OTN movie lovers will be pleased to know that another actor has taken up the ginger beard to play Vincent van Gogh. This time VVG mixes it with the great Time Lord Dr Who in Richard Curtis’s episode Vincent and the Doctor. This time round movie-Vincent has traded the American twang he inherited via Kirk Douglas for the burr of actor Tony Curran. This Scot played the Invisible Man in The League of Gentlemen and is also Lieutenant Delcourt in the new version of The adventures of Tintin which is having its animated sequences created by Weta.
From here it is spoilers all the way down.
Curtis has a lot of fun with VVG. Seems he is the only one who can see an alien who it turns out is a limping impala (not literally) left behind by its mates. It also turns out that the Doctor was on hand when Michelangelo painted that ceiling. In the end VVG is taken in the Tardis to visit the Musée d'Orsay in 2010 where he gets some well-deserved and tear-forming affirmation from Bill Nighy who plays the part of a high-end curator.
Richard Curtis (who wrote Black Adder, Mr Bean, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral and many other TV shows and feature films) was born in Wellington where his family lived for a number of years.
Unfortunately the NZ showing of Vincent and the Doctor was last week, as all Dr W fans will know, but you can catch snippets of it here and pre-order the DVD. You can see snippets on YouTube (type ‘Dr Who and Vincent’ into the search box) or here at the BBC home page for info and more pics from the VGV episode.
Images: Top, the Doctor and Vincent. Bottom left Vincent sees his work at the d'Orsay and right, tears up. Thanks for the heads-up A.
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