Lost in space

FOLLOWERS of The League of Gentleman might think that Can Do, the new production company run by Mark Gatiss, is named after the catchphrase of Alvin Steele in that series.

But it’s not, reveals the County Durhamborn actor and writer. “We called it that because we found we were constantly saying we needed people with a ‘can do’ attitude, not a ‘can’t do’ one. And there are a few of those around,” he said.

“I did then think it’d be great to have a clip of Alvin, when the logo came up, going “can do” but we didn’t in the end.”

The First Men In The Moon, which Gatiss has adapted from the novel by HG Wells and in which he plays the leading role of Professor Cavor, is the first production from Can Do.

“It came about accidentally really,” he said.

“Some of the people who did the special effects on Crooked House, the ghost story I did two years ago, did some digging and discovered it was one of the few HG Wells novels that was available to do for television.

Most are owned by the big Hollywood studios.

“I was immediately thrilled by the idea, what you might call scientific romances There’s just something fantastically appealing about the idea of two Victorian gentlemen going to the moon.”

The drama is dedicated to Lionel Jeffries, the star of the film version, who was a great favourite of Gatiss.

He said: “He was a fantastic champion of that kind of film. He also directed The Railway Children and he was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I think it’s a fantastic thing to try to make, especially for bank holidays and the like – it’s a family adventure.”

There was never any doubt he was going to play the professor who, with Rory Kinnear’s assistant, set out to fly to the moon.

It’s the kind of part Gatiss has wanted to play since he was a little boy.

He said: “I don’t care what other people think any more about me writing my own parts. Nobody had asked me to play Professor Cavor, so I might have waited 40 years for the chance and it never come along. So I had to write it for myself – ‘can do’, you see.”

Gatiss has also been on BBC4 introducing The History Of Horror, a series about horror movies. The BBC asked him and he couldn’t say no because it was a labour of love.

He said: “What was interesting to me about it was that it’s a three-part series, which is fantastic really, and very generous in many ways, but at the same time you can’t possibly do it justice in three parts. So one of the things I insisted on right from the very start is that it had to be personal. That’s why it’s called A History Of Horror, not ‘The’ History Of Horror.”

Also in the pipeline for him are more episodes of Sherlock, which he co-created and co-wrote, and Doctor Who, for which he writes scripts. He’s also doing a play at the National Theatre in London with ex- Doctor Who companion Catherine Tate – Alan Ayckbourn’s Seasons Greetings.

MANY of us use them every day, many more pass right by without giving them much thought at all, but there are countless motorway service stations all over the country.

The one-off documentary Motorway Madness follows life over the course of a busy bank holiday weekend at one such facility in Strensham, Worcestershire.

The station is home to a number of colourful characters who devote their working lives to helping and serving the weary travellers who make pit stops there.

No two days are the same for the 270 employees, who regularly meet an eclectic mix of customers and people just passing through.

The longest-serving members of staff are married couple Sheila and Ray, who have spent more than 50 years on the night shift. They are followed by 36-year-old Ian, a veteran who joined as a teenager 20 years ago.