In Torchwood news...
Nov. 27th, 2006 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoA couple of encouraging items:
Now, this is obviously self-promotion, but the Director-General of the BBC is happy with Torchwood, which he calls sexy and modern, and he seems to believe there will be more than one season. The article: Director General praises 'sexy' BBC Wales.
And SyFy Portal has another interview with John Barrowman. Does that man ever have moments when he is not cheery and enthusiastic, friendly and funny? Well, if he's 90% Captain Jack (or vice versa), he must have a dark side, right? Though you'd never know it to see him in his Jack in the Beanstalk costume. Just how many characters named Jack has he played, anyway? Jack in Doctor Who and Torchwood, Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack in De-Lovely.. I wonder what the name of his character was in Bent, or his other stage plays. I see from IMDb he played someone named Peter in both Titans and Central Park West.
He says in the interview we will learn "more back story" for Captain Jack - like how he went from the game station to 2007 Cardiff? Or what happened in his two missing years? We've already learned a lot of interesting bits and pieces, but not much on how they fit together.
Good quote:
One of the many reasons Jack has become such a notable figure in British television is due to his omnisexuality, and because of this, Barrowman's own life -- he is openly gay -- has become very public. The actor will be entering a civil union with his partner on Dec. 27 in a ceremony not too far from the Torchwood Hub in Cardiff, and the entire cast of the show is expected to be there to support him.
"I don't mind people wanting to know about my personal life because I see my personal life being normal like everybody else's," Barrowman said. "And that's one of the things that I try to promote to young people and to people who don't understand is that you just have to accept it.
"I'm not asking that you live my life, but I'm asking that you accept my life. Jack has been an incredible figure for the British public because they're the ones who've accepted him, and in return, accepted me. So I'm really grateful to the writers Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffatt for creating Jack because it has opened up a whole bunch of doors for the British public to look upon sexuality as being no big deal. Which is a good thing."
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 06:33 pm (UTC)I just hope he _is_ really such a cheery person... having to act that out every time takes its toll. Ah well.
You did foget to include the info that Torchwood is keeping its million viewers, while its competitor Lost, on its second episode, has dropped by about 400 000 and is now, if marginally, below TW. Yay!
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Date: 2006-11-27 06:37 pm (UTC)But it is so typical of Barrowman! I chuckled.
I just hope he _is_ really such a cheery person... having to act that out every time takes its toll.
Obviously he is. He must have phenomenal positive energy. I've heard a lot of quotes from people he acts with, saying how positive and cheerful he is to work with. He's quite amazing.
And yes, a big yay about the continued good ratings, even against Lost. Impressive! Lost is a fine show but I'd pick Torchwood over it any time.
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Date: 2006-11-27 06:39 pm (UTC)I didn't. I ... erm... salivated.
Amazing he is.
Looking forward to watching last night's episode tonight. Looking hopefully forward to the three (or four) episodes with him in Doctor Who. Looking HOPEFULLY to a second season of TW...
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Date: 2006-11-27 06:56 pm (UTC)Me too, but that's not surprising.
Looking forward to watching last night's episode tonight.
I won't be able to see it till tomorrow. I'm practicing delayed gratification.
Looking hopefully forward to the three (or four) episodes with him in Doctor Who.
Four would be nicer than three. I find it encouraging that Russell T. Davies is working on it, because I think he likes the Jack/Doctor relationship. Though wasn't Steven Moffatt supposed to be writing it? Either way, I'm happy.
Looking HOPEFULLY to a second season of TW...
Yes. Though I'm afraid to hope too much, for fear of seeming greedy.
(Reply to this)(Parent)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-28 04:53 am (UTC)I want to see Beau Brummell, too - with James Purefoy in it!
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:54 am (UTC)Yes, you're right. Oops - I got it wrong.
He was visiting BBC Wales head offices like a monarch granting favour to the BBC outposts
Well, so they should be in his good graces these days!
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-28 09:28 am (UTC)I don't mind people wanting to know about my personal life because I see my personal life being normal like everybody else's," Barrowman said. "And that's one of the things that I try to promote to young people and to people who don't understand is that you just have to accept it.
Well said, JB!
What I find upsetting with one of my RL friends is that, while in other respects a fun and amiable person, she doesn't like what she calls "presenting abnormal behaviour as if it were normal", and has made negative comments about JB being as 'out' as he is. I don't have many RL friends here in Glasgow, and I'm dreading what she may say after tomorrow's episode with Tosh and the blonde. It's one issue I think I could break a friendship over...
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Date: 2006-11-28 12:43 pm (UTC)Anyway, I hope you enjoy the episode. It's the first one I watched beginning to end, without interruption (i.e., me stopping the player for some reason) and I enjoyed it vastly.
Although I'm not sure I prefer this Jack over the Jack so far... Have to make a post about it some time today... I'm just too tired to think coherently, actually. But I definitely liked the episode.
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Date: 2006-11-28 03:01 pm (UTC)As for "Don't Mind the Buzzcocks" - hee! yes, he's amazing, and then some.
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Date: 2006-11-28 03:04 pm (UTC)I thought so. I hope people listen to him. I suppose some will, some won't.
What I find upsetting with one of my RL friends is that, while in other respects a fun and amiable person, she doesn't like what she calls "presenting abnormal behaviour as if it were normal", and has made negative comments about JB being as 'out' as he is.
Eee! That sounds kind of archaic. She needs a bit of a reality-adjustment. Sadly, the people who need to change their attitude are often the ones who don't understand that. And it's very frustrating when people who are cool in other ways have an area of blindness like that.
It's one issue I think I could break a friendship over...
Yes, sadly. But maybe it will turn out better than you fear.
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Date: 2006-11-28 03:23 pm (UTC)She's in her mid-60s. It may be a generational thing - but then, that's the generation who were young in the '60s!
She needs a bit of a reality-adjustment. Sadly, the people who need to change their attitude are often the ones who don't understand that. And it's very frustrating when people who are cool in other ways have an area of blindness like that.
Yup. She's a film-buff, and we share several fandoms (I got to know her through hanging out in a memorabilia shop). But I find it odd, people who say they "don't mind people being gay, so long as they don't pretend it's normal". As far as I can see, the only abnormal relationships are those based on coercion and exploitation.
I recall overhearing a couple of old ladies on a bus in Hull, once. Some soap opera had had a character come out as a lesbian, and these old women were blethering about it: "She's seemed such a nice girl, and they shouldn't do this because it makes young people think it's all right to be like that!" - Yes - as if the world will fall to pieces because popular dramas include non-hetero characters!
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Date: 2006-11-28 03:54 pm (UTC)Maybe, but I know lots of people that age who are as open-minded and sensible as people your age or any other age. That's only ten years older than I am.... I can recall my sense of shock when I was one of the moderators of the 'bi women's discussion group' and these people of 17 or 18 were telling horror stories about how homophobic their parents were and I realized depressingly that their bigoted parents were my age or younger. What happened to the idealism of my own teenage years, where I thought people of my age would do so much better than the closed-minded people of the previous generation?
It may be a generational thing -
When I went to university in London (I was in my early 20s) I met up with a friend of a friend who was probably 60ish, maybe a little more. We had lunch. She was probably a nice person otherwise but she was very racist and I was acutely uncomfortable with her "immigrants are ruining the country" talk. I didn't want to be rude to the woman, so I didn't just get up and walk away, and was fairly mild in my protests (at which point I kept trying to change the subject).
Mind you, gender issues and homophobia strike a little closer to home for me. I have a dear childhood friend whom I seldom see these days because she's a devout Baptist and though (so far) she has been nice to me, I know she disapproves of my 'lifestyle' - doing yoga as much as sexual orientation! (She thinks yoga is a sort of eastern cult. Weren't they arresting people doing yoga in Egypt for the same reason?)
I have certainly had straight friends who meant well but have still made appallingly homophobic comments to me without even realizing that's what they were doing. Or maybe they did realize. In any case, they realized it as soon as I pointed it out! (Though I can think of at least one case where I was too angry to reply....!)
But I find it odd, people who say they "don't mind people being gay, so long as they don't pretend it's normal".
Just goes to show... what's normal for one person feels abnormal for another. It doesn't mean there's any universal standard of normality and to think there should be is a scary notion.
he only abnormal relationships are those based on coercion and exploitation.
Absolutely.
s if the world will fall to pieces because popular dramas include non-hetero characters!
I like to think some people will learn from this. That might be over-optimistic!
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Date: 2006-11-28 03:54 pm (UTC)Oh, god, yes. Even if only to see James Purefoy all tricked out in 18th century wear. I hope it comes out in Region 1 accessible DVDs, dagnabbit. And now I use my only icon with Purefoy in it... :-)
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Date: 2006-11-28 03:57 pm (UTC)Well, that's part of the incentive. But I was early corrupted by Georgette Heyer novels, and I'd want to see it whoever was in it - and besides, Lord Byron is in it, one of my heroes.
I hope it comes out in Region 1 accessible DVDs, dagnabbit.
I can watch region 2 DVDs. That would be okay. Really. But region 1 would be better (and almost certainly cheaper). I live in hope.
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:00 pm (UTC)I have a dear childhood friend whom I seldom see these days because she's a devout Baptist and though (so far) she has been nice to me, I know she disapproves of my 'lifestyle' - doing yoga as much as sexual orientation! (She thinks yoga is a sort of eastern cult. Weren't they arresting people doing yoga in Egypt for the same reason?)
See, this is my parents, right there, right up to the "yoga is an Eastern cult" thing. Which is so frustrating I can't even begin to tell you, and I'm neither lesbian nor interested in yoga! I just don't happen to think that either one is an invalid lifestyle. But if I actually said that to my parents, I'd get them praying for me and my "approving of sin" self. *sigh* The sheer fact that I enjoy a TV show like Torchwood and love the omnisexual Captain Jack would be so, so bad in their eyes.
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-28 04:04 pm (UTC)Well, no. Not to me, obviously!
f I actually said that to my parents, I'd get them praying for me and my "approving of sin" self.
Yeah, big sigh. That just seems so... wrong-thinking, to my mind. Well, narrow. Judgemental. To my mind, sin involves hurting other people, and oding yoga hurts no one - just as my being bisexual hurts no one!
The sheer fact that I enjoy a TV show like Torchwood and love the omnisexual Captain Jack would be so, so bad in their eyes.
My mother used to disapprove of my love for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and James Bond because she thought they were sexist and violent. I suspect that Torchwood wouldn't have gone over very well at all!
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:21 pm (UTC)Yup... My father is 72, and is a lot more open-minded than most people his age (he was in the Merchant Navy, then went to university as a mature student in the 1960s). Mother more traditional: she's 10 years older, and less educated. I had problems with her when younger, though she's mellowed a bit. But I've never been able to confide in her or talk to her as freely as I can with Dad. I suppose one reason I'm still friends with some of my ex-tutors is that, in a sense, they were more the mothers I wished I could have had.
When I went to university in London (I was in my early 20s) I met up with a friend of a friend who was probably 60ish, maybe a little more. We had lunch. She was probably a nice person otherwise but she was very racist and I was acutely uncomfortable with her "immigrants are ruining the country" talk.
Did you ask her if she had a problem with you being a Canadian? ;-D
Mind you, gender issues and homophobia strike a little closer to home for me. I have a dear childhood friend whom I seldom see these days because she's a devout Baptist and though (so far) she has been nice to me, I know she disapproves of my 'lifestyle' - doing yoga as much as sexual orientation!
I find it hard to be friendly with people who are heavily religious in any way. It's something I had hoped we were moving on from... Irrational. And of course, most organised religions are sexist and homophobic.
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:31 pm (UTC)Hee - no, I should have!
I find it hard to be friendly with people who are heavily religious in any way.
I find it varies from person to person; it is sometimes very difficult, if only because I have to watch what I say.
most organised religions are sexist and homophobic.
Sadly! There are exceptions but they seem to be numerically small. And though I don't know what it's like in the UK or Europe, when church officials here take a strong gay-friendly stand (or put gay clergy in important positions) there tends to be a lot of opposition to it from the parishioners.
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Date: 2006-11-28 04:55 pm (UTC)Since I regard it all as just ancient-world fairy-stories, I find it hard to respect the intelligence of people in the present day who actually believes any of that stuff. It's like believing in the tooth-fairy once you reach double-figures!
And though I don't know what it's like in the UK or Europe, when church officials here take a strong gay-friendly stand (or put gay clergy in important positions) there tends to be a lot of opposition to it from the parishioners.
It's not something I have much to do with, as I tend to avoid god-botherers. The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) has liberal and evangelical ends, ditto the Piskies. The evangelicals tend to be smug and homophobic. I know the Piskies have had problems with homophobia from their African wing and the Evangelicals; the Archbishop of Canterbury is too afraid of creating a split, so won't stand up to them. Muslim organisations are homophobic, ditto RC Church, despite the vast number of brocaded closet-cases it contains... What annoys me are the people who say you "mustn't criticise religions, it's sectarian", & c. Irrational beliefs and ideas must be open to be challenged, and if someone believes that women or gay/bi people are less worthy/bad/somehow inferior, then no, I don't think they should be allowed to get away with it.