I think I read that the BBC came out and apologised, said they’d made up the quote about typecasting. I can’t remember what he really WAS worried about, but it wasn’t that I don’t think. He was said to look less than chuffed when a journalist commented that this would be what he’d be remembered for… maybe that had been where the idea of typecasting came from.
Dunno. I thought I read it in the Guardian but I can’t find it in their online archive. Could have been Private Eye. Somebody a bit high-up at the BBC looked like a twit, though, and had to make an apology, presumably at Ecclestone’s behest. I think they had panicked when challenged by journalists about whether or not he’d be staying on, so they made up a generic quote on the spot rather than say nothing.
I get the impression Michelle Ryan is quite staturesque (them’s some big shoulders she’s got). I only saw the new bloke in a couple of clips, but he looked fairly slight. No macho slinging her over his shoulder, if my perceptions are correct. Which would be unusual. And it would take a bit of getting used to, not having Big Mo riding to the rescue.
Jennifer Ellison would have to be abandoned on a distant planet pretty damn soon, unless she can do another accent. Just thinking about how she’d say “Doctor” is making me shiver.