Doctor Who: Unleashed 1x2

1. In this episode,

2. we've got a murderous music monster called Maestro.

3. I think one of the most dangerous things in a person

4. is unpredictability.

5. We've got The Beatles. This is me real hair. Yeah.

6. It's impressive. Yeah.

7. We've got a lorra lorra Cilla. Surprise, surprise!

8. We've got Johannes. I have to say, I'm a bit nervous.

9. Are you? Cos I've never done a TV drama before.

10. That's not bad. We're up to about six and a half... Are we?

11. .. possibly a seven. Come on, there we are. Yes...

12. We've got Shirley.

13. We've got spoilers.

14. There's always a twist Hey!

15. And we've got the moves.

16. I'm Steffan Powell and welcome to a fabtastic episode

17. of Doctor Who Unleashed. Let's twist!

18. 1963.

19. Afros, bouffants, mini skirts and Chelsea boots. Love, peace and...

20. .. disharmony?

21. We're here to bring you the death of music and civilisation.

22. And the birth of another ghastly and thrilling Doctor Who villain.

23. Maestro!

24. She's the only human left...

25. .. with music in her heart!

26. Demonic, powerful, erratic,

27. Maestro is the offspring

28. of another legendary Doctor Who nemesis...

29. The Toymaker.

30. Keeping going with this fantastical strand of this pantheon of gods,

31. some of us call them the Gods of Chaos, which is a great title,

32. I don't know if it's official, but I like it,

33. it's a chance, I think, introducing these gods,

34. it starts to link them together

35. and Maestro is actually

36. the child of The Toymaker.

37. The Toymaker seems to be the supreme being of this pantheon.

38. He's not. There's plenty of discoveries to come with that.

39. But, actually, Maestro is then their child

40. and they share the same laugh.

41. I think it's going to be known as probably one of the best villains

42. on Doctor Who.

43. It's such a great link to The Toymaker as well,

44. because they're so similar but have such different elements

45. to their villain arc.

46. It's so nice to see the Doctor up against a massive, great big enemy.

47. I can't fight this thing. Enough.

48. Maestro is played by actor, singer and comedian Jinkx Monsoon.

49. I'm going solo.

50. Jinkx gained worldwide fame

51. winning season five of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013,

52. and went on to be crowned the show's Queen of All Queens in 2022.

53. In the same year, Jinkx played

54. "Mama" Morton in a sell-out Broadway run of Chicago.

55. I kind of know Jinkx. I've done podcasts with Jinkx.

56. I always go see Jinkx's shows when Jinkx is in Britain,

57. and when I wrote this script, I just kind of thought, well,

58. that would be the most ideal casting. Music, Maestro, please!

59. Even then, even though I love Jinkx, I loved her performance,

60. I loved her attitude to work, I love what she represents,

61. even then I had no idea how good this was going to be.

62. I heard music.

63. And music is MINE!

64. I think every single day was,

65. it was like watching a theatre performance with her.

66. She really, really brought a certain sort of magic

67. that I've never witnessed with anyone before.

68. Oh, working with Jinkx was amazing.

69. Someone who's, like, mastered all... all the crafts -

70. singing, acting, playing instruments.

71. Brought a real, like, elevation to the show

72. and elevated both mine and Millie's game. So that was good.

73. Fight me! Maestro, leave her alone.

74. I have never seen an actor work harder and more diligently

75. with much imagination, and it's massive,

76. it's got so much nerve, it's got so much boldness.

77. I can see some people shivering in the face of this performance.

78. Go and shiver. This is epic.

79. Marker. The real eye-popping thing about this performance

80. is that it's Jinkx's first major TV acting role.

81. How much fun has it been to get to be all evil and nasty?

82. It's really, really great, you know?

83. I mean, I like to think of myself

84. as a fairly kind, happy, spirited person.

85. Yeah. That's why I think I like playing villains the most

86. is because it's a bigger stretch for me as a char...

87. I like when I don't play myself.

88. The me in the character is really, like, the flamboyancy

89. and the pageantry.

90. Like, I think I'm playing a fairly, you know, fabulous Maestro.

91. And now his song is sung.

92. The taking joy in seeing other people hurt,

93. that's the exact opposite of me. I'm a highly anxious Virgo

94. who assumes everything's my fault. Yeah. And I hate it.

95. I've noticed, watching your takes,

96. that you sometimes will do the same take in three or four,

97. even more different ways, and is that sort of because

98. the character is so unpredictable? Is that a deliberate choice for you?

99. There's that. But it's also the way Ben and I

100. have been working together - Ben, the director - is that

101. we talk, really, we talk a lot about, like,

102. what's going on in Maestro's head here,

103. what's motivating this line or that line?

104. And then once we feel like we've got it, then, yeah, we go,

105. "OK, what's another angle?" Yeah.

106. The One Who Waits is almost here.

107. The One Who Waits is almost here.

108. The One Who Waits is almost here.

109. Villains often just get a free rein to do whatever the hell they want,

110. because you have to build this sense of danger.

111. And I think one of the most dangerous things in a person

112. is unpredictability.

113. Boo. But it's so sad!

114. There's no logic between this action and that action and that action.

115. That's scary in a person, right? Yeah.

116. Ahem.

117. And that's the most fun thing to play in Maestro is, like,

118. I can literally go from being happy and toying with the Doctor

119. to being snarling at him and to being demonic,

120. to being Bugs Bunny.

121. Can't trick me twice, honey.

122. The whole canvas is open for me and I've got a full set of paints.

123. In December 2023,

124. The Goblin Song from the Christmas special

125. peaked at number one on the iTunes top songs chart.

126. Amazing. No, it's not! What do we do?

127. It was written by composer Murray Gold,

128. renowned for scoring dramas like It's A Sin,

129. Last Tango In Halifax and Gentleman Jack.

130. Murray first worked on Doctor Who

131. back in 2005 and scored fan favourites

132. such as This Is Gallifrey, I Am The Doctor, and Doomsday.

133. Murray has also written the music for this episode.

134. Although, let's be honest, some of it is absolute pants.

135. When someone says to you,

136. "I want you to write music like The Beatles..." Yeah.

137. You know, it's a fairly high bar that they've set there, isn't it?

138. What does that feel like when you get that call? I mean,

139. the good thing about the brief that I got was they asked me

140. to write some really bad Beatles songs.

141. So writing some Beatles songs which they're

142. struggling to lift off the ground is much easier than

143. writing a Beatles song that could just be mistaken for something

144. Lennon and McCartney wrote.

145. OK, roll to record.

146. It was really difficult, I didn't know how to go about it,

147. and the key was an email from Russell.

148. He just said, "Oh, just make it funny."

149. Yeah, I had a good laugh writing bad songs,

150. which is very easy for me to do - I found that bit easy.

151. The fact that music talent has been drained out of the world,

152. so that spark of genius has gone, so it's just doggerel, that's why

153. there's a song about a dog cos I just thought it's doggerel,

154. so they literally sang about dogs.

155. And that's what The Beatles are now in this music-less world.

156. How long does it take to write a fake Beatles song? Um...

157. A bad one or a good one? The bad ones.

158. The bad ones, like, honestly, probably 15 seconds.

159. Is it?

160. I mean, it's just about getting it bad correctly.

161. That was it, really. I did do two attempts at it, I think,

162. and then the third, Russell basically said,

163. "Yeah, that's it." Yeah. "Go with that one."

164. But it wasn't just the one bad song.

165. Murray also had to write a stinker for another '60s star - Cilla Black.

166. Oh, Cilla.

167. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know The Beatles.

168. But what about Cilla Black?

169. Through the '90s and noughties,

170. Cilla was famous for presenting TV hits Surprise, Surprise,

171. and the grandmother of all dating shows, Blind Date.

172. But back in the '60s, she was the Dua Lipa of pop.

173. for someone like me?

174. When your agent calls you up and says,

175. "How do you fancy being Cilla Black?" What do you say to that?

176. I was literally, like, "Oh, my God, my mum says

177. "I look like Cilla Black all the time."

178. Does she? Yeah. Literally. That was my, like, reaction to it.

179. Yeah. Like, absolutely, I've got red hair, yes.

180. So it's not a wig? No, this is a wig but I do have, like, real...

181. Like, real life under here it is red as well. Yeah. You're loving it.

182. Well, no, at first I was like, well, if you say I look like Cilla Black

183. and it's the young... as you're saying,

184. it's the young Cilla Black... Not Cilla Black from the '90s.

185. But if it's, like, Cilla Black, "Surprise, surprise!"

186. I'm going to be slightly offend... Not offended - she was lovely!

187. But, like, I don't mind looking like the younger version of her.

188. Yeah. Yeah.

189. Marker.

190. Did you go back and watch her,

191. you know, in her... back in the old days... Yes.

192. ..in her pomp and sort of... Yes. Gave me so much anxiety

193. cos she is so good at singing! And I was just like,

194. "Oh, my God, I've got to recreate that." Yeah. She was brilliant.

195. I only know her as an old woman. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

196. From, like, being Blind Date, yeah?

197. So, like, to me, oh, my God, to feel that bad

198. that people say I look like her. Do you know what I mean?

199. Has anybody ever said to you, "McCartney?"

200. I mean, not really, to be honest,

201. but I've got a little brother who's played Ringo before, so...

202. This is in the family! It's in the family.

203. So between us, we're going to try and cover all of The Beatles

204. over our career. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

205. Are you trying to do an imitation of John Lennon and or are you trying

206. to play a character? It's a difficult thing.

207. I mean, I'm a huge Lennon fan,

208. so this is kind of a dream come true, but the...

209. .. the reality is, you know, if you were to turn up

210. and do an impression, everyone's going to go, "That's an impression,"

211. and it's not grounded in your kind of... in your performance, you know,

212. and you learn that lesson at some point as an actor

213. when you make that mistake.

214. Cos obviously when you think of The Beatles,

215. you think of the brilliant songs that they sing. But in this episode,

216. there's some pretty lame stuff coming out of you.

217. What was that like to, you know, to read into?

218. It's a relief not to be singing a Beatles song, put it that way,

219. because the comparisons then would be too close

220. and you're never going to sound like The Beatles, you know,

221. as much as you might try.

222. So it's kind of good to sing an original, in a way,

223. and put the affectation of a Beatles track on it.

224. Yeah. But the songs are, you know, bad for a reason, so...

225. Singing about dogs, though. Dogs, yeah. What's not to love?

226. Singing about dogs, great. Yeah.

227. Are you musicians as well as actors then,

228. or are you just in for the...?

229. I'd say, like, an actor who can sing a bit.

230. A bit. Yeah. A little bit.

231. Everybody's downplaying themselves here.

232. What we need is a few drinks and go to karaoke,

233. and I bet it'll be amazing. Yeah. Don't know about that.

234. Still to come on Doctor Who Unleashed -

235. I fess up to Strictly's Johannes.

236. One day you'll have to try and teach me to dance cos these hips don't lie

237. and they don't dance. I'll be honest with you.

238. Can I "beehive" on work experience?

239. You are in control of the hair. I'm in control of the hair.

240. The hair is not in control of you.

241. And - spoiler alert -

242. we've got a world exclusive clip from the next episode of Doctor Who.

243. But first...

244. The thing about telly on the screen is it all looks so easy.

245. But in real life,

246. even the simplest of scenes can be a logistical nightmare.

247. Take this episode's rooftop sequence.

248. Old London town!

249. Firstly, this isn't London. It's Newport city centre,

250. and that London skyline has been painted in during the edit.

251. Secondly, Millie's not really playing the piano.

252. It's a professional stand-in.

253. And thirdly, that's not Ncuti

254. precariously peering out across the rooftops. It's a stunt double.

255. Finally, the seemingly straightforward moment of Ruby

256. on the old Joanna has been a whole world of pain

257. for a small army of people.

258. It's been a challenge, this one.

259. Every bit of shooting kit has been craned up.

260. Every large prop,

261. every lens, every Magliner has been craned up. I think the water

262. is about the only thing we've carried up, to be honest.

263. Which has been a challenge cos, you know, we're four floors up.

264. What should have been quite straightforward,

265. I mean, say straightforward, I know very little about cranes.

266. So in a clear case of life imitating art...

267. That's it. Nice and safe.

268. I want that installed on the rooftop like it is precious China.

269. .. the piano was hoisted up the building in both the episode

270. and in real life.

271. And after a long day's shoot,

272. what goes up must come down.

273. The crane is coming back to get all of our kit back

274. at the end of the day, back down to the ground.

275. We've got a crane.

276. And we needed another crane

277. to get the crane on the roof.

278. And then over there, there's another crane

279. which needs to take down that crane. So what we thought we'd do

280. is try and get as many cranes as possible to Newport and, um,

281. yeah, so here we are, craning away.

282. Many, many cranes.

283. A story of cranes.

284. How much more is there to come down?

285. Three grip trolleys... Another Magliner, more grip equipment.

286. And, oh, mate, you've got at least another four trips, at tops.

287. Right.

288. It's all going well. It's working.

289. We're getting the kit down.

290. It got up. So, yeah, we'll see how the rest of the night goes.

291. If I'm still here when it gets dark then it's not gone well.

292. You can't have watched this week's episode of Doctor Who

293. and not thought, "Wow, those hairstyles are amazing."

294. So for this episode's work experience,

295. I'm going to join Doctor Who's hair and make-up guru

296. Claire Williams.

297. Hello, Claire. How's it going?

298. Hello, darling. How are you?

299. So this is where the magic happens.

300. I'm mildly afraid about this because I've never done this before.

301. And I'm also a little bit excited because Ally

302. has got me doing silly things on this show.

303. Yes. And I'm getting a little bit of payback.

304. OK. But obviously I'm going to make you look really good.

305. What are you doing? Obviously you're curling.

306. So I'm going to try and show you how we worked the look for Millie.

307. Loosely, we're doing a beehive shape, so you're going to help me

308. with this section. This is the most important section.

309. The bit everybody sees. The one we see the most. Yeah.

310. So you slide your comb in about an inch...

311. Yeah. .. from the parting. Right.

312. And pick up your section of hair. OK.

313. So that... About like that?

314. So is it a nice clean section? Yes. Right, so you've got your section.

315. Comb it straight up in the air. So this is the combing.

316. But be firmer. OK. You're being a bit... That's it, firmer. OK.

317. You are in control of the hair. I'm in control of the hair.

318. The hair is not in control of you. I am in control of the hair.

319. You're in control of the hair. The hair is not in control of me. OK.

320. You need to pick up your spray

321. and a little gentle spray just all the way up the length of the hair.

322. So not too much. And then comb that through to the end.

323. OK. So now what you want to do

324. is hold the hair in your left hand

325. and in your right hand... Yeah. .. pick up your roller.

326. You're sliding that right up to the end of the hair

327. without letting any drop down.

328. Shall we try again? Yeah.

329. OK, this is a bit fiddlier than it looks. Time for take two.

330. Tuck your ends in now.

331. I'm astonished.

332. Astonished? Did you get that on camera? That's brilliant.

333. Roll it down now, nice and tight, keep the tension on.

334. Just for body... Just for body. Just for body.

335. Now get your pin. Thank you. I feel like I'm getting

336. a lot of forehead there. Am I getting a lot of forehead? Sorry.

337. That's brilliant.

338. That's brilliant. Voila. I'm not taking that out.

339. That's fantastic. I'm sweating, I'm so stressed.

340. While the curlers do their curling,

341. Claire sorts out the make-up.

342. Let's get these rollers out.

343. Then it's out with the curlers.

344. Right, so we're going to get rid of all this hair now.

345. And we're going to do that with pins.

346. And we're going to sweep it into a nice chignon.

347. And then you're going to do the twist.

348. So like that. Yeah. Twist up.

349. Twisting it like that.

350. Yeah, that's pretty good.

351. I'm going to get one pin in there.

352. That should hold it? That should hold it now.

353. So can I let go? You can let go.

354. Now for the finishing zhuzh.

355. First, Claire back combs the remaining hair

356. at the back of Ally's head

357. and starts teasing it into that distinct beehive shape.

358. A squirt of hairspray and a couple of pins later

359. and the job's a good 'un,

360. leaving me to finish the front.

361. So we want this to flow.

362. Flow. Have lift.

363. Lift. And then a swoop.

364. A swoop... around.

365. Great. That's plenty. Plenty.

366. You've finished. Yay! Look at that.

367. It looks amazing.

368. Well done. Et voila!

369. Eh? Not bad.

370. I mean, I didn't do any of the work but...

371. It is the 1st of June 2023,

372. and behind me in Wolf Studios

373. there is a lot of excitement

374. because today is the day

375. we start filming the song and dance extravaganza that is

376. There's Always A Twist At The End.

377. Hello! So we're about to

378. rehearse on camera...

379. It's a crazy day today.

380. We've got singing, we've got dancing,

381. we've got Murray Gold over there.

382. And it's not often

383. you get to meet one of your top Spotify artists.

384. The whole fandango is being shot on five sets

385. in three different locations.

386. I just had to be here today because it's the musical.

387. It's the big number.

388. I wanted this all my life, and I'm here and they're going again,

389. and I might just go and join in.

390. The person in charge of making it flow seamlessly -

391. choreographer Jack Murphy.

392. So this one, when you got it and Russell said,

393. "I want you to choreograph this dance for me..." Yeah.

394. What's the first thing in your head? How are you able to make it sing

395. as it does? So the thing is, they actually said,

396. "Would you come on?" Because I'm the Bridgerton choreographer. Yeah.

397. Just a little drop there. Yeah.

398. Don't mind me. Jack also did a small TV show you might have heard of

399. called Bridgerton. I think it's about the old days or something.

400. The olden days, yeah.

401. And so when they offered and said, "Would you come and do that?"

402. I had read the twist and I said,

403. "So long as you let me do the twist,"

404. because I never get out of the 19th century,

405. they never let me out of the 19th century.

406. I'm the man that does Lord and Lady, you know, Fauntleroy,

407. you know. And I was like, I've been gagging,

408. so I'm, like, you know, I'm like a bat out of hell.

409. Yeah. Because I needed a challenge.

410. I needed to get out of the warm bath and kind of go,

411. "Right, come on, feel the fear and do it anyway."

412. Watching it made me really feel sort of like Hairspray vibes.

413. Were you after that as, like, really energetic?

414. It felt like a teen movie, it felt really exciting.

415. Is that what you wanted? Absolutely everywhere. Absolute...

416. I mean, Blues Brothers. Yeah. The lot. Yeah.

417. Chubby Checker, the lot.

418. And, you know, John Travolta. Yeah. The lot.

419. Marker.

420. But where did Jack unearth this talented troupe?

421. So, many of these dancers, we did a call-out.

422. Essentially dance schools

423. in the local Cardiff, Newport and Bristol and Swansea area

424. to find local talent.

425. And we did an audition in Cardiff,

426. which was 90 people.

427. Whittled it down to about 20 that we have here today.

428. Did you sign up for this, all this singing and dancing

429. that you're doing? I did not. I did not. Thank you, Russell.

430. Thank you, Russell. Yeah. But, no, very, very fun.

431. When you're working with actors, you assume that there's a degree

432. of movement there, that they can take to a dance,

433. but it's not always the case.

434. What was it like working with Ncuti and Millie?

435. Well, that is exactly the case, cos Millie hasn't trained.

436. She hasn't been to a vocational drama training like Ncuti has,

437. because he went to Royal Scottish, so you have to go in first of all,

438. just try a few gentle moves, kind of get an idea

439. of what their facilities, you know, so you're looking at

440. space and rhythm with them to see what they can do.

441. And, thankfully - thankfully - in this case,

442. cos it isn't always the case, um, both Ncuti and Millie

443. have fantastic natural movement abilities.

444. These dances that you've had to learn,

445. are you going to be whipping them out on the dance floor next time?

446. Might do. Might see me cutting a rug in Lewisham.

447. Busting out a twist.

448. Yeah, I mean, why not? Why not? Never know.

449. Mark it.

450. And it's not just Ncuti and Millie bringing the moves.

451. We also have Strictly's Shirley and Johannes.

452. Johannes, I have to start by saying how amazing is your hair?

453. Oh, my goodness, I can't tell you. I'm absolutely buzzing.

454. Are you enjoying it? Absolutely I am. Today has been just...

455. It has been exciting. Yeah. More than anything.

456. But I have to say I'm a bit nervous. Are you?

457. Cos I've never done a TV drama before. Yeah, but you've performed

458. in front of hundreds of... millions of people on Strictly.

459. Oh, no, honey - this is a different ballgame. This is Doctor Who!

460. When you get the call and they say, you know,

461. "Doctor Who wants you to come in..." Yeah. What's that like?

462. You reschedule your life and you make time

463. because you couldn't miss it for the world. Yeah.

464. That's what I have to say to anybody that gets an opportunity.

465. You can imagine when I've got the phone call, I was like, yay!

466. And... playback!

467. When I received that video from Jack, I was just like,

468. "OK, this is right up my street." It's '60s.

469. You're just having a boogie. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah.

470. And that is what's going to be fun about it,

471. is that it's not too serious. It's fun. Yeah.

472. And I think he's captured that with his moves.

473. Johannes said before we started filming that he can teach anybody

474. to dance. Absolutely. I have to hold you to that.

475. One day you'll have to try and teach me to dance

476. cos these hips don't lie and they don't dance.

477. I will oil them for you. I'll show you, I will hold your hand.

478. Absolutely. Don't worry.

479. And it's not just Johannes I'm taking tips from today.

480. Are you able just to, like, you know, as a dancer,

481. the language of dance, are you able to just turn it on?

482. "You're doing this. This is the move you're doing. Off you go."

483. Can you just do that? Well, Jack Murphy, our choreographer,

484. I actually got to do a little bit of Viennese Waltz with him, so...

485. Oh, did you? He is an avid Strictly fan.

486. Yeah. He can do ballroom and Latin,

487. as well as all the other phenomenal styles of dance that he does.

488. So, yes, I understood when he was talking,

489. "I want this twist, I want that, I want this, on five and seven..."

490. Yeah. So it was really easy to follow a great director.

491. He was fabulous.

492. Is it difficult when you've been used to judging people, you know,

493. for the last few years, when you're performing yourself,

494. do you ever think, "Oh, what would I...?

495. "How would I judge my own performance here?"

496. I've always been the type of person

497. that if somebody thinks I can do it better, I want to do it better.

498. So I love that we do it, like, 25 times. I get to practise it.

499. And I love criticism when it comes to making something better

500. for the whole company. Now you mention that, Shirley,

501. cos I was going to say, I thought in the second pass through...

502. I'm only joking. I think I missed the five and seven, though.

503. Well, I thought you were off beat, frankly. Not off.

504. No, no, never, never, never, never. Never off beat.

505. Shirley, sorry, I didn't mean...

506. Hope you didn't mind. I couldn't resist.

507. You gave it... I had to, you know, it was there.

508. Now, Shirley, I don't... I appreciate you're not prepared

509. for this, so feel free to tell me to go

510. but I have terrible hip movement. What can I do? You show me...

511. What was the move you were doing? You could straddle your legs

512. about 20 inches apart... Uh-huh.

513. .. and you could do a little roll around with a little pop...

514. Roll and pop. .. with a pop,

515. but a slow roll... Roll and pop.

516. And a pop and roll. Push it forward.

517. But you've got to keep the rest of your body super still. Super still.

518. Just in the bottom. You learn to isolate your body.

519. Ole! Hello. I think...

520. Well, we're not a million miles away. That's not bad.

521. We're up to about six and a half... Are we? possibly a seven.

522. Come on. There we are. Yes, darling. I'm just keeping this

523. for the next half an hour.

524. Come and see me in an hour and I'll be fine.

525. Shirley, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

526. Ah-ah-ah

527. Ah-ah-ah

528. a twist at the end

529. that it ends with a twist

530. that can't be missed

531. cos we know what's best

532. from the Northwest

533. for all of this

534. Always, always, always, always

535. always a twist at the end

536. Combat detected. Next time... Combat detected.

537. Combat detected. Combat detected.

538. Combat detected.

539. Patient acquired.

540. Sharp scratch.