Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix leaving the #OwnTheTable dinner and panel hosted by Leomie Anderson and Ray BLK at Soho House on March 10, 2020 in London, England.
The Name Game: Now that I see that Jenna Coleman is set to play Johanna Constatine in The Sandman, I was reminded that Jenna has once starred in another series as another Joanna. Joanna Lindsay in The Cry. It’s spelled differently, but basically the same name. That got me to thinking that Jenna has often played characters with extremely similar names.
She has played an Ann (Deever in All My Sons) and an Annie (Desmond in Titanic)
She has played a Jasmine (Thomas in Emmerdale) and a Jasmine (in an audition script for Doctor Who)
She has played a ‘Drina’ (as in Alexandrina in Victoria) and a ‘Trina’ (as in Katrina in Me Before You)
She has played the aforementioned Joanna Lindsay in The Cry and the new Sandman character Johanna Constatine. And she will be playing a Joan (Bright in The War Room) in the next few months
She has played a Marie in The Serpent and a Maria in a public service announcement for the NSPCC about child abuse
All in all, that’s a LOT of similar sounding names. I wonder if she’s realized what she is doing. Maybe she’s superstitious. That wouldn’t be IMPOSSIBLE, I guess. Hahaha.
I suppose it can’t be helped to look upon the many characters Jenna Coleman has played on TV being echoes of Clara Oswald. Indeed, in my AO3 fanfic, the internal canon I adhere to is that Queen Victoria was an echo of Clara who was one of the lucky ones who helped the Doctor but survived.
Not all of Clara’s echoes had happy lives of course. One committed an accidental murder in Emmerdale. Another became the consort/accomplice of an accused serial killer. Another didn’t get to meet the Doctor, but she did get to be helped by the Thunderbirds.
Etc.
With all that in mind, now considering Johanna Constantine … my oh my what a messed up echo SHE is going to end up being! LOL
One definite positive of the Sandman announcement (and seeing stories about how “the Internet has fallen in love with Johanna Constantine”) is the realization that right now a bunch of people are discovering Jenna Coleman and for the first time seeing things like her Doctor Who episodes and Victoria. I saw something similar happen last year when Suicide Squad came out and people saw Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and Malcolm Tucker for the first time…
I don’t have a link to offer because I don’t know where to look for such things, but I’m told that Jenna Coleman was trending for a while after yesterday’s Sandman trailer release!
Here is an image of Jenna Coleman trending yesterday!
Reblogging myself for the proof! Thanks @oswincoleman!
I don’t have a link to offer because I don’t know where to look for such things, but I’m told that Jenna Coleman was trending for a while after yesterday’s Sandman trailer release!
One of my favourite parts of the Sandman panel for Netflix’ Geeked Week, was when Allan Heinberg said that he and Neil Gaiman were talking about Jenna Coleman playing the part of Johanna Constantine from the very beginning because they are huge fans of her!
I didn’t set out to create a “trilogy” of “what’s available” posts for Jenna Coleman, but after covering DVD/Blu-rayandaudio releases, with her latest TV series, The Sandman, itself being based on graphic literature, I thought I’d finish the trifecta and go through where you might be able to find Jenna’s characters in literature. (This list may not be complete, so feel free to suggest additions!)
Captain America: The First Avenger: I have yet to see an “adult” novelization of the film, but a junior novelization and a comic adaptation do exist, though whether any feature Jenna’s small role as Connie, I cannot say. There is also an illustrated screenplay for the film, which not only transcribes her dialogue, but it also reveals that Connie/Jenna’s second appearance in the film - as a nurse after Cap saves Bucky and company from HYDRA - was not scripted to be Connie!
Room at the Top: Based upon the John Braine novel from the 1950s. Jenna’s character, Susan, also appears in its sequel, Life at the Top.
Dancing on the Edge: Stephen Poliakoff’s teleplay for the miniseries has been published, but you might need to order one from the UK.
Doctor Who: I’m not going to list all the novels and short stories with Clara Oswald. The TARDIS Data Core wiki has a pretty good list of Clara’s appearances in all media, though novelizations have, so far, been published of the TV stories Day of the Doctor, Crimson Horror and Twice Upon a Time.
Death Comes to Pemberley was an adaptation of PD James’ mystery novel which was a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Of course you can seek that novel out too to read more of Jenna’s character, Lydia. And Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well, of course…
Victoria: Daisy Goodwin, the show’s creator and head writer, published a novelization of the first half of Series 1 (basically the Lord M arc) as Victoria. She reportedly also used historian A.N. Wilson’s Victoria: A Life as one of her key references.
Me Before You adapted the novel by Jojo Moyes, which was the first in a series of books. Jenna’s character, Katrina, appears in several of them.
The Cry was based on the novel by Helen FitzGerald.
All My Sons by Arthur Miller was, of course originally a play, but it’s been widely published.
The Sandman: Series 1 will adapt two story arcs originally published as comic books and later compiled into graphic novels: Preludes & Nocturnes (a.k.a. Volume 1) and The Doll’s House (Volume 2). Jenna’s character, Johanna Constantine, replaces John Constantine from the comic books, but how much a role she plays in the TV series and how closely it adapts the comic remains to be seen.
I always find it interesting to read the literary versions of characters because they often differ quite bit from on-screen versions. For example, Katrina from Me Before You is quite a bit more foul-mouthed than the version Jenna played. And The Cry is quite a bit more explicit than the TV version. The Victoria novel has a few sections that would have been eye-raising if depicted on TV (like a bit about how Lord M addresses his attraction to the young queen, a sequence decidedly not in the PG-rated show). And of course those of us who parlay with Whouffle and Whouffaldi have been scouring literary appearances by Clara Oswald for years for any clue (sometimes successfully - novel writers Jenny Colgan and James Goss seem to “get it”).
We just got the first proper trailer for the Sandman - and a date!
A highlight of the Geek Week panel which included Jenna Coleman revealed that the producers had Jenna in mind for a while for Johanna Constantine, but C19 opened up her schedule to allow her to film the role.
Other notes from the webcast (which was recorded in about a month or so ago in LA - it’s pretty clear this is the main reason Jenna went to Hollywood):
Jenna describes her character as cynical and witty “with a heart in there somewhere”. And a “great trenchcoat.” They also revealed the first character poster of Jenna as Constantine. (It will be posted soon, I’m sure). She further describes her character as “upgraded” and a bit posh. She discovered her dimples have an Instragram account!
Felicia Day the host says there may be increased demand for crushed velvet based on Jenna’s outfit in the panel!
Mark Hamill was announced as the voice of Merv Pumpkinhead.
Jenna features quite prominently in the start of the trailer and has the same accent as Matt Ryan’s Constantine! She looks amazing! No link to offer yet (it was a live webcast) but I’m sure it and the new character poster will be everywhere soon!
This is a followup to my post a few days ago itemizing the various DVD and Blu-ray releases featuring Jenna Coleman. While await word of Jenna’s next series, The Sandman, I thought I’d quickly make note of where you can stream or buy audio works featuring Jenna.
There aren’t that many, but there are a few. Spoiler break first:
*The Secret Garden: Still billed as Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jenna recorded an abridged 60-minute reading of the classic children’s story for AudioGo way back around 2012 or early 2013. It was available briefly on CD before AG folded later in 2013. You can still find the CD, but it’s expensive (Amazon Canada has it for Cdn$45 right now. Otherwise, it’s on Audible and as I reported the other day, in 2016 it was included in a release called Timeless Tales for Kids that can be found at Audible and on CD from outlets such as Book Depository and Amazon.
*Doctor Who: The Time Machine: Around the time Jenna recorded The Secret Garden, she also recorded an original one-hour-long Eleventh Doctor story for AudioGo, in collaboration with Big Finish. The finale of a year-long Destiny of the Doctors story arc that was produced for the 50th anniversary (so released around November 2013), Jenna actually plays a new character in this, not Clara, but also provides the voice of the Eleventh Doctor. Release was nearly cancelled when AudioGo went under a few weeks before the planned issue, but Big Finish white-knighted it and released not only the CD but it was also part of a box set. Today the CD is hard to find, but last I looked you could buy a download of it from Big Finish.
*A Christmas Carol: Concurrent with her appearing in Victoria Series 1 in late 2016, Jenna recorded a role in an audio drama based on the classic. Produced by Audible, no CD release is expected, but most of the places I’ve seen it listed (such as Amazon Canada) have it listed as a free stream. As far as I am aware this is the only audio drama in which Jenna has performed, the others being dramatic readings.
*Pressures, Residential: During the C19 lockdown in 2020, Esquire Magazine sponsored celebrity readings of short stories to raise money UNICEF UK. One of these was a story by Philip Hensher that feels like something that could be an episode of Black Mirror, if not Inside No. 9 or the original Twilight Zone. It’s still available online. It’s pretty good, even if you get startled early by Jenna channelling Malcolm Tucker for a moment.
*The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. Another C19-era project was the all-star collection, Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales. Also featuring fellow Who alumni such as David Tennant and Pearl Mackie, this collection includes 7 or so minutes of Jenna reading one of Potter’s short books. Available on CD and for download. There are a number of similar releases, so be careful to order the one with Jenna in it.
Jenna Coleman on Instagram and Instagram stories today, sharing pictures from the Chanel and cinema dinner in Cannes that she attended on the 23rd of May.
She also made a story in which she drew attention to there being “Sandman news today”
During Netflix’ Geeked Week starting on Monday, there will be a panel discussing The Sandman, in which Jenna Coleman will appear. A link to the video, which premieres on Monday, can be seen on several country-specific Netflix channels, like the one I have provided the link for.
This panel was pre-recorded in April, when we already saw this picture:
Netflix has also recently said that they will, finally, announce a release date for The Sandman on Monday as well! I’ve not seen it confirmed anywhere, but I think it is very likely that a trailer for The Sandman will be shown on Monday as well!
So look out for more news about The Sandman on Monday!
