zeynep sonmez at the miami open celebrating her match point after defeating beatriz haddad maia. making her the first turkish women to win a main draw match at the miami open.
Scott: Hello! My Name is Scott Handcock. I am the director of Torchwood: Fall to Earth and I am joined this afternoon by
James: Uh James Goss, I wrote this.
Gareth: Gareth David-Lloyd, play Ianto.
Lisa: Lisa Zahra, I play Zeynep.
Scott: And what a lovely day, what a lovely script it’s been. James, do you want to talk a little bit about how the idea came to you for this episode?
James: uh cus when we brought back Torchwood, we had one script already written which is by David Llewellyn and the next one obviously had to be Ianto because he’s the one that everyone loves.
Gareth: mhmm. mhmm.
Scott: Yup, quite right. and Gareth how has it been returning to the role after, six years to the week—we realized today—since you died on screen?
Gareth: It’s, it’s been amazing! I was worried when I- when I first heard I was gonna be doing it, how long it would take me to sort of get back into the skin of the character the- but it, within two lines I w- I was back there. It was like I never left. It was lovely and it’s been a very no- nostalgic experience for me to let him breath once more.
Scott: Um and Lisa as well, what do you make of Zeynep? And the lovely character you've brought to life today which sort of flew right off the page, actually, the moment we got the pair of you into studio!
Lisa: Aw, I've absolutely loved it I think um, as soon as I read it, actually. And the relationship between them both is just brilliant. Just to have two of us in the whole episode has just been really good to, to have that experience. I really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it.
James: In a lot of the tv episodes Ianto is standing in the background and you, ya know it’s kind of, Captain Jack walks into a room and says something brave and heroic! Eve Myles walks into a room, shoots somebody and it’s full of heart and everything. And then Ianto just gets to walk in and say the really pithy lovely line.
Gareth: And raises his left eyebrow.
everyone laughing
James: Yes! Go on, do that. Do that now on audio please!
Lisa laughing
James: Thank you.
Scott: That has indeed been done. Um but yay! I'm- I mean we were talking a little bit earlier about how visual this uh drama has been.
Gareth: Yeah, uh, uh i was saying ya know I've- I've ha- uh- have-e-each scene has a sort of core emotion and I- I -I- I find myself to get into that emotion uh- a stock facial expression for each, for each scene which has helped me um, its- it- although the people at home can't see it, it’s been a very visual- it’s been a very visual episode for me as far as uh- um my face goes.
Lisa: Yeah, I think definitely. And the expressions with it it- the- I mean you have to do it when you’re sitting there it’s just you’re completely- I saw it all straight away when I first read it. But today, being able to read it out loud, the both of u,s has just been brilliant because I can see it. I’d love to see it actually, I’d love to see it on tv.
Scott: That was always you’re sort of mission, wasn’t it James? To come up with story lines that were the sort of episodes you wish you'd seen on screen in series one and two?
James: Yeah! and it’s just I- isn't great having an episode that’s all about Ianto! And all about what a noble, honest, decent man he is. And then just at the end you realize he’s there going "oh I've just asked somebody really nice to kill herself. Oh. ssss today's not great actually.”
Gareth: Yeah, but it’s, I mean. What’s lovely is the relationship between Ianto and um, uh Zeynep. um I think what he recognizes in her very early on is the sort of fact she’s got this very sort of rigid job to- to do. She works from a script, and everything has to be just so which he completely connects with cus the-uh that’s the way he sort of deals with himself every day. Wears a rigid suit, he- he makes coffee, ev-ev-everything that- everything is just right. everything’s ordered neatly. I think he mentions that in the script. So, I think he- that- that they’ve got a sort of relationship that he recognizes quite early on and that quite fun sort of playing with that (Lisa: mm, yeah.) y-y-you know he says to her a couple of time "are you off script now?" " oh, you've gone of script!" you know and he- he sort of, he sort of r-recognizes her, her job. So, it’s nice to have s-you know to have two character that are quite similar (Scott: that’s it, you’re both the little people) bon-bon-bonding across, yeah, bonding across the uh, across the airwaves.
Lisa: And it’s a strong bond. At the end you do wonder, and when I first read it thinking do they, do they meet? I wonder what would happen if they did? Ya know and its quite, Its quite romantic, I think, at the end. There’s a- a romantic, a romantic aspect to it that comes at the end- at the end of the piece.
Gareth: Yeah.
Lisa: Which I really like
Scott: There’s a huge affection that really builds throughout the story as well.
Lisa: mm.
James: yeah, but if they ever met up Ianto would set fire to her house.
Lisa: yeah.
James: He would do it for the best of intentions. (Lisa and Gareth laugh) but within half an hour the house would be on fire, the car would be crashed, and one of the children would be in hospital.
Lisa: It’s probably best that he doesn’t get to meet the family, I think.
everyone agreeing
Scott: and, and Gareth how has, obviously it’s almost ten years since you started filming the very first series of Torchwood. It’s never left you, you're back as Ianto all this time on. Did you ever expect, when you started, that it would you know keep coming back yeah?
Gareth: Live on as much as it has? No not at all. I uh it’s- the whole, the whole, the whole thing for me from- from the beginning, has been completely overwhelming. And I didn't expect the character to- to grow into the character that he did. I didn't expect the series to be as popular worldwide as it was. I knew, I always knew, it was a good series but I d- I didn’t expect everything to grow so rapidly and so huge. um I didn’t expect to come back to do radio dramas after Ianto had died in series three. I didn't expect to get as far as season three as far as living goes! (Scott laughs) and- and to come back now this, this long after to- to know that people are still out there, wanting more, wanting to hear more and- and the fact that people are still prepared to- to write for it and make it is- is- is great and it’s you know it’s gonna be a big part of my life um til the day I die I think.
James:(whispered) Hooray!
Scott: Hooray indeed. And uh, what, what have been your favorite moments from today?Whatt have you most enjoyed playing in the script?
Lisa: I think it’s both the comedy between them but also the end because it feels like they really come together and there’s, a r- yeah I enjoy the end where you really, the gentleness in those scenes and those intimate scenes where they come together is really, that was really lovely, I enjoyed that.
Gareth: yeah, um I-I sort of happened with us realizing it, that we were sort of playing, I noticed with Zeynep as well she's got some great ianto-esque lines when sh- you know quite dry and quite uh- uh ironic, sardonic. um and then you know sort of them having the sort of dry- dry wit duel, in a lot of the scenes and then at the end sort of, sort of realizing they’ve actually forged this sort of underly- th- th- the two sensitive aspects of the characters have sort of bonded and underneath all that sort of um play, through- throughout the first um firs l- it was a nice- it was nice.
Scott: well, on that note, Lisa, Gareth, James, thank you very much for a lovely day (Lisa: thank you) and hopefully we'll be hearing more from Ianto jones very soon!
