Who is McGann this time?

Publication: Radio Times
Date: 1996-02-17
Author: Geoff Ellis
Page: 26
Language: English

The One That Got Away Sunday ITV

From monocled mutineer to sixties drop-out, Paul McGann is a man of many parts. As we watch him playing an SAS hero on TV this week he'll be hard at work in Canada, transforming himself into the eighth Doctor Who. Geoff Ellis reports

If you think he makes an unlikely Doctor Who, you're not alone, for Paul McGann was distinctly cool when the first overtures were made to him to take on the mantle of the Time Lord. The 36-year-old actor, a one-time schoolboy triple-jump champion, seems physically more suited to the role of the SAS soldier he tackles in ITV's drama The One That Got Away this Sunday.

"When I was first approached about Doctor Who, I thought, 'That's not me'. I assumed I would have to play one of those indoor-scarf-wearing eccentrics. So I said thanks but no thanks."

But after 12 months umming and ahhing as the production — a joint venture between the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and America's Universal Television — came together, his reservations over becoming television's eighth Doctor Who withered away. Now, three weeks into shooting the two-hour TV movie in Vancouver, he reckons that the film (due to be broadcast later this year) brings something new to the Time Lord who held British TV audiences in thrall from 1963 to 1989.

"I wasn't sure what to expect, but levity is the word. We're lucky to have an English director, Geoffrey Sax. He's making sure that it stays true to the traditions of Doctor Who, with just the right amount of send-up," says McGann.

Authenticity is certainly helped by the presence of the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. He plays the part for the film's opening sequences, though he soon bows out when the Doctor regenerates as McGann, following the tradition of transformations that began with William Hartnell passing the role to Patrick Troughton in 1966.

"William Hartnell used to terrify me — I was only five — and he's my favourite Doctor," says McGann. "I always found the Dalek voices scary, but the Daleks themselves never did it for me —they couldn't run upstairs. My favourite villain was the Yeti." No one is revealing which of the Doctor's monstrous adversaries appear in the film, but it will feature the Master. He's played by Eric Roberts — brother of Hollywood leading lady, Julia — who is best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Runaway Train.

So what sort of Doctor are we in for? McGann isn't saying. But can he, at least, tell us what he wears, perhaps that will give us a clue? "The film is set on New Year's Eve 1999 and everyone is going out to a do that evening. I'm wandering around this hospital trying to remember who I am. In the end I break open the lockers where the hospital staff have put their fancy dress outfits ready for the evening's revels and I pick one out."

Clearly, the international dimensions of the production and its two-hour duration mean that the old vacuum cleaner parts and gravel pit locations are a thing of the past. "They're throwing money at it," says McGann. "I'm enjoying that —it actually feels like being a movie star. The sets are fantastic — they don't wobble, which in a way is a bit disappointing because with Doctor Who you usually expect Acorn Antiques in space. The ubiquitous police box is here, though — it's one of the symbols you associate with the Doctor."

Big budget sci-fi isn't a new experience for Paul McGann, who had a part in Alien 3, though that's an exception in a career notable for some memorable TV roles. His career really took off in 1986 as First World War villain Percy Toplis in Alan Bleasdale's controversial BBC drama The Monocled Mutineer, and the same year saw the release of Withnail and I — the cult film (recently re-released) in which he played a struggling sixties actor. Other film roles include British thriller Paper Mask, and more recent TV takes in the 1992 BBC2 fantasy Nice Town and last year's Irish potato famine drama The Hanging Gale, which co-starred McGann's three brothers.

As to the Doctor, McGann is enjoying the role, "If you can't have a laugh doing Doctor Who, you must be a bit grim," he says. Something of a contrast to his role in The One That Got Away, the story of an SAS patrol in the Gulf War? "It is. I don't think I smile once. I remember looking at it and thinking 'why didn't I smile?'"

The feature-length drama on ITV this Sunday is based on Chris Ryan's book of the same name telling how his patrol, which aimed to destroy Scud missiles behind Iraqi lines, turned into a disaster. Ryan was the only member of the eight-man unit to escape capture.

The One That Got Away was filmed in the Kalahari desert last summer. "It was interesting because Chris Ryan was rarely more than five yards away from me during filming," says McGann. "I thought that could be a bit tricky, but he was fine. However I could see that there were times when it was really uncomfortable for him. There we were, a bunch of actors re-enacting scenes that he had barely survived in real life.

"The myth of the SAS supermen is well and truly blown, which is, I think, the message of Chris's book. I wouldn't have countenanced doing the film if I hadn't been convinced that it took an anti-war stance. I can't imagine anything more stupid than glamorising war. What you see in the film is real people doing what they're trained to do superbly well but also panicking, messing up and making mistakes. It's a reminder that while the high-tech war in the air is one thing, nothing much changes for the fellas on the ground.

"Since seeing the impact of The Monacled Mutineer ten years ago, I know that TV can be a powerful medium. I think there could be a reaction. I dare say The One That Got Away will have its detractors because it has a political edge. Like Mutineer, it's about the British military and that seems to get some people hot and bothered.

"I loved doing the Mutineer. As Alan Bleasdale said to me, 'He's Cool Hand Luke crossed with John Lennon.' Parts like that don't come along too often — that was the road to Wembley." Ten years on with Doctor Who, it seems that Paul McGann is now headed for the FA Cup Final and the Superbowl all rolled into one.

It's that McGann again — Paul McGann as the new Doctor Who and (clockwise from top left): as an aspiring actor in Withnail and I (1986); First World War villain Percy Toplis in The Monocled Mutineer (1986); a hospital orderly masquerading as a doctor in Paper Mask (1990); a surrogate father in Nice Town (1992); food for a monster in Alien 3 (1992); starring with his brothers in Irish potato famine drama The Hanging Gale (1995); and in this week's SAS drama The One That Got Away, as Corporal Chris Ryan

Who is McGann this time?

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