Over the years, Big Finish have introduced some Doctor Who characters into their Torchwood range, but the movement is the other way with Stranded, the latest series of adventures for Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor: Tom Price’s Sergeant Andy Davidson has become a core member of the cast. Amongst discussions of the merits of Star Trek: Picard and how Peter Davison helped him meet his wife, Price told Paul Simpson about the fun he’s had crossing over to Doctor Who…

 

Thanks for fifteen or so years of Andy. I was at the screening in Cardiff of the first episode and I had Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson and David Tennant sitting behind me. Which, as you can imagine made it quite interesting…

Classic! God, I’d have taken notes on whatever they were saying to each other.

I was at a screening for Miracle Day, and Bill Pullman said, “Oh it’s great to have these people here” and he listed off a lot of people in the audience then he said, “and Tom Price”. I was so shocked that he said my name, I stood up and waved to the audience. I sat back down and Russell was literally behind me, his knees were touching my shoulders; he leaned forward and said, “I can’t believe you just stood up” and I was like “Yes I did, Russell” (laughs) I still don’t regret that to this day.

You’re back as Andy for Stranded; does that tie up in any way what’s been going on in the Torchwood audios or is it basically two separate things running?

In terms of the way that he is falling further and further into the Doctor Who hole, in terms of his life being sort of captured and hijacked by Doctor Who, it does tie up because more and more extreme things are happening to him and the world is going crazy. I think that the thing about Andy in terms of the early days is that he always sort of resisted, in a sitcom style – at the end of the episode Andy was still very much the plod doing his thing, but now I think with Big Finish his life has changed and that is, for me, so much fun as an actor to do that, it’s brilliant.

At the start of new episodes of Big Finish stuff now, Andy’s in a different place. This is why sitcom actors often go a bit mad because at the beginning of every episode of the sitcom their character is back at the same place again, as Andy was.

You feel a bit mad doing that but now at the beginning of each episode he brings a whole load of new life experiences which are a lot of fun to bring out. He’s becoming even more cynical and hardened to the whole thing.

Originally his relationship with Gwen Cooper was underpinning stuff but we’ve seen him now with Owen and now particularly with Tania in Stranded.

Yes, exactly. The Gwen days are long behind him in many ways, he doesn’t really see much of Gwen anymore.

I think that Andy is one of those people that he brings what he’s learned. The stuff that happened to him with Gwen he brings back to all these new people he’s working with and I think it’s hard for him to be overwhelmed by stuff now. Everything that happens, he’s like, “Oh here we go again.”

He’s not trying to impress anyone, which is a really enjoyable part of his personality. He’s very very in the moment; I don’t think there’s much of the ‘still waters running deep’ with Andy. I think that’s why he’s often worked as a character, because you do look at him and think, “That is what I would do in that situation”. It makes it a lot of fun to do as an actor because you get to be very spontaneous with it. You don’t need to think too hard about what he’s trying to hide. What’s his agenda? I don’t think he’s got one particularly – I think he’s trying to do the right thing at all times and in increasingly impossible circumstances.

In the two Torchwood sequel series with Yvonne Hartman and everything that he deals with there: he could have been floundering but somehow he manages to keep not just on top of the situation but also seems to keep himself sane.

Yes: he’s got that inner British stoicism, the dry sense of humour, the gallows humour. That’s his coping mechanism and I think that people like to think that’s what they would use as well. You know, “I wouldn’t panic, I’d make a joke”. In a weird way he’s quite aspirational: maybe he’s not a hero but he does act in a way that if you were going to be a hero you’d want to do it like that, you’d kind of want to be a bit sarcastic and just stay a bit dry. I think that’s what makes him attractive to people.

Do you find there are times where you get scripts, whether it’s on Torchwood or Stranded, where you query if that’s how Andy would react?

No, I think the gang have got to know him well enough now. There were definitely times with simple things like phrases – he wouldn’t say jeepers – but that’s maybe happened a couple of times. But because of the way Big Finish works, it’s all very collegiate and very kind. You just say, “No, he wouldn’t say cripes (laughs) he’d say, ‘Oh for f… oh alright.’” They understand at Big Finish that you’re bringing a character who existed before them and they are very keen for you to use that. That makes it lovely, and so much fun.

And on Stranded it’s interesting, you and Paul are the only people who are involved in this series so far who have actually played roles on television, that aren’t Big Finish created… [Editor’s note – yes, we both forgot Tom Baker’s Curator!]

Oh yeah, I hadn’t thought about that… Bloody hell. I should throw my weight around a bit more based on that. “Step down Walker, step aside Morahan, this is all about me and Paul.”

One of the cast did ask me what’s with the Welsh accent and I was like, “Oh come on, have you not seen Torchwood?” There’s always an element of research which you could almost think you’ve got to do when you go into a Doctor Who thing like this but actually I quite like it if people come to it and they don’t know who Andy is because then it all stands up, he makes sense. You don’t need to know because now that Andy’s in the Doctor Who world, there will be people who’ve not seen Torchwood who don’t know and are asking who on earth is this guy? You’ve got to make sure the character stands up to scrutiny as if they’ve never heard or seen anything apart from this episode.

The interesting thing is when the fans know more than you, or the guys at Big Finish remind you about stuff that your character has done, and you’re like, “Oh, yeah he did… sorry”. Which can happen because with Big Finish there’s so many interweaving intertangled extra dimensional time travelling episodes you need to keep an eye on it because you want it to all make sense.

Were you surprised to be asked to do Stranded?

I was. Sorry no the official answer is of course “no, I was just waiting for it to happen and I knew it was inevitable I would become a companion.”

I was so so happy the way it happened. I know that the guys spoke to Russell about me doing a couple of guest appearances which itself would be lovely and as far as I understand, Russell said, “make him a companion” which are the four best words you’d ever want someone saying about you apart from, “give him my money”. So it was extremely pleasing and exciting and lovely.

One of my son’s home-schooling activities was to write letters to people so I got him to write a letter to Chris Chibnall because he knew nothing about Doctor Who before the Jodie Whittaker series began. He was too young so he started with that first episode; it came out just about the right time for his age.

So he wrote Chris a letter and we got the nicest letter back from Chris Chibnall. To see the joy in my little boy’s eyes to get this letter from the guy who is currently the warp drive, to mix my sci-fi metaphors, of Doctor Who; to see that this guy’s written to him, he’s taken time from writing what happens to the Doctor next, to write this email, and to see how pleased he was, that was like when Russell put his brain onto me and said “let’s put him there”. It’s a very special feeling and I think only Doctor Who has this impact on people, I really do.

I think you’re right. What did you think when they asked you about doing it?

I mean, it was such an instinctive “Yes, absolutely amazing.” I love playing this character, I just want to do more of it. I dream of them making a Torchwood movie – I know that’s been kicked around and if we can’t do that, I love the Big Finish things. The writing is amazing, the stories are brilliantly crafted.

Going to do a Big Finish day is as close to living out the character as you can get, because when you’re on set and you’re filming these little snippets, every day you might film all in all four minutes of your character. You don’t get a sense of being that person whereas – and this is the weird thing about audio, you’d think because it’s visual you’re being him and it’d be more interactive – actually turning up and doing a Big Finish, in a day you do a story beginning middle and end and you go through all the emotions. You do a couple of takes each time; it’s more enjoyable as an actor to experience it, especially in sci-fi. Torchwood is the only show that I’ve ever been in I would watch and it’s that thing of “I can’t believe I get to be inside this show”. So to have that expanded and extended into Doctor Who land was just pure joy.

Who was your Doctor growing up?

Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison. My first professional job was with Peter, it was a Radio 4 sitcom called Rigor Mortis. We did three series of that.

Sylvester McCoy was the last one before the pause, right? I associate it with such comfort and just great storytelling without any need for any big special effects. It was the restrictions that made it better and I guess that’s why I love Big Finish because the restriction there is, you can’t see any of it and that makes it even better.

And of course it’s the old thing that the pictures on radio are better..

Yes, exactly. It was usually Sylvester McCoy running alongside a river in a field and being chased by a man wearing some tin foil, but I completely bought it and loved it. The playfulness and the way that he could go from playful to terrifying in an instant was just incredibly seductive and addictive, and I think that is what imprinted on me. That is what I’ve chased when I go looking for good TV and good sci-fi: I’m trying to find that moment of pure happiness watching Sylvester McCoy being chased along a river. Which is quite an odd thought now I have it.

So what do you look for in a script? Obviously if it’s Andy, it’s returning to a character who’s very familiar but when you’re working away from Torchwood / Doctor Who, what do you look for?

I think quite early on I need to have that itch where you go ‘oh yeah, go on’ – I need to see that in the first three or four pages. You need to be going somewhere that you would like to do. I would like to know what would happen if I travelled back in time. What would happen if there was no law? It’s funny: there’s no rationale, it’s a gut instinct. I want to be interested and also surprised.

I think the thing that annoys me the most about watching films is if you’re not surprised. We watched 21 Bridges and at no point was I surprised. It’s that moment of being surprised but it’s somehow feasible ‘and I think the guys at Big Finish do that really well.

I read a lot of novels as well, and it’s the same: I want to read a hook. I just read Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. All the elevators in the city are being weaponized by a terrorist – yes please. It’s that simple hook that grabs me and that’s what I look for in scripts a lot.

Do you still find playing Andy a challenge?

Yes, oh God yes. He gets emotional moments, I find it a challenge making him sympathetic when he does things that you don’t want him to do, moments where you wish he hadn’t done that.

I think that you always want to develop him because – and it’s very easy to think this because he’s spontaneous and an everyman – people can think he’s simple and it’s somehow a straightforwardness and a lack of depth.

The challenge for Andy is to always make people realise that your everyman characters are the ones who’ve got loads of depth. That’s why we like them because we feel we’re deep people as well. If you’re an everyman, you’re like me, and I know I’ve got lots of depth and I’ve got stuff going on – and you want to try and achieve that with Andy.

So every moment that happens, you want to put little quirks in the scripts and little thoughts and beats and pauses that make you realise there’s a hinterland and there’s a lot more to him than just this guy who’s waiting to get some lunch.

 

Stranded is available now from Big Finish.

Click here to read our review of episode 1

Click here to read our interview with Rebecca Root

 

Thanks to Steve Berry for assistance in arranging this interview