Benjamin Cook

Infobox_Person
name = Benjamin Cook

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imagesize =
caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1982|10|17|df=yes
birth_place = Isleworth, West London, England
nationality = British
known_for = "Radio Times"
"Doctor Who Magazine"
"Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale"
occupation = Journalist
spouse =

Benjamin Cook (born 17 October 1982) is a journalist, writer and regular contributor to "Radio Times" and "Doctor Who Magazine". He has also been published in "TV Zone", "Cult Times", "TV Times" and "The Stage", and is the author of "Doctor Who: The New Audio Adventures - The Inside Story". In 2008, BBC Books published "Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale", based on a year-long e-mail correspondence between Cook and "Doctor Who" executive producer Russell T Davies.

Doctor Who Magazine

Cook first wrote for "Doctor Who Magazine" in March 1999. [Spilsbury, Tom (Ed.). "Four Hundred DWMs!", "Doctor Who Magazine" 400] Since then, his catalogue of interviews for the publication includes Kylie Minogue, David Tennant, Richard E Grant, Peter Kay, McFly, Charlotte Church, Billie Piper, Catherine Tate and Richard Dawkins. He has compiled several "Doctor Who Magazine" Special Editions - under the "In Their Own Words" title - providing a chronological commentary on the making of the TV series by those involved in its production, collated from extracts of interviews previously published in "Doctor Who Magazine".

In 2002, Cook tracked down elusive "Doctor Who" scriptwriter Christopher Bailey, and interviewed him for the magazine. This inspired Robert Shearman to write acclaimed audio play "Deadline", which stars Sir Derek Jacobi as retired writer Martin Bannister (loosely based on Bailey) and Ian Brooker as journalist Sydney (based on Cook), reporter for the fictional "Juliet Bravo Magazine". As Shearman explained in a 2004 interview:

"I think "Deadline" is in some ways inspired by the idea that he gets tracked down by, essentially, Ben Cook. Not called Ben Cook in the play of course - but it was actually based on "DWM"'s Christopher Bailey interview. Here was a writer who hadn't been interviewed for many years, and was obviously not bitter about it, but had it in his own perspective of what he wanted to say and do." [http://www.btinternet.com/~david.darlington/WORDS/DWM/346RobShearman.htm]

Radio Times

For "Radio Times" magazine, Cook has written on E4 teen drama "Skins", ITV talent show "The X Factor", the BBC's "Wild China" and "Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture" series, as well as "Merlin", "Doctor Who" and "The Sarah Jane Adventures".

The Writer's Tale

In 2008, BBC Books published "Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale", based on an e-mail correspondence between Cook and "Doctor Who" executive producer Russell T Davies, spanning February 2007 to March 2008, during production of the show's fourth series. Extracts were published in "The Times" on 16 September and 17 September 2008, [* http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4759150.ece] and the book itself met with positive reviews. "The Independent" predicted that "the fans will adore it. Davies has engaged with the book totally and there is full disclosure from him about everything." [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/features/after-the-tardis-russell-t-davies-950816.html] "SFX Magazine" said: "You can douse all the other books about new "Who" in lighter fuel and spark up your Zippo - this is all you need. It’s the only one that opens a door into the brain of the series’ showrunner." [http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=book_review_doctor_who_the] "The Pink Paper"'s Darren Scott agreed: "If you’re an uber fan of the show – affectionately referred to as a 'ming-mong' – or an aspiring (or even established) writer, this book will very, very quickly fall into the 'can’t put down' category." [http://news.pinkpaper.com/Feature.aspx?id=388] Veronica Horwell of "The Guardian" called it "the "Doctor Who Annual" for adults", suggesting that 500-odd pages "is not nearly enough, should have been 1001 pages, because Davies doesn't need to be writing fiction, shaping stuff retrieved from the flux of his Great Maybe, to be a storyteller. He's the Scheherazade of Cardiff Bay." Horwell described Davies as "a total romantic about writing. It's his love, his drug, his force for change: over the year even invisible, unopinionated Cook emerges as a proper companion who challenges Davies over the last image in the series. And wins. Brilliant." [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/04/tvandradio]

In the blogosphere, Sci-Fi Online's Daniel Salter claimed that "The Writer's Tale" "could be one of the most important "Doctor Who" books you’re ever likely to read, even if it’s not always about "Doctor Who". Sometimes it’s just about the passion of writing, it’s about the forming of ideas, it’s about stress, it’s about panic, it’s about responsibility, it’s about having to eat cold lasagne for supper because there just wasn’t enough time to stick it in the microwave for two minutes." [http://www.sci-fi-online.com/2008_reviews/book/08-09-25_who-writerstale.htm] Behind the Sofa's Frank Collins said: "You do get a glimpse of a driven man who does have pause for many moments of self-doubt, is often quite ruthless too and doesn't suffer fools gladly. And is very, very funny with it." [http://www.behindthesofa.org.uk/2008/09/moody-blues.html] Feeling Listless confessed that "none of us have [sic] truly been prepared for how honest and apparently uncensored the book is", observing that "you couldn’t imagine another journalist to get Davies to write so candidly". [http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/2008/10/badgering-davies.html] Simon Guerrier of Nothing Tra La La? observed that "The Writer's Tale" is "a chance to eavesdrop [on] a long-running conversation between two very smart people. They're such warm, good-humoured company it is a pleasure to nestle beside them." [http://0tralala.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-hold-line.html] "Page after page of banter that's just as exciting and suspenseful as the show itself," said Sebastian J. Brook of Doctor Who Online. "Cook’s fearless and intelligent approach to asking questions pave [sic] the way for some fantastic responses as he manages to temper Davies' fun, energetic and sometimes insecure narrative with good, solid and sometimes cheeky responses." [http://www.drwho-online.co.uk/index.asp?spage=http://www.drwho-online.co.uk/reviews/reviews-books-thewriterstale.htm] "It’s fucking brilliant, this book," agreed Catherine Bray on her blog. "It’s about... what it means to be creative, what it is to write: the hows and whys, and equally, the thwarted side; the how-nots and the why-nots." [http://catherinebray.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/the-writers-tale-russell-t-davies-and-benjamin-cook/] On his From the North blog, Keith Topping called "The Writer's Tale" "A quasi-novel full of extraordinary characters, told in a clever and enterprising fashion and concerning themes as diverse as stress, obsession, fame, guilt, redemption and - quite beautifully - magnificence in the cutthroat world of broadcast media in the early years of the 21st Century." [http://keithtopping.blogspot.com/] And Off The Telly‘s Graham Kibble-White summed up the general consensus on the book: "Candid, lucid and an all-too painful evocation of the challenges inherit in writing and running perhaps the most important show on the BBC". [http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/?p=3009]

elected bibliography

* Cook, Benjamin (2003). "Doctor Who: The New Audio Adventures - The Inside Story". Berkshire: Big Finish. ISBN 1-84435-034-7.
* Davies, Russell T; and Cook, Benjamin (2008). "Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale". London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-1-846-07571-1.

External links

* [http://www.thewriterstale.com The official website for The Writer's Tale]
* [http://www.radiotimes.com Radio Times]
* [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4701958740 Doctor Who Magazine] on Facebook
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/books/insidestory The New Audio Adventures - Inside Story] on the BBC

References