Doctor Who actor Matt Smith stars as novelist Christopher Isherwood in Christopher and His Kind, a one-off drama due to air on BBC Two on Saturday 19 March 2011. Looking at Isherwood’s formative years, the programme tells how he escapes the repressive English society and his suffocating relationship with his mother Kathleen (played by Lindsay Duncan) for a more decadent lifestyle in 1930s Berlin.
Isherwood soon falls in love with the hedonistic Berlin cabaret scene, despite being unable to speak a word of German. He immerses himself in the city's thriving gay subculture, but a failed love affair leads him onto a process of self-discovery.
The ninety-minute play was written by Kevin Elyot and directed by Geoffrey Sax. The producer was Celia Duval and executive producers Michele Buck, Kevin Elyot and Damien Timmer. The production company was Mammoth Screen.
The Actors in Christopher and His Kind
Matt Smith is best known as the 11th of the main actors who have played Doctor Who. After injury put paid to a potential career as a footballer, he turned to acting and had his first television role in 2006 as Jim Taylor in The Ruby in the Smoke. He followed that a year later by playing Danny Foster in Party Animals and in 2009 Dan Twentyman in Moses Jones.
Lindsay Duncan’s television career dates back to 1975 when she had a small role in the Further Up Pompeii! TV movie but she had to wait until 1984 for her first recurring part, that of Andrea in Travelling Man. She went on from that to play Pamela Scott in Kit Curran, Helen Rosshalde in Traffik, Barbara Douglas in GBH, Annie Mayle in A Year in Provence and Monica in Jake’s Progress. More recently, she was Servilia of the Junii in Rome, Adelaide Brooke in Doctor Who and Elisabeth Fullwood in The Sinking of the Laconia.
Imogen Poots plays Jean Ross, an aspiring actress on whom the character Sally Bowles was based. Poots was nominated in the 2007 British Independent Film Awards for most promising newcomer for her role as Tammy in 28 Weeks Later. Other roles have included Young Valerie in V for Vendetta and Blanche Ingram in a film adaptation of Jane Eyre. Last year, she played Prue Sorenson in Bouquet of Barbed Wire.
Toby Jones plays Gerald Hamilton, who provided the inspiration for the title character in the Isherwood novel Mr Norris Changes Trains. Jones is better known for his film roles but his TV appearances include Dan Peterson in Midsomer Murders and Robert Cecil in Elizabeth I.
Pip Carter stars as Wystan Auden, the poet who persuaded Christopher to join him in Berlin. His TV career started in 2007 when he played Matt Baker in Party Animals.
Douglas Booth plays Heinz, a street cleaner whom Christopher meets and falls in love with during his time in Berlin. He played Boy George in the TV movie Worried About the Boy and Eustace in The Pillars of Earth.
Who was Christopher Isherwood?
Born in Cheshire, England, in 1904, Christopher Isherwood wrote The Berlin Stories collection, which formed the basis for the Broadway musical and film Cabaret. His 1964 book A Single Man has been acclaimed as a significant novel in the gay liberation movement and was turned into a film in 2009 of the same name. He died in 1986 from cancer.
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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