Doctor Who - The Fate of Peter Capaldi's The Musketeers Character

Now that Peter Capaldi has a new job as the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who he no longer has time to play the villainous Cardinal Richelieu.  So the Cardinal will be killed off screen as reported by the Radio Times. Actor Tom Burke who plays Athos confirmed this in a quote to the Radio Times.

"Come the next series, the Cardinal will be dead. He'll just be gone.  It's a great example of economic storytelling. Their new nemesis will be Rochefort, who's played by Marc Warren."

Source: Digital Spy

Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi Talks About His Other Role As Cardinal Richelieu

Before he was cast as the 12th Doctor he was playing the character of Cardinal Richelieu the main protagonist on The Musketeers. (Which is pretty good by the way)  Here he talks about his former role Cardinal Richelieu and The Musketeers.

The Musketeers: Doctor Who 's Peter Capaldi On Playing Cardinal Richelieu

We finish up with The Musketeers interviews with the 12th Doctor himself Peter Capaldi playing the villain of this series Cardinal Richelieu.  He sat down with the BBC Media Centre to talk about his role in The Musketeeers which airs tonight on BBC One.

How would you describe your character in The Musketeers?

Cardinal Richelieu is protector and confidant of the king as well as being essentially the first minister of France. He runs the country. He is a military figure as well as a religious and political one. He has a network of spies and operates like an illegal secret service to pursue his ends. He is by nature Machiavellian.

Did you do any research for the role? 

The Musketeers: Luke Pasqualino On Playing D'Artagnan

We are on our penultimate interview with Luke Pasqualino as he talks to the BBC Media Centre about playing D'Artagnan in The Musketeers.  The Musketeers airs tomorrow at 9PM on BBC One.

What attracted you to the show? 

First off, it’s definitely the fact that it's The Musketeers - something I used to watch when I was a kid - Dogtanian and the Muskehounds and all that kind of stuff. I knew the story and the characters so the fact I was able to go in with the feeling I understood the premise was a big attraction. Just to be involved in a BBC drama was great. In my opinion, the BBC are one of the best producers of drama in the world, and it made me incredibly happy to get the opportunity to be one of the leading men in one of their productions.

Did you have to do any preparation in the lead up to the role?

Not really - the only bit of prep I did was watching some of the previous films, for example the Dick Lester one, the one with Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland, the 2011 one with Logan Lerman. I did that TV research just to see what other people had done and how the Musketeers had been portrayed.

Tell us a bit more about the Boot Camp

The Musketeers: Howard Charles on Playing Porthos

Its Friday we we are down to the last three interviews which will conclude on Sunday.  Today we head for the home stretch with Howard Charles who talks to the BBC Media Centre about playing Porthos.

What attracted you to the show in the first place?

I thought the writing was brilliant - that was one of the main things. It was the best thing that I personally had read in some time. The character of Porthos is amazing. I spoke to Adrian Hodges, the lead writer and executive producer and he mentioned that he wanted to pay homage to Alexandre Dumas Senior (the father of the novelist) with Porthos by using some elements of the novel, but also from the personal history of Alexandre Dumas Senior - a soldier in the French army who rose to the rank of General, when there weren’t many mixed-race people around in uniform, so of course I was really attracted to that element.

Instead of the fat, drunk gambler, he wanted to make Porthos a true warrior in the group, paying homage to such a great figure in history. That was hugely attractive to me. Porthos is someone who enjoys life to the full because he knows the value and fragility of it. He was born in darkness and found the light. Becoming a musketeer is very much the zenith of his attainment. It means everything to him. Adrian has really captured that and allowed me to play with that I always read the source material and I love what Adrian added to that, the way he has made it his own and his fearlessness in collaboration.

Apart from reading the source material, what preparation did you do for the part?

Promo Pics For This Sunday's The Musketeers

The Musketeers: Santiago Cabrera Talks About Playing Aramis

We continue with The Musketeers interview with one today with another of the The Musketeers.  This time it is Santiago Cabrera who plays Aramis who talks to the BBC Media Centre about the new series premiering Sunday.

Can you tell us a little about your character?

I play Aramis, who is one of the king’s Musketeers, who D’Artagnan meets in the first episode. He has got that Joie de Vivre, he is someone who relishes life, loves what he does and lives life to the full. He is a daredevil but also, like the other Musketeers, he can be a very lonely character.
The Musketeers are sacrificing a normal life to do what they do – fight for the cause, the king and France. He is definitely a lover of women – he has a lot of romances – and with that has some really interesting storylines in the first two episodes. He is introduced to Adele, the Cardinal’s mistress, so he likes going into dangerous territory.

Can you tell us how we are first introduced to him as a character?

The Musketeers: Tom Burke On Playing Athos

We continue now with The Musketeer week and the second interview for today is the first one with one of the four Musketeers.  Tom Burke talks to the BBC Media Centre about playing Athos. The Musketeers airs Sunday on BBC One.

What attracted you to the show initially?

I think, unlike other superheroes, what one gleans about the Musketeers, certainly from the source material, is that the good that they do happens in quite a spasmodic manner, in short bursts. I identified with that - if I was ever to be someone who was involved with protecting mankind from peril, I'm not sure if I would be able to do it in a particularly strong and sustained manner. I loved that about the characters in the book, they are extremely eccentric and do what they can, when they can. When I came on board there was only two episodes written so I was saying yes to what was there, but also to the whole idea of the show. It was more than just a script; there was a history and a heritage to it. The scripts Adrian has written are snappy, fast-paced and full of wit.

Did you re-read the novel before embarking on the project? 

I did yes, and I dipped in and out of it whilst we were shooting the project. I also read quite a lot of other Dumas stories. I think The Musketeers is probably the Dumas novel people are most familiar with, or if not that, it's The Count Of Monte Cristo. I've always been a big fan of Dumas because, on the one hand, he writes a lot about revenge, but he also writes about the cost of it to the revenger - I'd always had an interest in that.

How did you approach playing Athos? 

The Musketeers: Maimie McCoy On Playing Milady

We continue with our journey with meeting The Musketeers cast and today we start with the central figures.  First we give you the interview with Maimie McCoy who plays Milady.

What attracted you to the role? 

Milady! I read it from her perspective, and as a female presence, she is so incredibly powerful and has such a driving force of hatred and vengeance mixed with vulnerability, I thought that was particularly exciting. I also just loved the wit of the show and depth of the characters - I feel like you sort of hadn’t seen that before with other adaptations of The Musketeers. It was a whole new world, which seemed to leap off the page. The depiction of Paris in that time was very well penned, it had a real earthiness and a realness which is what I like watching and look for in scripts.

What was it like getting to Prague and seeing that world imagined? 

Some of the locations were absolutely spectacular. We don't have those kind of buildings here in the UK, they just have such grandeur to them. The hallways and ceilings were just breathtaking, and they really add to that authenticity of the show - there are no wobbly sets! The set that was built at Doksany, which was half real and half set, was amazing - you could walk around the streets of it and you felt like you were in Paris. There was an extraordinary amount of detail that went into it. I shot one scene on top of a hill, and they had searched for miles to find this one particular tree and this one branch which was perfect for that scene. At first you think, surely we could have just used any tree - but it did exactly what it needed to do. That's a testament to the level of detail that came in from every angle.

Was there good camaraderie on set? 

The Musketeers: Tamla Kari On Playing Constance Bonacieux

The second interview is with Tamla Kari who plays the cloth merchants wife who is looking for excitement.  The Musketeers airs Sunday on BBC.

What attracted you to the Musketeers?

I thought the script was fantastic. Something really different to what was currently on the TV and also a character that was completely different to what I'd previously played. A big thing was that the female parts were so strong which is rare in this industry.

What preparation did you do for the part?

Well I'd already seen the film version starring Oliver Reed but after finding out I'd got the part I purposely didn't watch any other versions of the story. I didn't want other people's performances to affect my interpretation of the part. I read the Dumas novel to gain an insight into the Musketeers' world and researched the era in which the story is set.

Tell us a bit about your character?

The Musketeers: Hugo Speer On Playing Treville

Musketeer week continues with two more interviews.  The Musketeers debuts Sunday on the BBC.
The first interview is with Hugo Speer who plays Treville.

What attracted you to the show initially?

I was very excited just reading the title really - The Musketeers is a wonderful story. Knowing it was written by Adrian helped an awful lot because he is a high-calibre writer and then just reading it, I thought it was brilliant. It’s the same old thing: any actor basically loves a good script and that attracts anyone really. Treville’s a great part, you know if you read the books then you’ll know that it’s a fantastic part and so all of those ingredients really.

What kind of research did you do once you’d got the script?

Just reading the novel again, it’s been many, many years since I’d read it last. I was always a big fan, having been brought up with the 1973 and 74 film versions you know with Oliver Reed, Michael York, Christopher Lee and Sophia Loren and all that sort of lot, so I knew that they were amazing films and I was only like five or six years old when I first saw those. But, they have kind of stuck with me and stayed with me all my life. So, as far as research goes, just re-reading the novel.

What do you think makes this version of The Musketeers fresh?

The Musketeers: Alexandra Dowling On Playing Queen Anne

It is Musketeers week at the Galifrayan Gazette and the BBC Media Centre has a slew of interviews with the cast. Today we bring you two interviews who play the royalty of the show the king and queen. Second Interview we bring you is with Alexandra Gage who plays Queen Anne.

What attracted you to The Musketeers?

The script was so action-packed and obviously the story is quite well known, the original. It was still the original characters, but the story was fun and the script was up to date and had a kind of modern feel to it. I just could tell that it was going to be a great family show and it would look great.

Can you tell us a bit about your character and who you’re playing?

The Musketeers: Ryan Gage on Playing King Louis XIII

It is Musketeers week at the Galifrayan Gazette and the BBC Media Centre has a slew of interviews with the cast. Today we bring you two interviews who play the royalty of the show the king and queen. So first off we bring you the Ryan Gage who plays King Louis.

What attracted you to the show in the first place?

Well I thought that the writing was very, very good. I loved the script. That was definitely what first attracted me. The character of Louis was the character I auditioned for as well and I thought he seemed like he would be great fun to be. I’ve never played somebody of such high status on television, but I have done it in theatre. He seemed like a character full of contradictions who was able to go from being emotional to being humorous to everything in between. I found that very appealing and challenging and exciting.

What sort of research did you have to do when you knew you were going to be playing King Louis? 

Promo Pics For The Musketeers Featuring Doctor Who 's Peter Capaldi

The BBC have released some promo pics of the main cast of The Musketeers which airs this Saturday in the UK and later on in the Spring on BBC America.

TV - New Trailer For BBC One's The Musketeers

BBC One's The Musketeers First Promo Pic

The new BBC One series that is filming now and will air in 2014 has released its first promo picture.  The 4 who would be the The Musketeers are Luke Pasqualino (Skins) as D’Artagnan,  Santiago Cabrera (Merlin) as Aramis, Tom Burke (The Hour) as Athos and Howard Charles as Porthos.

Source: Cult Box