Juno Dawson teases Doctor Who Eurovision episode she wrote: ‘Freddie Fox looks good in horns’
Dawson said showrunner Russell T Davies pitched her "the concept of Eurovision meets Die Hard, which were two things I knew really well"
By Gary Grimes
Juno Dawson has teased further details of the Eurovision-inspired episode of Doctor Who she penned.
The episode, which centres around an enemy faction planning an attack on the ‘Interstellar Song Contest’, is due to air on Saturday ahead of the actual Eurovision Song Contest on which it was based.
Dawson revealed that showrunner Russell T Davies came to her with a basic premise from which she expanded. “Russell initially pitched the bare bones concept of Eurovision meets Die Hard, which were two things I knew really well,” she recalled.
“Then, I went away and pitched a plot, and it hasn’t really changed all that much. Obviously, there was a lot of discussion between myself, the producers and Russell. But it’s still those two things. What would happen if an enemy faction planned an attack on the Eurovision Song Contest in space?”
The episode includes guest appearances from Rylan Clark, who plays the host of the song contest, and Freddie Fox, who plays Kid, a villain leading the enemy attack. When asked to describe the episode with just one phrase, Dawson remarked: “Freddie Fox looks good with horns.”
She went on to say: “It’s like a disaster movie. I think people are certainly going to expect it to be … let’s just say camp. I mean of course it is, it’s the Interstellar Song Contest. But also, it’s action-packed. It doesn’t let up for a second. It’s a really high-octane episode.”
Fox, who has previously worked with Davies on the 2015 Channel 4 queer drama Cucumber, echoed Dawson’s sentiments, revealing: “Audiences can expect to see the most audacious interpretation of Eurovision ever conceived, bigger than even Eurovision itself.
“I thought this is camp, camp, camp!” Fox explained. “Russell, how do you even think of it, let alone make it so brilliant? I think it’s going to blow the audiences minds.”
The actor had high praise for Dawson also. “I worked quite hard on making Kid as specific as I could. He was such a well written character by Juno, who wrote the script.”
Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer from 8am on Saturday morning and on BBC One at 7.10pm that evening.