Posted in: Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, doctor who

Doctor Who Prom: Highlights from Catherine Tate-Hosted 2024 Edition

The 2024 Doctor Who Prom concert took place on Bank Holiday Monday, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Here are some of the highlights...

The Doctor Who Proms are back! For the first time since the last one in 2013 when the Doctor was Peter Capaldi, the BBC Proms, which are a big deal in the UK, brought back a night of music from the new series of Doctor Who to the Royal Albert Hall in London. The 5,000-plus seats were sold out, and Russell T. Davies, Steve Moffat, Susan Twist, and series composers Segun Akunola and Murray Gold were in attendance. The Proms are also a gateway drug to introducing children to Classic Music. As Davies said years ago, "You can watch it later on the website, or on YouTube, or whatever, but frankly, you'll never know what it was really like unless you are in the Albert Hall on that day. It can never be captured again. And that's a reward for people who buy tickets and queue and travel."

The Music of "Doctor Who," Where Everything Old is New Again

The evening began with soprano Aida Garifullina singing the chorus to the theme that introduced the return of the Doctor in 2005 before it segued into a rapturous rendition of "Fifteen," Murray Gold's theme for the newest Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) with Alistair King conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the London Philharmonic Choir. Old favourites like "I am The Doctor," the Eleventh Doctor's (Matt Smith) theme, "A Good Man," the Twelfth Doctor's (Peter Capaldi) theme, and a compilation of Segun Akinola's themes for the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and suites of the companions' themes along with Murray Gold's new themes for Ruby Sunday. The evening also included the new themes and suites Gold composed for the past season.

Catherine Tate Does Stand-Up

Catherine Tate hosted the concert and introduced the setpieces. Not everything went flawlessly. Sometimes where were technical glitches before a video played, and Tate flubbed some of her lines at the beginning, but she improvised around them and turned it into a stand-up comedy routine as she kept the audience laughing. To a Doctor Who audience, Donna Noble could do no wrong as she also introduced the aliens that appeared on stage, including new monsters like the parasitic cosplayers the Chuldur.

The Doctor and Maestro Appear

In a pre-recorded video, the Vlinx, UNIT's residential robot helper, announced there was an invasion. Ncuti Gatwa and Jinkx Monsoon appeared in a pre-recorded video as Maestro announced they were stealing music and playing the worst music imaginable. At that point, the orchestra played the Beatles' terrible songs from "The Devil's Chord."

A Wild Dalek Appears

Of course, there was a Dalek. It's not Doctor Who unless there's at least one Dalek. One Dalek came out at midpoint to kick the orchestra, the conductor, and the audience out for the fifteen-minute intermission under threat of EX-TER-MIN-ATION!

A Wild Mrs. Flood Appeared

Anita Dobson made a surprise appearance as Mrs. Flood, the mysterious woman who lived next to Ruby and her parents, who might be the Big Bad of the upcoming second season on Disney+. She played to the audience like a Christmas pantomime villain, chirping in-jokes for all they were worth. "Haven't seen a Prom before?" she quipped. "The last time I went to a concert was 1986. I saw Queen." Dobson is married to Queen's Brian May. "Have you heard of them? Not bad, are they? Bit noisy." Mrs. Flood tried to convince the audience she wasn't "some outer space villain in disguise" but "a nice, quiet, friendly soul, which is more than I can say for my neighbours…"

All in all, a good time was had by all, and the live concert felt as special as ever for everyone who was there. It was filmed for television and will be broadcast on the BBC in the UK at Christmas time, but the audio recording is currently streaming for another month or so on the BBC Sounds website.

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