Information
Writer: Mark Gatiss
Director: Euros Lyn
Script Editor: Simon Winstone
Producer: Phil Collinson
Executive Producer(s): Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner
Originally Broadcast: 20th May 2006
Duration: 45 mins
Viewing Figures (in millions): 6.7m
Production Code: 2.7
Monsters/Villains: The Wire
Year Set: 1953
Location: London, Earth
Synopsis
It's 1953, the Coronation year of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and the people of Great Britain huddle round their television sets to witness the great event.
But behind the celebrations there are rumours of monsters on the streets, and the tormented Mr Magpie is hiding a strange and alien secret…
It's 1953, the Coronation year of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and the people of Great Britain huddle round their television sets to witness the great event.
But behind the celebrations there are rumours of monsters on the streets, and the tormented Mr Magpie is hiding a strange and alien secret…
Cast
Monster File: The Wire
David Tennant – David Tennant
Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
The Wire - Maureen Lipman
Magpie - Ron Cook
Eddie Connolly - Jamie Foreman
Rita Connolly - Debra Gillett
Tommy Connolly - Rory Jennings
Grandma Connolly - Margaret John
Detective Inspector Bishop - Sam Cox
Crabtree - Ieuan Rhys
Aunt Betty - Jean Challis
Security Guard - Christopher Driscoll
Mrs Gallagher - Marie Lewis
Home Planet: Hermethica
Life Form: Unknown
Life Form: Unknown
The Wire was a criminal alien life form, that’d been executed by its people on the planet Hermethica, but managed to preserve itself. On Earth, it took the form of a BBC continuity announcer to communicate. It hid inside television signals, and would be able to go from one television set to another, just like a normal signal given off. The Wire fed off the mental signals from humans, by using electrical tendrils, to leave its victim mindless, and also without a face. The Wire arrived on Earth in the year 1953, around the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. It forced an electric shop owner, Mr Magpie, to help it sell cheap TVs all over North London, so it could get a large feast. It wanted to take many people, when many were all watching the Queen’s coronation. So it told Mr Magpie how to make a portable television, and go right to the top of the transmission tower, on Alexandra Palace, where the television was broadcasting from. The Wire could then transmit itself to the three million people watching, hoping that it was going to create enough energy to re-create her original body again, but the plan was thwarted by the Doctor and Tommy.
Preceded by: The Age of Steel - Followed by: The Impossible Planet
