I don't know, but he was a bloody good actor if you ask me.

He was in something the other day.

Can't remember what it was, though.

Great.

I knew you'd be pleased.

>He made the role of Adrian Mole his own... and he did those Bank adverts, and he was in Dr Who once, and he interviewed Gary Numan on some kids show.
http://uk.imdb.com/Name?Sammarco,+Gian

says he was on Press Gang. Incidentally, the Doctor WHo he was on 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was on UK Gold at the weekend'. It was the penultimate one of McCoy's I think.

>says he was on Press Gang. Incidentally, the Doctor WHo he was on 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was on UK Gold at the weekend'. It was the penultimate one of McCoy's I think.

Alas, McCoy made 4 more stories after "Greatest Show", which was the final story of his second season.

It has a very funny scene with Gian Sammarco and the fine Irish actor T.P.Mckenna, who played "The Captain" - Gian's character was his greatest fan ever. Having bored the Captain to death with stories of how he was his greatest fan, and how he'd collected every single piece of memorabilia about him, the Captain told him to get lost in no uncertain terms - a great parody of fandom.... Had to be there. Would have been funnier if swear words were ever allowed in Dr Who.

It was the last story of McCoy's second season.

(He went on to do a further season, if anyone cares)

>says he was on Press Gang.

He was indeed. Appeared in the second series episode "Something Terrible". His Gary Numan interview (see Jon's original posting) was probably from ITV's Get Fresh (Saturday mornings, mid 80s - Gilbert the Alien, Gaz Top, produced by Janet Street Porter), where he interviewed many other popstars, as well as Martin Degville, laughably misguided frontperson for Sigue Sigue Sputnik (fellow bandmember Tony James was stepping out with JSP at the time).

He used to be in Crossroads...I think.

He was a guest presenter on 'No. 73'

I've spent the last eleven years wishing that McCoy hadn't made that final season, you know...

Why? 'Fenric' was on UKG last Sunday and it's a belter. As is 'Ghost Light'. I thought that McCoy and co were just getting it right when Powell axed them.

I think 'Dragonfire' was the best McCoy. Or maybe 'Paradise Towers'. But the standard wasn't that high, to be honest.

Well, I was an outspoken fan of controversial opinions back in 1989, and I remain one now.

Loved McCoy's first two seasons, hated the last one. As anyone who read 'Specious Claptrap' or 'DO-NOT-WATCH-THIS-PROGRAMME' will know.

>He was a guest presenter on 'No. 73'

Goth-pop positive punksters "The Specimen" appeared on No. 73 once. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

Oh, but 'Ghost Light', 'Fenric' and 'Survival' were all bloody marvellous!

Made 'Time and the Rani' just a distant, if painful, memory.

Well, it's just my opinion, but I never liked them.

Well yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah... I've managed to upset a lot of fanzine readers with my opinions over the years, though...

Well...who cares? Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

Yeah, but the problem with a lot of Who fans is that they don't actually have an opinion of their own to be entitled to...

I know that a lot of fans are brainwashed into believing that certain seasons/stories are superior to others, but not all.

Fans seem to be becoming a bit more easy going about the whole thing. Just look at DWM, which has never been better (especially when it was with the Gary Gillatt / Alan Barnes team).

I agree - and back in the days when he was a fanzine editor, Gary G was one of the few voices of sanity in a "let's say that Tomb Of The Cybermen is a classic even though we cannot feasibly have seen it" world.

Exactly.

It's a shame he's gone from DWM, but TV Hits is a lucky magazine to have got him.

Which reminds me...I still haven't got the new DWM yet.

"Ghost Light" was pretentious bollocks of the worst order. I gather it was hugely edited to fit into three episodes, so they cut so much out as to render it indecipherable. But I liked "Curse of Fenric" and "Greatest Show" a lot. Hated McCoy, so pleased when he was finally written out. And while I hated Michael Grade in 1985 for suspending the series, I now see exactly why he was so right to do it - he wanted rid of JNT, even though BBC management wanted to keep him in place because there was nowhere else they wanted him - JNT, better known as John Nation Turn-off.....

Awww...poor JNT.

And you're right, Ghost Light makes no sense, even now after I've watched it about 50 times.

But it just *feels* so right.

>Awww...poor JNT.
>
>And you're right, Ghost Light makes no sense, even now after I've watched it about 50 times.
>
>But it just *feels* so right.
Absolutely. I didn't really get it at first... and still don't. But Iliked it then, and I love it now.
"Who was it that said Earthmen never invite their ancestors round to dinner?"
Worth it for that line alone...

>"Who was it that said Earthmen never invite their ancestors round to dinner?"
>Worth it for that line alone...
>

yeah, right - I'll stick to Hitch Hiker thanks...

Was Hitch Hiker good then?

Better even than The Pirate Planet?

>
>>"Who was it that said Earthmen never invite their ancestors round to dinner?"
>>Worth it for that line alone...
>>
>
>yeah, right - I'll stick to Hitch Hiker thanks...

I love HHGTTG, but it was just nice to see Adams being cited somewhere, even if it was 'only' Doctor Who

Apparently, the season of DW with Douglas Adams as script editor has a lot of Hitch Hiker style humour.

It was season 17 in 1979.

Fascinating, eh?

Yeah - Adams later 'borrowed' several of his Who scripts and used them in his own stuff. 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' borrows wholesale from 'City of Death' and 'Shada'. The stuff about the Wikkitmen in Life, The Universe and Everything is apparently from a rejected Who script...

He re-used the City of Death stuff?

Oh man, there's no way on earth he could have made a better version.

>He re-used the City of Death stuff?
>
>Oh man, there's no way on earth he could have made a better version.

What City of Death has, it has (a bouquet?) ... it has an ethos... (a bouquet?) a life, a spirit all of its own.... it has... (a bouquet?)
It has a boooo-kayyyyy! Shall we sip it and see?
Yes please!

If you don't, it'll be so much the worse for you, for this young lady, and for thousands of other people I could mention if I happened to have the Paris telephone directory about my person...


Where are we going?
Do you mean philosophically or geographically?
Philosophically.
We're going to lunch.


FANTASTIC!!!! Compared to this superlative, highly entertaining and beautifully scripted piece of seventies television, "Ghost Light" just doesn't stand up. It's more of a table wine, shall we say?

"I say, what a wonderful butler, he's so violent!"

"My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he seems".
"My dear, no-one could be as stupid as *he* seems".

I agree. City of Death is perhaps my favourite ever Who story.

"Do you know what I don't understand?"
"Probably."

>I agree. City of Death is perhaps my favourite ever Who story.

Only perhaps?

"Well if you don't understand heads, you shouldn't go about hitting them."

"Garcon, we'll have two glasses of water, make them doubles!"

"Listen, what's Scarlioni's angle?
I don't know. Romana, do you know Scarlioni's angle?
No, I was never any good at trigonometry..."


I could go on and on and on... and frequently I do. I just lurvvve Doctor Who!
By the way, I watched The Green Death the other day and, 70's chromakey/special effects aside, I'd forgotten how good it was...

"It's the Jagaroth who need all the chickens is it?"

"You're a beautiful woman, probably"

"Shall we take the lift, or fly?"
"Let's not be ostentatious."
"Alright. Let's fly, then!"

Heaven. The finest script I've ever seen on the show. Or any show, come to think of it.

And The Green Death is wonderful, yeah. It all feels very real.

I had forgotten how good City of Death was...

But I still stand by my earlier comments.

Actually...almost every line in City of Death is a gem.

>And The Green Death is wonderful, yeah. It all feels very real.

OK you're not so keen... I'm not really a Pertwee fan anyway, but I had this sudden urge to watch a Pertwee and picked that one and enjoyed it. I might watch a Hartnell today, because I'm feeling very irrational and unbalanced....

Meanwhile, back to quoting fab 'City of Death' lines:

"Aggghhh!"
"I haven't started yet."
"No, it's just his hands are cold"

Two art critics, John Cleese and Eleanor Bron, admiring the TARDIS:
"For me one of the most curious things about this piece is its wonderful afunctionalism."
"Yes, it's such of line and colour is curiously counterpointed by the redundant vestiges of its function"
"And since it has no call to be here, the art lines in the fact that it is here"
(TARDIS disappears)
"Exquisite, absolutely exquisite"

All this in a thread about Gian Sammarco - how spectacularly irrelevant. I love it!

I wasn't being sarcastic about The Green Death. I truly do like it!

"DUGGAN...Duggaaaaaan! That was possibly the most important punch in history!"

"Duggan, what are you doing?? That's a Louis Cairns!"

>I wasn't being sarcastic about The Green Death. I truly do like it!

Sorry John... anyway...

"Take arms against a sea of troubles? I told him that was a mixed metaphor, and he would insist..."

"Two thieves enter the Louvre gallery, and come out... with a bracelet. Couldn't you think of anything more interesting to steal?"
"Well, I suppose that would have been nice, but I've tried that before and all sorts of alarms go off which rather disturbs the concentration..."
"Ha ha ha, yes it would...."


Going back to Gian Sammarco and "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole", the reason it's so great is probably more to do with Beryl Reid and her tour de force performance as his gran, complete with genuine West Midlands accent. Bill Fraser, Julie Walters and Stephen Moore were all fabulous as well. A perfectly cast Thames TV production!

As I'm sure you're all aware, Sue Townsend has written "Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years" about an adult AM. Wonder if Gian Sammarco could be coaxed to do it?
Haven't read the book but have read the Guardian spin-off. It strikes me as having become quite bleak, but I suppose that's because he's an adult rather than a kid where there's always the promise of escape.

I think Adrian Mole is smug, patronising rubbish. I've said it before in the 'Worst series ever' strand, look up the reasons there. I can't be bothered to go through it again.

>I think Adrian Mole is smug, patronising rubbish. I've said it before in the 'Worst series ever' strand, look up the reasons there. I can't be bothered to go through it again.

Looking back on that strand - I think I may have nominated "That's My Boy" back in the dawn of time, but I didn't check back that far - I agree with your assertion that the books were patronising and smug, but having seen the TV adaptation recently I found it very entertaining. As a TV production, it was a solid one, well acted etc. though perhaps from dubious material.
I actually knew someone like Mole at school who was quite a sad person, and remains so to this day, but at the time (it was made into a series around 1986 I think) he was overjoyed at having a televised justification for his own personality. "Hey, I really am like Adrian Mole, didn't you see last night's one about the school trip etc." Perhaps this was the saddest thing of all....

The Cappucino Years is going to be televised.

Apparently, Helen Baxendale is to play Pandora. Julie Walters is also on board.

>The Cappucino Years is going to be televised.
>
>Apparently, Helen Baxendale is to play Pandora. Julie Walters is also on board.

At the risk of someone starting a strand entitled "Who for Adrian Mole?" I'd like to nominate Kevin Eldon, with Barry Took as the aged Adrian Mole writing his memoirs in an old peoples' home.

It's a shame Helen Baxendale is going to be in it.

>It's a shame Helen Baxendale is going to be in it.

any particular reason?

Well, she annoys me.

It's probably a bit irrational of me, come to think of it.