular Actress
	Nominated	The British Soap Awards	Best Actress
	Won		Best On Screen Partnership – shared with John Bardon
2004	Nominated		Best Actress
2005	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Most Popular Actress
	Nominated	The British Soap Awards	Best Actress
	Won		Best On Screen Partnership – shared with John Bardon
	Won		Lifetime Achievement Award
	Won	Inside Soap Awards	Best Actress
	Won	Inside Soap Awards	Best Couple – shared with John Bardon
	Nominated	TV Quick and TV Choice Awards	Best Actress
	Nominated	TV Quick and TV Choice Awards	Best Soap Storyline – Dot’s Cancer
2007	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Most Popular Actress
2008	Nominated	TRIC Awards	Best TV Personality
2009	Nominated	The National Television Awards	Serial Drama Performance
2009	Nominated	BAFTA Television Awards	Actress in a Leading Role

Filmography

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) as Woman Patient
Straw Dogs (1971) as Mrs Hedden (scenes deleted)
Sitting Target (1972) as Lomart’s neighbour
Psychomania (1972) as Mrs Pettibone
The 14 (1973) as The Mother
Murder by Decree (1979) as Annie Chapman
Nijinsky (1980) as Maria Stepanova
Misunderstood (1984) as Mrs Paley
The Mambo Kings (1992) as Portly Woman
Bean: The Movie (1997) as Delilah
Margery and Gladys (2003) as Gladys Gladwell
Spidarlings (2016) as June
Ethel & Ernest (2016) as Ernest’s stepmother

Television

The Rough and Ready Lot (September 1959) as Chica
Coronation Street (1970–1971) as Mrs. Parsons (3 episodes)
Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971) as Clara
Doctor Who (The Time Warrior serial) (1973–1974) as Lady Eleanor of Wessex (4 episodes)
South Riding (1974) as Lily Sawdon (4 episodes)
Special Branch (1974) as Chrissy (1 episode)
Churchill’s People (1975) as Agnes Paston (1 episode)
The Sweeney (1975) as Mrs Martin (1 episode)
The Prince and the Pauper (1976) as Mother Canty with Nicholas Lyndhurst (5 episodes).
The Duchess of Duke Street (1976–1977) as Mrs Violet Leyton (6 episodes)
Survivors (1977) as Susan (1 episode)
God’s Wonderful Railway (1980) as Elsie Grant (3 Episodes)
Lace (1984) as Mrs Trelawney (2 episodes)
Minder (1984) as Joany (1 episode)
The Bill (1984) as Mrs Doleman (1 episode)
Oliver Twist (1985) as Mrs Mann (1 episode)
EastEnders (1985–1993, 1997–2020) as Dot Cotton/Branning (2,351 episodes)
Gormenghast (2000) as Nannie Slagg (2 episodes)
Heading Out (2013) as Sozzie (1 episode)
June Brown at 90: A Walford Legend (2017), TV special
100 Years Younger in 21 Days (2018) as herself (documentary series)
Hard to Please OAPS (2019) as herself (documentary series, 6 episodes)