The 21st Century is When Everything Changes

'It's John Barrowman'

2006 was the year when everything changed. Rather like 'The Doctor', EE travelled the globe helping people, bringing happiness and meeting the occasional monster.

The Millennium Centre is an arts centre and should not to be confused with The Millennium Stadium which is a sports stadium. Both are in Cardiff in Wales (UK) and both were completed shortly after the start of the millennium (hence the titles). The Millennium Centre bucked the trend of recent arts capital projects in the UK in that it was completed on budget, on time and hasn't closed within a year of opening.

It's a wonderful building - at least to look at from the outside. The brief to the architects was apparently that it should be “unmistakably Welsh and internationally outstanding” and it is impressive isn't it? There's a prize for anyone who can tell me what the words say on the front.

Late on a Thursday afternoon in July 2006, EE was completing a hard day's work on a conference taking place at the centre and an evening's conference socialising beckoned. First though, EE and companions had to negotiate a film set which had appeared outside the front door of the centre.

A crowd had gathered to watch four fancily dressed indviduals walk from the water statue outside the centre with a variety of support actors ('extras') pretending to be passers-by. The real passers-by gathered in a little ring around the action. As EE stopped to watch this fascinating scene someone was heard to murmur: 'It's John Barrowman'. Although, at the time, EE was not entirely sure who John Barrowman was, he was informed that this was the filming of a new series called 'Torchwood'. Torchwood is a a spin-off series from the UK TV Series - Dr Who (and in fact 'Torchwood' is an anagram of 'Doctor Who').

Torchwood is brilliant and has been a huge hit in the UK; gaining the highest ever number of viewers for a show on a non-sport digital channel. Two and a half million people tuned in to the first episode (mainly to find out if the rumours were true that there really was something decent to watch on BBC Three).

It has become part of the tv boom which has hit Cardiff; now the biggest tv, film and new media production centre outside London in the UK (according to the press release) and who would have thought that could happen twenty years ago?

When it returns in the autumn of 2007, Torchwood is moving to BBC2 for its first showings. No doubt the higher status of the programme will mean the actors have stand-ins walking to and fro the water statue instead of the likes of John Barrowman and Eve Myles and passers-by won't get the chance to gawp!

The cast of Torchwood seen here modelling the latest Debenhams range.

... oh yes, I'm sure you're desperate to know which bit EE saw. So, after intense study of the matter it would appear that the sequence appeared right at the beginning of episode 4. Look out for EE in the background!