Unmissable show?
At the moment, it’s Thirteen, on BBC3. It’s a drama about a girl who was kidnapped and was missing for 13 years. It’s a brilliant idea and really well done. It’s so unbelievably tense. And Jodie Comer, who plays the lead, is absolutely brilliant.
Earliest TV memory?
Everything I love about television is encapsulated in how I used to feel watching The Sweeney, Starsky & Hutch and Doctor Who when I was 10. But Tom Baker as the Doctor is the really strong memory. There has to be something of the mad genius about every Doctor and Tom Baker had that better than anyone. He is the Doctor for me.
Bring back?
Blake’s Seven. I would set it in an era that mirrors everything that’s wrong with our society. Because the best sci-fi does that. It takes what doesn’t work now and projects it into the future and makes the problems massive and then watches people in this invented world deal with it. There are so many parallels; with the factions and the over-riding power of the Federation and people with different belief systems who don’t know if they can trust each other even though they’re forced together. I think you could completely rewrite it and bring it up to date.
Pitch us a show?
You’ve got 10 celebrities and they’re trained on how to be a radio DJ. All the buttons, all the cues, all the technical stuff. And they have to do an hour’s set every week and the audience votes one off every week because they weren’t very good. At the very end, you have one person who gets a contract with a major radio station. Talk shows and music shows. Cross-platform! And we have cameras so we can watch people who are desperately out of their depth getting it wrong.
Turn off?
I’m very much not a fan of the type of show I’ve just pitched to you!
Adrian Lester stars in Undercover, Sunday, 9pm, BBC1
