Career Moves

Isn't it interesting how some people have the ability to make just the right moves with their acting careers? That Anthony Stewart Head, for example, was never going to go anywhere in the UK, because he'd saddled himself with those coffee adverts. A hop and a skip across the At-a-lancic ocean, and - after a few lessons in taking blows to the head and falling over - he'd completely wiped out those coffee ads, and has made a name for himself in Buffy. Returning to the UK, you see him in quite a lot of things. I still think he'd have made a better Docotor Who than the previous and current incumbents.

On the other hand, there's Joanne Whalley, who was back on our screens this weekend in some pike-illogical filler. Here was a woman who had key roles in two of the shining jewels of British TV: Edge of Darkness and The Singing Detective (and she was in the pretty good adaptation of A Kind of Loving, too, let's not forget), but then it all went to her head and she swanned off to Hollywood to make a sequence of mostly forgettable video shop fodder. Actually, the right move for her would have been a role in a long-running series like ER. I often think of her when I catch an episode of Stargate because there was a character in it looked quite like her.

I've never seen the appeal of Tamzin Outhwaite, who used EastEnders as a stepping stone into a mirror-universe career in which she is the female Ross Kemp, running around in an army uniform looking angry. She's got a kind of hard, leathery, square face, and the acting range - or so I thought - of an IKEA Klippan sofa.

Last night she was in something called Walk Away and I Stumble, which for most of its length was a story about a bloke who meets a Five on the scale (the one who makes you want to destroy your life so you can be with her) and starts thinking about leaving his wife and kids. Tamzin plays an English Heritage guide, who - at 32 - is single and looking for love.

I'm sorry, but I just can't believe in her as a Five - not on anybody's scale. She's not even a One on mine. But I guess that's what Acting Classes are for.

Anyway, it's clear that Ms Outhwaite has taken a leaf from Anthony Stewart Head's book, and has been to the same drama coach, who has taught her to fall over most convincingly. She falls off a bike. And then she falls at the bottom of the stairs and crawls up them (in the original script, she fell at the top of the stairs and went down them, but this was thought too dangerous by her insurers). Later, she falls in the street, and ends up in hoppital, where she looks red faced and angry about something. She may have fallen over several other times while I wasn't watching.

In episode two, I'm sure she will take falling over to new heights, so maybe she will then be considered good enough to take over from Billie as Docotor Who's assistant.