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397 lines
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culture
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tvandradio
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8388472
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# Doctor Who's Matt Smith on kissing boys and not being handsome enough to
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play Bond
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## Matt Smith talks about his role as the writer Christopher Isherwood in BBC
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Two's Christopher and His Kind.
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![Matt Smith as writer Christopher Isherwood in Christopher and His Kind. ][1]
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Matt Smith as writer Christopher Isherwood in Christopher and His Kind.
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Chris Harvey 4:19PM GMT 17 Mar 2011
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[Comments][2]
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Belfast, May 2010. Giant swastikas on red Nazi banners are rustling in the
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breeze, youths in brown shirts and Nazi armbands wander the street, a man
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posts anti-Semitic propaganda on a lamppost, then sprays it with dirty water.
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Before my eyes, the street is changing, from Ulster in early summer to spring
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1931 in Berlin.
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Among the shop fronts, a konditerei has materialised and sitting at a table
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outside it is Matt Smith, better known these days as Doctor Who. He's playing
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Christopher Isherwood in the BBC adaptation of the writer's 1976 memoir
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Christopher and His Kind. He's impeccably dressed in white shirt, waistcoat
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and tie, and he's reading script pages, very calmly, occasionally running his
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fingers through slicked-back hair. He gets up and strolls across the street,
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past a poster for Marlene Dietrich in der blaue Engel. 'Doesn't it look
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great?' he says.
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Later, after watching a take of himself stepping out of an apartment block
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into the hubbub, he introduces himself. 'Hi, I'm Matt,' he says, as if you
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might not know who he was. A month later, in London, he arrives late for our
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interview, striding into the room, apologising, he'd been sitting in a car
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stuck in traffic. He only flew back from Belfast the day before. He's giving
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off great bursts of energy, and he's wearing a huge, loose-knit jumper, of a
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sort that you would have to be very cool or very famous to get away with. It's
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cream with blue windmills on it.
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'I bought so much stuff from this amazing charity shop in Belfast,' he says.
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'It's a cool jumper, isn't it?'
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'It's very cool,' I tell him.
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## Related Articles
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* [Christopher and His Kind, BBC Two, review][3]
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18 Mar 2011
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* [Christopher and his Kind: in pictures][4]
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18 Mar 2011
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* [Christopher and His Kind, BBC One, preview][5]
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17 Mar 2011
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* [Christopher Isherwood: a great literary outsider][6]
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17 Mar 2011
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He decides to take it off. 'Fire away, sir,' he says.
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So what attracted him to playing Isherwood? 'The story,' he says. 'It's one of
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the best scripts that I've read in a long time…' It was adapted by playwright
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Kevin Elyot. 'Plus the fact that it was very different to what I'm doing as
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the Doctor. Isherwood was quite particular physically, and he had a quite
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particular voice.'
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He certainly did, as a visit to youtube can confirm. It was clipped and
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measured, thermostatically controlled in a way that makes perfect sense of his
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most famous line, from the novella Goodbye to Berlin. 'I am a camera with its
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shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.'
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Did he do the voice? 'Well, it's not the sort of Tony Blair, Michael Sheen
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performance, which I admire greatly, because he has a great ability to capture
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people very acutely. It's not that, there's no sense of mimicking there.' He
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slips into the voice he uses for the part. 'He talks like that, it's very high
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and he sits like that, very straight.'
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As he acts it out it becomes clear how hard it is going to be to capture the
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27-year-old Smith in words. He's very physically expressive, always playing,
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adopting different voices, sending himself up. Some of his answers later come
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out on tape like this: 'Of course, the Doctor would never… he'd be like doof,
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doof, doof,' which don't make quite as much sense without the accompanying
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movements. At one point, when I mention watching him transform from Smith into
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Isherwood in Belfast, he cuts in, 'Oh, I was giving my limp, wasn't I? My
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Richard III,' then he gets up and hobbles around the room for a bit.
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Isherwood's rigid control must have been quite a stretch.
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Smith had originally planned to be a professional footballer: he played for
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the youth teams of Northampton Town (where he grew up), Leicester City and
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Nottingham Forest as a teenager, before a serious back injury ended his
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career, and a drama teacher got him interested in acting. It's a vastly
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different background to that of Isherwood, who was gay, public-school
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educated, and left for the hedonistic atmosphere of Weimar era Berlin in his
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twenties to escape the repressiveness of English society between the wars, and
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a suffocating relationship with his mother (played in the drama by Lindsay
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Duncan).
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'I've got a different background to the Doctor,' Smith notes when I mention
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it. 'I'm not an alien.'
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Smith kept a diary throughout the production. A short story writer himself, he
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says he disciplined himself to write every day for the part, 'just the process
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of writing and thinking like a writer. Because I spent so much time with the
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book, I found myself phrasing things like Isherwood, the way he cuts his
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words, he's such a lover of language. But it was more the act of writing that
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I was interested in, I wasn't trying to govern it at all.'
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So what was it like playing a gay man? 'I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had to kiss
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a lot of boys. I finally understand why my good lady won't kiss me with a
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stubbly beard… I get it now. Hairy men, it hurts.
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He hastily corrects this statement half way through - 'well, it's the
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girlfriends I've had in the past that have whinged about stubble…' He's not
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going to talk about his relationship with the model Daisy Lowe, which has come
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under such intense tabloid scrutiny. 'I'd rather not unravel that bit of my
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private life, if it's all the same to you,' he says, politely, almost
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Isherwood-like.
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Is the drama going to be scandalous? Are we going to see his bottom in the
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tabloids? 'Probably, I think you might see my bum, yeah. The fact that it went
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to places like that was one of the lures for me. Hopefully, it's a brave
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choice, I think creatively, that's always interesting.'
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'Matt's very exciting to work with because he's fearless,' says the drama's
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director Geoffrey Sax when I catch up with him by phone a few weeks later. 'It
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makes things like the sex scenes easier to do, if your leading man is saying,
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"Come on, let's just go for it," it breeds a confidence on the set.'
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Sax also made the TV adaptation of Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet, which
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caused something of a stir back in 2002 for its depiction of a lesbian love
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affair, but he says there was no conscious attempt to create risque images for
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Christopher and His Kind.
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'My rule was always, nothing was ever gratuitous in it,' he says. 'You do see
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the two men clearly having penetrative sex, you see them going at each other,
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there's no question about that, but I didn't want it to be salacious.
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'Isherwood went to Berlin primarily because he wanted to have a freer life and
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because homosexuality was illegal here at that time. Over there, until the
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Nazis took over, it was a much more liberal city. He went there, among other
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things, to get laid, so we wanted to celebrate that.'
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The glamour of Weimar Berlin, particularly its cabaret scene, which Isherwood
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recorded, has had an incalculable influence on pop culture: it's in everything
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from glam to goth to disco, from film to fashion. Is there a parallel between
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it and the modern celebrity lifestyle? I ask Smith back in London. 'Hell, no,'
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he laughs. 'Weimar Berlin was way cooler. Anyway, I'm the wrong man to ask
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about the glitz and glamour of the celebrity lifestyle, I just work, I just go
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to film sets, I'm the most boring person, never been to a premiere, probably
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never will.'
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'Thirties Berlin was so extreme, and, of course, you've got this looming
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presence of Nazism, suddenly they're marching down streets and ransacking
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shops and you're thinking, this can't be happening, but it did.'
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Perhaps the most famous depiction of the era, the 1972 film Cabaret, which is
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based on the stage adaptation of Isherwood's Berlin novels, was also
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responsible for making Sally Bowles - as played by Liza Minelli - one of the
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20th century's iconic characters.
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Bowles was based on Isherwood's friend Jean Ross, who moved to Berlin from
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Scotland to try to make it in showbusiness, and lived for a while in the same
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apartment. In Christopher and His Kind, Ross is played by 21-year-old Imogen
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Poots, who starred as 'daddy's girl' Prue in the remake of A Bouquet of Barbed
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Wire.
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In Belfast, she arrives on set in a floaty trouser suit and mermaid-pink
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blouse, blonde curls spilling from beneath a hat decorated with a pheasant
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feather. She's also wearing the trademark element of Weimar Berlin fashion -
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dark eyeshadow.
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I ask Sax if he had attempted to create images for her like the famous one of
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Minelli in stockings, suspenders and bowler-hat. 'Research proved that Jean
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Ross wasn't anything like that,' he says. 'There are a very few pictures of
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her on the internet and she's actually more pale and wan. She did use a lot of
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make up, as all the cabaret artists did in those days, but we steered away
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from any reference to Liza Minelli, because we didn't want people to compare
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us to Cabaret, I think we would have been on a hiding to nothing.'
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Poots says she was aware of the Sally Bowles character from watching Cabaret
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as a girl, but wanted Jean to be more androgynous than sexy. 'She's very
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flirtatious around some people, but she was a young girl, 18 or 19 years old
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and still very childlike which is important to capture.
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'She had this fantasy she was going to succeed… she assumed she would get out
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of Berlin by going with some producer from Hollywood, by sleeping around. I
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think she could perform but I don't think there was anything there that could
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carry her to this yearned-for stardom that she wanted so very badly.'
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As Minelli did in Cabaret, Poots performs the songs in Christopher and His
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Kind. Had she ever wanted to be a singer herself? She laughs. 'I think if I
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ever became a singer, it would be the worst thing that ever happened to the
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world.
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'I looked back at Cabaret and I thought, "Oh god, Liza Minelli is really
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good." I didn't want my Jean to be that good because it would have been too
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easy for her then, she wouldn't have had these insecurities and wouldn't have
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been hanging around, to be honest, with Isherwood. She'd have been completely
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on her way.
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'We found these beautiful songs, one called "I Don't Know to Whom I Belong",
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that was very relevant to her, because there was no mention of her parents and
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there was no mention of a consistent or concrete lover in her life or friend
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even. I felt emotionally very attached to some of the songs. They really
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exposed her feelings.'
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What does she see as the secret of Isherwood and Jean Ross's friendship? 'I
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think they were just drawn to each other. I can't really explain it but even
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during the filming I felt very fond of Matt as a person, because I was
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constantly seeing him as Isherwood through Jean's eyes. I just felt very safe
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around him… he has some sort of presence that's very endearing, very gentle…
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and I believe she probably felt something similar; she wasn't threatened by
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Isherwood, and that was probably quite new for her.'
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The production has something of an all-star ensemble cast. Isherwood's street-
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sweeper lover, Heinz, is played by 17-year-old Douglas Booth - 'so beautiful
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it's ridiculous,' according to Poots - who starred as Boy George in the BBC
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biopic of the singer, while the role of the slightly shady Gerald Hamilton,
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the inspiration for the character of Mr Norris in the first of the Berlin
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novels, Mr Norris Changes Trains, is played by the brilliant comic actor Toby
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Jones (Swifty Lazar in Frost/Nixon). The pairing of Lindsay Duncan with Smith,
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meanwhile, is a reprise of the relationship they enjoyed in the critically
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acclaimed play, That Face, in 2008. 'We have the weirdest mother/son
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relationship,' says Smith. 'She calls us "that tired old double act". I've
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learnt so much from her. I think she should be Damed.'
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His relationship with his real mother, he says, is nothing like Christopher's
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with Kathleen Isherwood. 'I'm very close to my mum. I love my mum, you know,
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she's the best. I wouldn't be the man I am if I didn't have her.'
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He says he's now recognised 'every day, everywhere I go, which is an odd
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transition in your life.' How does he cope with the constant intrusion? 'It's
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part of the deal. If you're ten and you bump into Doctor Who, and he doesn't
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give you a couple of minutes just to say hello and engage with you, that's
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rubbish, man. I just try and get on with it as gracefully as I can, and try
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not to make a pillock of myself.'
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Between series, he says, he can do whatever he likes, although he doubts that
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he would have the time to take on a play. Could he see himself trying to bag
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any other iconic British roles in the future, James Bond perhaps? 'Oh God, I
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don't think I'm handsome enough, I think I'm more of a Bond villain. It'd be
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nice to be the actor that played them both though, wouldn't it?
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'The Doctor's cooler, though,' he adds. 'He can time travel, he's cleverer…
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Bond's all right, but he's not the Doc.'
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So how long does he intend to play the Doctor for? 'Well, I'm going back this
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year. I guess get another one out the way, see what everyone thinks of that. I
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love doing it, I don't want to give it up anytime soon, put it that way.'
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I ask him if he's nervous about the reception his performance in Christopher
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and His Kind will get. 'No,' he gives a big sigh, 'I'm excited about this. I
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was more nervous about Doctor Who.
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'Before that came out, I didn't know if people were going to hurl tomatoes at
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me, I had no idea, but then I suppose every actor goes through that period of
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"like me, like me" (he puts on a pleading voice). That's part of being an
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artist, I think.'
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_Christopher and His Kind is on BBC Two on Saturday 19 March at 9.30pm_
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[X][7] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][8]
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* Share: [Share][7] [ ][9] [ ][10]
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[Tweet][11]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8388472/Doctor-Whos-Matt-Smith-
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on-kissing-boys-and-not-being-handsome-enough-to-play-Bond.html
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Telegraph
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## [TV and Radio][12]
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* ### [Culture »][13]
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* ### [Doctor Who »][14]
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* ### [Chris Harvey »][15]
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[![TV Guide][16]][17]
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### [TV Guide UK: searchable TV listings][17]
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[![Paul Merton presents the Birth of Hollywood][18] ][19]
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### [Today's TV highlights][19]
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[![][20] ][21]
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### [Britain's Got Talent: where are they now?][21]
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[![][22] ][23]
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### [Doctor Who - the top ten best Doctors][23]
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[X][7] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][8]
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Share:
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* [ ][7]
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* [ ][9]
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* [ ][10]
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* [Tweet][11]
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* Advertisement
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![][24]
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telegraphuk
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