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David Tennant's Doctor Who Departure
David Tennant has said that viewers will be left heartbroken
by the final "brilliant" plot twists as he bows out of Doctor Who.
Tennant, 38, who has been hailed by many as the best Doctor
in the Time Lord's history, gave a hint about the big climax to the epic
tale, which airs on BBC One tomorrow.
Tennant said: "Coming to the final episodes, you (think) will
these live up to one's hopes for what that finale will be? And then you read
the script - The Doctor's been told he's going to die, he knows he's going
to die, so you get to play that new flavour with this character that you've
got to know so well... suddenly you're playing a man who knows his end is
coming."
The story, titled The End of Time, Part Two, sees the 10th Doctor facing the
end of his life as the prophecy "He will knock four times" looms, while the
terrifying plans of his nemesis the Master spin out of control.
Tennant said: "He's been told: 'He will knock four times' and you get the
Master with these four beats in his head and you think, well, that's what
that is. When you find out tomorrow night what that really means - (it) just
breaks your heart - it's brilliant."
14:30
December 31 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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BBC Director General Defends Salaries
BBC director general Mark Thompson has defended the
six-figure pay packets of some of the corporation's managers, after
the broadcaster's former governor PD James said that the
"extraordinarily large salaries" were "very difficult indeed to
justify".
Official figures released last month showed that
37 BBC staff - not including on-screen talent - earn more than the
Prime Minister's salary of £198,000, while more than 300 are paid
over £100,000.
But Thompson insisted that the salaries were
necessary to prevent key managers from defecting to the private
sector, where he said they could earn substantially larger sums even
in today's constrained economic circumstances for broadcasting.
Baroness James grilled the director general on BBC
pay as she took the helm as guest editor of Radio 4's Today
programme. She told him it appeared that "somehow, the people doing
the creative work don't receive this largesse, it seems to be a pay
grade used for middle management and bureaucracy which it is very
difficult indeed to justify".
She added: "It is really quite extraordinary that
375 earn over £100,000 and 37-plus more than the Prime Minister. An
organisation that has 37 of its managers earning more than the Prime
Minister surely ought to ask itself 'Is this justified?'"
Thompson said that most of the BBC's top earners
could attract higher salaries in the commercial sector, citing BBC
One controller Jay Hunt who he said took a pay cut when she returned
to the corporation from independent channel Five.
"I think most people would accept that if we want
to have the best people working for the BBC, delivering the best
programmes and best services, and if we also accept that that means
that - at a moment in broadcasting history where people can move
very freely from the BBC to commercial broadcasters and back - the
BBC has to bear to some extent in mind the external market," he
said.
"The controller of BBC One is going to be spending
about £1 billion a year on television programmes for that channel.
We really want to make sure we have got the best person doing that
job. The current controller of BBC1 was working for a commercial
broadcaster and we got her to come back. She will - like most of the
people on that list - get less from the BBC than they were earning
or could earn otherwise. They have to take a pay cut.
"I think it is a false economy to say we are not
going to have anyone as controller of BBC1 who earns more than
£100,000, because in my view we wouldn't get the right candidates
for the job."
Thompson acknowledged that top staff pay was "a
real issue" and said the BBC had tried over the past five years to
get its spending on overheads down and was now considering producing
an auditable commitment to spend a certain proportion of the licence
fee on programming. But he insisted that the 17-fold ratio between
his own £834,000 package and average BBC pay was far smaller than in
most FTSE-listed private companies, where top bosses could earn 100
or more times as much as average staff members.
14:30
December 31 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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Simon Cowell In The Simpsons Again
Simon Cowell has agreed to make another appearance in cartoon
form in The Simpsons - despite claiming to have hated the experience last
time.
Cowell will play a grumpy nursery admissions officer who upsets Homer after
being mean to baby Maggie, in an episode due to air on Sky One in January.
However he has admitted that he found his last appearance on the show to be
an "embarrassing and intimidating" experience.
He told a newspaper: "I could actually feel the rolling of eyeballs. It was
like, 'After take 57 Simon could we have a little more reality'. It was
painful."
And he said of his new role, "I criticised the daughter and she cries so
Homer ends up hitting me.
"I criticised Maggie, rightly, and then Homer punches me in the face and I
criticise the punch because it wasn't a very good punch."
12:08
December 31 2009 - waveguide.co.uk
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