Nearly Torchwood Time!

Yup yup, Torchwood is coming back in 2009 with, probably several, large bangs! And the wonderful people at DigitalSpy have got an interview with producer Peter Bennett for us!

Torchwood returns

By Neil Wilkes, Editor

The title for this series is somewhat intriguing. What does it mean?
"Basically from a concept, we wanted to go down the children dilemma route. Because this storyline is a subject that's going to affect all the children of Earth, it was a natural title to come up with."

What's the plotline of this series?"It's different to every other year. It's not a story about spaceships, but it's about a government that did a deal with aliens back in the '60s, and they're now dealing with the consequences of that deal when the sins of their past come back to haunt them."

What was the thinking behind switching to doing a five-episode serial?
"Having done 26 standalone stories, we kind of wanted to take this series to another level and by making it one story over five nights, we feel we've done that. It's big, it's epic, and it's very different."

At the end of series two we lost two of the regular cast, Owen and Tosh. How much are they missed?
"On set Burn and Naoko are missed, because they were a terrific part of the team socially and for morale. As far as the storylines are concerned, it's allowed us to see a whole new side of what's left of our regular characters and learn a whole lot more about their lives. Also we've got new characters, people like Peter Capaldi, who's fantastic as the government middle man caught up in the storm, Liz May Brice as a covert government agent and Paul Copely as a damaged man."

And are there any direct additions to the Torchwood team?
"We sort of bring in Gwen's husband Rhys (Kai Owen). He was always on the fringes anyway but he takes a much more active part in the storyline now. And we've got a new young lady who helps the team - I wouldn't say she's part of the team but she kind of helps them out. She's played by a new actress called Cush Jumbo, who's a very pretty young lady and who I'm sure is going to go on to bigger things."

John Barrowman has previously hinted that he might quit the show after this series. Do you think that's true? What do you think Torchwood would be like without Captain Jack?
"I think it would be very difficult without John. I've not heard him say he wouldn't want to stick around after a third series, so I'm not sure where that's come from. But he certainly never mentioned it to us or on set. It wouldn't be the same without him obviously. Captain Jack is a star in his own right!"

Are you nervous about how the audience will take to the new format?
"Yes, of course. It's something none of us has done before so we're all a bit nervous of it. I've got the bonus of having seen the material we've shot and I can assure you, we've got some absolutely fantastic material with some amazing acting. It's stunning and I would defy anybody not to be impressed by it."

Where are you at with production on the series right now?
"We've just shown our executive producers the first cut version of the first episode and this week we're hoping to show them the first cut of the second episode. It's a very very tough post schedule. We have to deliver the whole thing, with all effects and music, by March. So to do five one-hours is a real tough schedule, particularly because we've got so much amazing material. I'd guess we're two thirds of the way through and the last third is a struggle - but a nice struggle."

Read the full article here.

Hooray!