More on Radio Times Top 40

Some clarification on the Radio Times Top 40 list we reported on yesterday. Each of the four people we mentioned had some notes about them, as well as quotations. On Lorraine Heggessey, BBC1 controller: "As the awards continue to roll in for BBC shows (State of Play and Canterbury Tales have just won at the Banffs - big in Canada, apparently), the woman at the top of the BBC1 food chain can look back on a year of almost unprecedented success. Under Heggessey, BBC1 drama has emerged as a streetfighting mixture of award-winning fare like the above, with ratings scrappers such as Holby City, Casualty and Spooks guarding against charges of elitism." Actress Amanda Holden said of Heggessey: "A great woman, and very down to earth, I think she's turned BBC1 around and made it a much livelier channel." Radio Times says of Mal Young, head of drama: "Emblematic of BBC drama's leaner, meaner approach of recent times, Young has eschewed the traditional Oxbridge route to the top, having worked his way up from Brookside's shop floor to be the Beeb's soap tsar. He's been instrumental in ransforming Casualty and Holby City into year-round series, which has provided the major bulwark against ITV1's ratings domination. Says Lucy Gannon, 'He's enthusiastic, realistic and has brought a breath of fresh air to the Beeb. A can-do man.'" On new show creator Russell T Davies, "If, as numerous executives contributing to this poll suggest, TV is increasingly dominated by writers, Davies is sitting pretty. Queer as Folk placed him in an elite group of writers with Paul Abbott and Andrew Davies and, as the main writer of the new Doctor Who, his profile looks set to rise even further. 'He has a unique voice, can deal equally well with humour and tragedy, and all that he does is suffused with real compassion and humanity,' says Jane Tranter." And finally, on our new Doc Christopher Eccleston, "His work to date has been impressively eclectic - from messiah to modern-day Iago - but Eccleston's position in this list owes most to the kudos that will come with being the next Doctor Who." Mal Young says of him, "Very few actors can green-light a project but, because of the amazing response I've had from Doctor Who, I'd say he's now one that can." (Thanks to Rich Kirkpatrick)