John Barrowman: Arrow air date (UK), Torchwood book influence, TV appearances

• New Superhero Action - Arrow Comes to Sky1 HD

Like The Dark Knight and Smallville? Then we've got the show for you - we've made a deal with Warner Bros International Television Distribution for the exclusive UK television rights to the highly anticipated upcoming U.S. drama series Arrow.
Arrow, coming to Sky 1 HD in Autumn 2012, reinvents the DC Comics super hero Green Arrow for a modern-day audience.

After suffering unimaginable ordeals while marooned for five years on a remote island, billionaire Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell, The Vampire Diaries) returns home with a mysterious agenda and lethal set of new skills. Determined to right the wrongs his father committed while amassing the Queen family fortune, Oliver has sworn to bring justice upon the rich and powerful who have corrupted his city.

Arrow also stars Colin Donnell (Pan Am) as Oliver’s best friend, Tommy Merlyn; Katie Cassidy (Gossip Girl) as the love of Oliver’s life, Dinah “Laurel” Lance; David Ramsey (Dexter) as John Diggle; Willa Holland (The O.C., Gossip Girl) as Oliver’s sister, Thea; with Susanna Thompson (Cold Case) as Oliver’s mother, Moira Queen; and Paul Blackthorne (24, The River) as Detective Quentin Lance.

Sarah Wright commented: “I’m delighted that we have secured the rights to one of the most talked about shows from the LA screenings this year. Arrow will boost Sky's already enviable US programming slate, and combined with our award-winning original programming, will deliver on our promise to bring the best content exclusively to our customers.”

The series is executive produced by Greg Berlanti (Green Lantern, Brothers & Sisters), Marc Guggenheim (Green Lantern) and Andrew Kreisberg (Fringe). David Nutter (Smallville) directed and executive produced the pilot.

Source: Sky
Announced by @Team_Barrowman (Twitter) 

• John Barrowman's Torchwood book influence

John Barrowman hopes his new book will inspire the next series of 'Torchwood'The 45-year-old actor - who co-authored 'Torchwood: Exodus Code' with his sister Carole and plays Captain Jack in the series - is hopeful the BBC might take notice of the tome based on the show and use it in the next run of the 'Doctor Who' spin-off programme.

He said: ''I had the idea, but Carole is also a huge sci-fi fan, she loves 'Torchwood'. We went to BBC books and BBC worldwide and I said I'd love to do it. 

''Nobody knows Jack better than myself and the team that helped to create him''. 

''Together we've also written one of the comic scripts for 'Torchwood'. That could be the next series or it could be a movie. That's me talking - not anyone from the BBC - but that would be my dream''. 

John is now starring in new US series 'Arrow' based on DC's 'Green Arrow' comics, which he promises will soon be screened in the UK. 

In the programme John plays cryptic character 'The Well Dressed Man', and he admits he loves playing a bad guy. 

He said: ''I'm not allowed to tell you any more about him except that he's well dressed. He's a pivotal bad guy character that's going to be typical in the show.'' 

''I got to play a baddie on 'Desperate Housewives', so this is kind of another step into it. It's really nice to play a baddie.''

Source: STV Entertainment

• Torchwood: Exodus Code coverage

The writing partnership of John and Carole Barrowman have been out and about this week promoting their new, Torchwood-based novel Exodus Code.

Speaking on ITV1's This Morning on Monday, John said:

I had the idea, and also Carole's a huge sci-fi fan, she loves Torchwood. We went to BBC Books and BBC Worldwide and spoke with Russell (T Davies) and sent him the draft, and I said I'd love to do it. And to be honest with you, nobody knows Jack better than myself and Russell and the rest of the team who helped create us.

A little time has passed, but we do reference the last series, Miracle Day. This is what's going on afterwards. We've written Exodus Code specifically to either be lifted from the book - if it were, that could be the next series, it could be a movie - that's me talking, not anyone from the BBC, but that would be my dream.

On missing Torchwood in general, he said:

Of course I do, Jack changed my life, the fans have changed my life, and this book is dedicated to all the fans, and I've always said, if I'm asked to play Jack again of course I would - I would do it at the drop of a hat, it's an amazing character to play!

This Morning is available to watch in the UK until next Monday on the ITV Player (38:05).

Later, he and his sister featured on BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright in the Afternoon, where he spoke a little more on his motives behind the collaboration:

It's been over a year now since Miracle Day. Again, we haven't been told "no" it's not going to happen ever again, but we haven't been told "yes", and consequently that's why I spoke to Carole and we spoke to the BBC. I wanted to keep Jack alive, and that's why we wrote the book.

Carole spoke about feedback from the show's creator, Russell T Davies:

What was really nice was we had to go through all sorts of levels of approval as you can imagine with the BBC and so on, and Russell had to read it, and one of the nice things was when I got an email off my editor saying that Russell really liked the balance between the personal and the big save the world under the world sci-fi thing, he really liked the way we had captured that balance. That meant more to me than the fact that John liked it!

The interview segment can be listened to via the Steve Wright in the Afternoon site.
 
The couple appeared on ITV1's Loose Women on Thursday, where John explained the writing process between the two:

The collaboration works in the way that we sit down together and we work through the outline, we work through character-building, we work through the imagination of the whole story; we record it all, Carole spends a lot of time with me, but she does the hard work, I do not write it - she goes away, she does all the writing, she's got the gift of putting the word into form on the page, and I will not take credit for because I cannot do it.

Carole talked about writing for a character that was essentially her brother:

The one thing we did do in this book we really brought back the Jack with the sense of humour and the sexy Jack who's got the swagger and he's a little roguish. For me, the hardest part about writing that was when we were writing some of the sexy scenes and it would be like eurgh!

Loose Women is available to watch in the UK until next Thursday via the ITV Player (16:00).

Red Carpet News TV caught up with the couple for the book launch at London's Forbidden Planet on the 19th September, and asked John about the potential for more Torchwood on the screen: 

John and Carole Barrowman at Forbidden Planet London, Red Carpet News, via YouTube
 
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