OK, look—I know that y’all understand this, but I gotta rant for a minute. I get that it’s funny that the guy that will be playing Doctor Who is closely associated with a role famous for being inventively sweary. I like swearing! I’ve been meaning to get around to watching The Thick of It specifically for the sweary bits.
Which were written by a fellow named Ian Martin, assisting Jesse Armstrong and Armando Ianucci, as I understand it.
It certainly appears that Peter Capaldi did a terrific job with delivering the lines, mind you. Lovely swearing there. Lovely rhythm, lovely intensity, nice use of volume dynamic. Well done, actor. That’s what actors do, you know, is deliver lines written by other people (sometimes called ‘writers’), bringing both their creative powers and their skills to bear. It’s a task Mr. Capaldi will be doing as the Doctor, too: saying words written by someone else. Different words. Mr. Martin will not be writing sweary bits for him for this character.
@Mmmster That box has fucking sailed mate.
— Ian Martin (@IanMartin) August 6, 2013
I had been telling people that they would not choose any actor who was strongly identified with a particular character for that very reason—people who know perfectly well that actors read from scripts still have difficulty with the concept. I suppose it’s a mark of the skill exhibited by them all.
More on this actors-delivering-lines stuff soon.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.