Doctor Who Live Info

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Gary and Paul Hardy-Brown illusionists

Note: We’re actually talking to Paul! But Gary was around, in the backgroud, doing some welding if the noise over the phone was anything to go by…

When and how did you become involved in Doctor Who Live?

“About six months ago. When they were talking about the concept they contacted us and said, ‘Guys, would you like to be involved?’ And we jumped at the chance. Both of us are Doctor Who geeks. Me, mainly. Gary is a great fan but I’m more of a geek. We collect a lot of original Doctor Who bits and pieces, so it’s in our blood.

“Formerly we were illusionists, we toured up and down, everywhere. And then people started asking us to consult on shows, and television, using our expertise. And our performances just sort of dried up because we’ve been doing so much on the consultancy side. We call ourselves creative consultants due to the fact that sometimes the word magic has a very naff persona, which is a great shame because it’s a fantastic medium and you can do so much with it. So we combine magic and illusion and special FX, and for the last five years we’ve done some really groundbreaking effects. And now we’re redesigning the wheel again for Doctor Who Live.”

Redesigning the wheel in what way?

“Well, the Doctor Who series is fab but they use a lot of CGI. So we’ve had to take some elements from the show and then put them into a live theatre stadium environment. And the CGI is designed for a very small screen. Even if you’ve got a 50-inch screen that’s nothing compared to an arena. When you’re doing it in an arena, and you’re doing it three times a day, it’s got to work every time, and every time it’s got to look as effective as the first time.

“So, for instance, one of the effects we’re doing is making a Dalek elevate, fly. They just use CGI, blue screen, chromakey on TV and it’s done. But we actually make the Dalek fly without wires. So that’s redesigning the wheel.”

What’s the problem with wires? The wobbles?

“It’s not the wobble. People see them. When you see Peter Pan at panto you see the wires. But we’ve come up with this system where you don’t have any wires.”

Was it a system specially created for Doctor Who Live?

“We’ve been playing with this idea for about four-ish years. This is the peak of its use, Doctor Who Live. This is the hybrid of all hybrids. It’s bigger. It’s better. It’s a great bit of kit. It’s very technical. What the Daleks do on the screen you see them do at the live show. It’s a formidable task, because the Dalek spins 360 degrees, it goes up, down, left and right, so that’s all got to be taken into consideration. It’s a great effect.”

Is there a lot of Dalek flying?

“There’s one scene that he does everything in. But there’s a final battle at the end with some more.”

Will you need to be there every night of the tour, or will everything hopefully be working like clockwork by then?

“Paul and myself will be touring with the show to make sure the effects are working to a standard we require. Some tours we tour with them, some we don’t. It all depends what how, where and who kind of thing.”

Because what you’re doing is still, on some levels, magic, and part of the point of magic is keeping the secret behind the trick a secret, do your team have to sign a non-disclosure agreement?

“Yeah. With the BBC you sign a non-disclosure agreement, with us you sign a non-disclosure agreement, just to keep everything all tight and within the team, within the family. It’s great when you get the actors involved, and they hide in very small places and they think, ‘Oh, my god, this is amazing! How can people not see me?’”

Did you have input into the script, suggesting illusions that you could create?

“They had a blank page, and we came with ideas, and we just bombarded them with ideas. The first thing was, ‘Well, let’s elevate the Dalek!’ But then we went down various roads. We went through a progression of brainstorming, then designs, and then three or four months down the line we have an effect that we can start building.”

Have you met Steven Moffat?

“We haven’t met Steven Moffat yet! Every time we’d miss him by an hour! It’s been a shame. But we were there when they were filming the live footage of Matt Smith in Cardiff, so that was good.”

How would you describe Doctor Who Live?

“It’s going to be a fantastic show that’s never been seen before in a theatre or an arena in the UK. Even worldwide. It’s a very, very interesting show. The fans and audience will get value for money. It is going to be a great, great show. Even if you’re not into Doctor Who, it’s going to be spectacular. Not many live shows spend this amount of money on effects. It’s a great concept. If it was a cake we’d all be eating it.”

The twins on the set of “Destiny Of The Daleks” back in 1979

Is any of it done with mirrors?

“Everybody thinks everything is done with mirrors! The problem with mirrors is, the bigger the mirror, the more it breaks. So we don’t tend to use mirrors. No! There will be loads of smoke in Doctor Who Live but no mirrors. In 1800s Vaudeville they used loads and loads of mirrors but you don’t need to use mirrors any more. And they’re a pain to clean as well, especially when you use smoke and mirrors together. The smoke sticks to the mirror.”

Would you like to work on the TV series?

“I would love to! I would really love to. There’s a picture of us as small children on the set of ‘Destiny Of The Daleks’ in the late ’70s. It was how our love of Doctor Who and everything special effectsy came about. We saw an alien spaceship, and a Dalek, and all the actors. Tom Baker!

“And that’s what started us off. We thought, ‘Special effects is such a hard game to get into but we have a love of magic,’ so that’d be great to get into. So we carried on with the magic, and then we went to drama school, and then we became Blue Coats at Pontins and started our act. Then we got into special effects, putting magic into shows. So Doctor Who was the foundation of our career.”

Doctor Who Live is on tour across the UK from Friday 8 October.

For ticket information, visit www.doctorwholive.com