Ianto Jones

Ianto Jones was a character in Torchwood, a spin off series from Doctor Who.  I decided to put him in my blog to demonstrate how absolutely insane fanship can become.  As a family we were recently lucky enough to attend the First EVER Official Doctor Who Convention in Cardiff.  As you can imagine we were a little excited at the prospect initially then as the months rolled by from ticket purchase to actual attendance I realised that not only could we attend the Convention but we were going to be in Cardiff where both Doctor Who and Torchwood is filmed.  We would be able to visit some of the places we have seen in some of our favourite stories, the diner in The Impossible Astronaut for example,   this is where the excitement of being a fan gets a bit insane.  

Sometime between ticket booking and event The Radio Times began including ‘Famous TV Walks’ booklets within its leaves, the very first one of these had a Doctor Who/Torchwood themed walk placed luckily around and about The Millennium Centre in Cardiff which was where the convention was to be held.  To be honest I gave this a brief look over but didn’t think I would find it that exciting figuring that looking at a building that The Doctor had stood in front of if he wasn’t actually standing in front of it at the time wouldn’t enamour me.  I obviously hadn’t made allowances for the fan-obsessive that was bubbling and growing excitedly within me.  We got to Cardiff on the Friday, the convention was being held Saturday and Sunday, so we decided to have a wander see if we could find The Millennium Centre, and wander we did, in abundance....I think the word I am looking for is lost.  Then we turned this corner and there in a gap at the top of the street I saw that beautiful imposing building with its lettering catching the sun and I felt that fluttering of excitement rising from my toes, I was instantly transported to all those episodes of Torchwood where we see this fine building, and it has been featured in so many Doctor Who episodes. As we got closer I saw the silver quite alien looking structure of the water tower and my heart skipped a beat...that’s the lift entrance to the hub I squealed.  The rest of the family don’t watch Torchwood and although I watch it I am certainly not as obsessed about it as I am about Who so even I was surprised by my delight when I was standing there in front of the water tower posing for the obligatory photograph.  

In my little booklet from The Radio Times I’d noticed mention of a shrine to Ianto Jones that was on Mermaid Quay.  So on that absolutely gloriously sunny day off we trotted, Father, Daughter, Small Child and I to find the shrine dedicated to a fictional character from a Science Fiction TV show.  It took a little looking to find it, I think mainly because it was so busy, there were people everywhere.  Mermaid Quay from what I saw on my three days there is a hub of eateries, bars and boat trips, it’s quite lovely but obviously also quite a draw for tourists and locals alike especially when the weather is good, which is was.   When we finally saw it from a little distance I was totally gobsmacked.  I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, a dried out bunch of flowers with a hastily penned note perhaps.  Whatever I was expecting it certainly wasn’t this.

All photographs copyright Lisa Hazlegreaves

I wish I had taken more photographs in the forty five minutes or so that we were there looking, some of the items on the shrine must have taken hours to make, some of them months..there was this one book, all laminated and carefully bound in which someone had taken their Captain Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones toy figures around the world and taken photos of them in various settings, it was inspired.  There were handmade paper flowers and wreaths. There were some letters that Father and I read that made us look at each other and raise an eyebrow and thank the TARDIS that the person who wrote it wasn’t there with us.  I am a massive Doctor Who fan it is true, and yes I did shed a tear when I had my visit to the BBC TARDIS set but some of the things on this shrine for a fictional character, from a TV Science Fiction show, quite frankly some of this was insane. Although, however scary and insane some of it seemed, the thought and quite frankly the love that had gone into this was beautiful.  It is also a credit to the people of Cardiff Bay that they allow this shrine to continue and thrive, and that the local council haven’t removed it.  I wished I had made something to place on it, but I hadn’t so if you are going to Cardiff and you intend to visit Ianto’s shrine can you write a note from me please and can it simply say this.

Ianto Jones, your story lives on and some of your fans, well, some of them are absolute nut-nuts.

Harkness, Captain Jack

 Photo courtesy of BBC

So today I’m doing Captain Jack.  The character in Doctor Who played by John Barrowman.  For any Whovians reading I apologise for my lack of detail, this won’t read like an encyclopedia.  It is more simply my little homage to the man who brought sexy back.  We were introduced to Captain Jack in The Empty Child, one of my very favourite episodes.  Of course I will watch a different episode tomorrow and think of that as my favourite too.  It is definitely my favourite Eccleston story if nothing else.  My daughter watched this episode when it first aired, she was seven years old, it absolutely terrified her and nothing ever scared her.  In fact I asked her if she wanted to watch it with me last night, she still won’t watch it, seven years later.  This is the girl who loves Sweeney Todd and Death Note, let’s say it’s unusual.  There are some brilliantly funny details in the scenes, it is set during the blitz in London and at one point Rose is swinging from a rope under a barrage balloon wearing a t-shirt with a huge Union Jack on it.  It is also exceedingly chilling, I have always been of the mind that the most terrifying things of all are those we can relate to the most, and the ‘monster’ in this episode is a four year old boy in a gas mask, constantly repeating the line ‘are you my mummy’ By the end of this story that line is the most unnerving four words you are ever likely to hear.  It’s one that seven years later is still repeated by everyone in my house, used both to chill and cause hilarity depending on the moment.

 Photo courtesy of BBC

Then of course there is Jack, the reason for this post in the first place.  Captain Jack Harkness spots Rose swinging from the barrage balloon and realises by her attire that she too is not of this time, he promptly rescues her using the technology from his Chula Spaceship and then does what Captain Jack does best, he flirts outrageously with her.  Those watching the episode may have already noticed him earlier flirting with a soldier, Captain Jack happens to be the first openly bi-sexual character in Doctor Who. Having seen all of the Doctor Who episodes with Jack in and most of Torchwood, I really feel Jack needs another term re: his sexuality, Omni-sexual maybe?  This man will do sexual bumping with anyone or any species on any planet in any time.  By the end of this story Jack has no spaceship and goes on to travel with The Doctor and Rose for a while.  In a very thrilling climax to one story whilst fighting Daleks Rose makes him immortal whilst she is filled with the time vortex.  This is when Jack get’s really interesting, being immortal certainly has its benefits. 

The next time we see Jack is in Torchwood, a Doctor Who spin off series.  Torchwood is an agency set up to fight alien threats and is based in Cardiff as that is where they need to be to monitor the time rift.  Jack has many flirtations during Torchwood but none as heart wrenching as his relationship with Ianto Jones, another member of the Torchwood agency, who ultimately dies tragically. Captain Jack has appeared in Doctor Who on a few more occasions but never with the eleventh Doctor, in my head I decided it was because we now have River Song, another massive diva with a unique connection to The Doctor. If both these characters appeared in the same episode it would be more 42^nd Street than Doctor Who.  I hate to think that Jack will never return, I think the chemistry between him and The Doctor is perspicacious and because of his unique story it’s a relationship that the Doctor can have with no other, we are led to believe that eventually Captain Jack Harkness turns into The Face of Boe. This pleases me, I love both the characters so. 

One last thing, I can’t think of Captain Jack Harkness without thinking of my friend Hayley, an Artist, dj, curator, teacher and Jack lover extraordinaire.  Hayley carries a Captain Jack Harkness figure in her bag with her and tends to whip him out at opportune moments, if you were privy to my facebook page photo’s you will see him tagged on many an evening out, looking far more sober than either her or me.   Of course carrying your favourite man around in your handbag has its disadvantages especially if you are apt to drink too much vodka and she did lose him one evening.   However, for her birthday this year I scoured eBay until I found the figure she had lost, it was no longer available in the shops.  They were happily re-united over tea and cake.

 Photo courtesy of one very drunk evening

 Captain Jack bringing Sexy back until the end of time.