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Andrew Marshall - The author of Strange

Strange the series
  Tell us how Strange came about.

Strange percolated into the back of my brain for many, many years. Originally the idea was that the devil himself lived in England, and someone was trying to find him.

I couldn't actually quite work out how that would work in practice but as it went on it developed into this idea that many demons live in this cathedral city in human form. It rather conveniently fitted in with the Agatha Christie-type plots, where you had to guess who was the demon this week, and that was a much more workable form.

I've always been very interested in both fantasy and detective stories and it seemed very logical for me to put those two things together to make a fantasy detective story. As far as I know it's the first one there's ever been.

Strange the character
  What can you tell us about the character of John Strange?

Strange is, as far as we know at the beginning of the series, a man who has bleft the priesthood under some circumstances which we don't entirely know.

We know he has a photograph of a woman on his study table. Obviously they were involved with each other in some form or other but we don't really know what happened to her. What exactly happened unfolds as the series progresses and I'd rather not go into exactly what, otherwise it will spoil it for everybody.

Canon Black
  Tell us about Canon Black, what's he up to?

The interesting thing about Canon Black is there are several possible explanations as to what he's up to. He may simply be covering up the evidence of demons because he believes, as he says in the pilot, that it just frightens people.

There may be other reasons why he's doing this. He could conceivably be a kind of demon master. We don't really know at the early stages of the series exactly what he's up to, but I think that's what makes him a very intriguing character.

One of the things we noticed is he won't let scheming get in the way of his hobbies. Tell us a bit about the idea of giving him a life outside his evil plotting?

I think the Cannon oddly is a very unreligious figure. One of the interesting things about the two characters of Strange and Cannon Black is that one isn't a priest, and is terribly priestly and rather good in fact, and the other one is a priest and is quite worldly and very unpriest-like. In fact the first words he says are 'Jesus Christ'.

It's just - I suppose it's all to do with contrasting the two characters, and trying to explore the natures of good and evil, and how they play out as the characterisations develop.

Jude
  Tell us about Jude?

Well, Jude's had a very unusual experience because she was living with a guy called Rich, who, in the pilot , turned out to be a demon. She'd had a child with him, so the first episode of the series revolves around the question as to whether or not the child has inherited any of these demon attributes.

That's what originally brings her into contact with John Strange, but after that things progress so they know each other a little more and the investigations proceed with the two of them.

Toby
  What can you tell us about Toby?

Toby is the one we know least about, through the series so far. He's had an accident on his motor bike, we do know that, and has had a very bad head injury and had several gold bolts inserted to replace his skull sections. The effect of this is that he's shielded from the demonic vibes that are picked up by Kevin, the other character played by Timmy Lang.

Therefore he's like the control in the drugs test, he's the person who the demons can't get through. He's also in charge of all the equipment that they use to pick up the demon vibes through various, meters and so forth. He's in charge of finding information on the web about various demons because they can't actually get the information from the Demonica Diablo book that they were trying to get hold of in the pilot, so they have to get what information they can.

What does Toby do for a day job?

We don't know. It's unknown what he does at this point.

Kevin
  Tell us about Kevin

Kevin works as Cannon Black's gardener which is very convenient because he's able to spy on the Cannon and find out various things as he peeps through the window pruning the hedges.

The other thing about him is that as he's a Down's Syndrome person the Cannon presumably doesn't even conceive he could possibly pass on information. Kevin is also super sensitive which means he also picks up demon vibes and is often the first sign that something demonish is about to happen in the vicinity.

What can you tell us about Joey?

Joey is the son of Jude and Rich, who turned out to be the demon Azal in episode one. Doctor Who fans may possibly recognise that name. There are little Doctor Who references sprinkled throughout the series. See if you can find them.

Is that why there are two hunt saboteurs called Jamie and Zoe?

You could be right.

Doddington
  Tell us about Doddington?

Doddington is Canon Black's curate and really his secretary and dogsbody.

He's rather horribly bossed around by the Cannon. He's very weak-willed, which I suspect is exactly why the Cannon picked him. He will just do whatever the Cannon tells him. I'm not sure what he thinks about what the Cannon's doing but in time I hope this will develop into quite an interesting relationship.

Writng Strange.
  How much research did you do?

Well I've never met a demon.

I didn't look into a lot of demon stories. I've always loved all kinds of fantasy and I suppose I just drew upon everything I liked in the past and sprinkled it with what I knew about various real demons and this is what came out at the end of the boiling process.

Reading between the lines.
  Are there any in-jokes we should be looking out for?

Well, if there's in-jokes you wouldn't be able to see them. I've tried very hard not to make it a campy series, I think it's terribly important that within the actual programme everything is completely logical and taken seriously otherwise you tend to loose sympathy with it. There's no post-modernism going on at all, if that's what you're asking.

You said there were references to Doctor Who. Are there any nods to other science fiction or fantasy shows?

There might be but they are probably subconscious if they are.

A problem episode.
  Which was the hardest episode to write?

They're all incredibly hard because they're so complicated. I suppose the hardest one to write was the first one because you were setting everything up - but in fact, I've had the idea in the back of my head for such a long time it went very quickly.

They are quite difficult, the plots are quite elaborate and quite difficult to work out, and the realisation of the plots when we're filming is also extremely difficult and requires a lot of very precise working out beforehand.

Added dimension.
  What was important to you in creating the look and feel of Strange?

One of the things we tried to do when we made the programme was to create an entire world where everything Strange does would be plausible. This means certain types of characterisations by the actors. It also means that the designer Tom Brown and the photographer Paul Bond are able to create a certain feel and look to almost everywhere we go.

My notion is that when you turn this show on you know it's Strange just by looking at it. I think that the consistency of the look is terribly important to making the action plausible. You can get lost in the action once you feel you're in a world which is complete.

Feel the fear.
  What's your greatest fear?

Oh, that's an interesting question. Do you mean what frightens me most? I think just being in the car when my partner's driving actually... that's the most horrific thing known to man.