This is how the Torchwood radio plays are going to work
How is Ianto back in the action – and why are the team all split up?
You might have heard that there are some Torchwood audio plays in the works from longtime Doctor Who collaborators Big Finish, but we’ve got the inside scoop on just how the sci-fi spin-off’s new incarnation all fits together. And it’s bad news if you were hoping to see the gang back together…
“The series is linked – it’s about the same event, the same story but the team have been split up,” actor Gareth David-Lloyd (whose character Ianto Jones returns in the second episode) told RadioTimes.com. “So it’s from their different points of view.”
Of the episodes announced already, one sees John Barrowman’s Captain Jack take centre stage, followed by David-Lloyd’s Mr Jones in the second and so on for six episodes in total. And considering that Ianto was killed off in 2009’s miniseries Children of Earth, we also have an idea of when the ensemble story will be happening. Yep, we’re (sort of) time-travelling again, back to 2006/7.
“I think I can say…it’s not ghost Ianto, it’s flesh Ianto saving the world,” David-Lloyd confirmed. “It’s during Torchwood, it’s during the time frame the first two series were set.”
Torchwood's best references to Doctor Who
The original Torchwood team
It’ll certainly be exciting to find the team back in action during their prime but the Welsh actor refused to be drawn on exactly which other original cast members (such as Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori) would be joining him and John Barrowman for the new incarnation (though when we asked Eve Myles, she certainly seemed keen).
“I haven’t been given a definite yes or no about exactly who’s coming back, I’ll leave that to Big Finish to announce,” David-Lloyd said. “But I would have thought some of them will be back – I’d like to think so. I should think we’d have at least two or three of the other cast members back, especially if it’s set in that time.”
Notably, when the project was first revealed by Barrowman, he suggested one episode would also reunite the team; is that still the plan?
“I hope so!” the actor said. “They’re being as hush hush with me as they are with you – the only thing I’ve really read is my episode, and they haven’t given me any fillers as to the rest of the story, the bigger picture.”
“But I should imagine it’s good things. From what I did, it’s got a lot of scope to be a great series.”
Of course, David-Lloyd’s return to the Whoniverse may excite some Whovians more than the project itself. When his fan-favourite character Ianto Jones was killed off in 2009’s Children of Earth minsieries there were complaints and viewer campaigns, with a shrine erected to him in Cardiff bay which stands to this day. Suffice to say, we think people will be happy to see him back in business…
“Ianto’s returned! Yeah it’s been great, and the fans are over the moon,” the actor told us, “which is great. They worked so long and hard to a) get Ianto back, and b) get Torchwood back as well, because it’s been in a bit of a limbo for the past few years.
“It’s brilliant to be back. I read the script, the words just flew off the page, and it was a real delight to do Ianto again. His voice just came back to me.”
He concluded: “I was a bit worried about whether after all this much time has passed, how quickly he would come back. But due to James Goss’ fantastic writing, and the fact that I think Ianto is ingrained in my subconscious, it was a real pleasure, and easy.”
Who said it: Torchwood or Doctor Who?
Torchwood: Fall to Earth will be available from Big Finish this October
For more Whoniverse action, check out Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat and more Doctor Who alumni at the Radio Times Festival on Friday 25th September.
