Torchwood Stars, Exec Producer Discuss ‘Bold’ New Season

CANNES: John Barrowman and Bill Pullman, stars of the upcoming Starz/BBC co-production Torchwood: Miracle Day, and the show’s executive producer Julie Gardner, tell World Screen Newsflash that viewers can expect a bolder and edgier season of the hit series this summer.

Having a U.S. broadcaster on board "helps us enormously," Gardner, senior VP of scripted at BBC Worldwide Productions, told World Screen Newsflash in Cannes yesterday about the impact of having Starz as a co-producer. "It helps us reach some scale. We’ve had for the first time the opportunity to shoot both in the U.K. and also in America. We are doing bigger stunts. We are able to create more action. We have more background artists. So there is an onscreen value. The single most important thing to say is, at heart, the show remains the same. We haven’t been asked to change it. We haven’t been asked to be ‘American’, whatever that means. Both Starz and BBC One have asked us to make the best quality, most bold offering of Miracle Day that we possibly could."

"We’re bolder now than we were before," adds Barrowman, also in town with BBC Worldwide to promote the new season of Torchwood, in which he stars as Captain Jack. "The heart of the show is the same, the show is edgier, the characters are edgier, nothing has been watered down. Torchwood has changed every series that we’ve done. It’s evolved. We’re moving on to another page in the history of Torchwood. And its going to be bigger and better."

In the new season, "humanity becomes immortal," says Barrowman of the plot. "That is the story that begins in episode one and wll be answered in episode ten. But within that, there are other stories that branch out."

The plot involves Pullman as villain Oswald Jones. Asked about his experience working on a transatlantic co-production, he said, "Good storytellers are a joy to be with. There’s an interest in telling us who were as humans. It’s a great privilege."

Starz and BBC One premiere the show this July. BBC Worldwide is the international distributor and launched the series to buyers at MIPTV this week.