An ordinary tragedy

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• Publication: TV Choice
• Date: 2007-02-24
• Author: James Rampton
• Page: 5
• Language: English

In BBC1 drama Recovery, David Tennant stars as a man whose life changes totally in an instant

Doctor Who star David Tennant leaves time travel behind to star in Recovery, a harrowing one-off drama about a man whose life changes after suffering a head injury. Written by Tony Marchant (The Knight's Tale, Kid In The Corner), the story centres on happy-go-lucky building firm boss Alan Hamilton, who sustains a serious blow to the head in a road accident.

Overnight, he turns into a completely different person. He has irrational rages and cannot be left alone to perform simple tasks such as dressing himself or making a piece of toast.

He has also lost the ability to empathise and has become a stranger to his loving wife Tricia (Sarah Parish) and their two boys.

David, who is currently shooting the new series of Doctor Who, says that as part of his research for the role, he met people who had suffered in the same way as Alan and that he was deeply affected by the experience.

'We met one chap who tried to tell us all the degrees he had. It was an extraordinary list — but he couldn't remember them all. It was very poignant to witness that frustration.

'The randomness of these accidents almost makes it worse. You can be very careful crossing the road, but you can't legislate for an accident that happens out of the blue.

'All the head injury victims we met were very keen that we didn't show Alan and Tricia living happily ever after,' David continues.

'That sort of injury is so fundamental to who you are that you're not going to get back to where you were before.

'It would be insensitive and wrong to suggest that Alan and Tricia could slot straight back into their old life. Tricia says, "I want two children, not three." But she simply has to come to terms with the new reality.

'It's a tragic, tragic story.'

Caption: Alan before his accident... and in a coma afterwards

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• APA 6th ed.: Rampton, James (2007-02-24). An ordinary tragedy. TV Choice p. 5.
• MLA 7th ed.: Rampton, James. "An ordinary tragedy." TV Choice [add city] 2007-02-24, 5. Print.
• Chicago 15th ed.: Rampton, James. "An ordinary tragedy." TV Choice, edition, sec., 2007-02-24
• Turabian: Rampton, James. "An ordinary tragedy." TV Choice, 2007-02-24, section, 5 edition.
• Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=An ordinary tragedy | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/An_ordinary_tragedy | work=TV Choice | pages=5 | date=2007-02-24 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 May 2025 }}</ref>
• Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=An ordinary tragedy | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/An_ordinary_tragedy | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 May 2025}}</ref>