The Diary: Doctor who? Maybe Morrissey knows

Following David Tennant's announcement that he will be stepping down as Doctor Who at the end of 2009, the actor David Morrissey who guest stars in the upcoming Christmas special, has hinted that he may throw his hat into the ring for the part in an interview in this month's 'What's On Stage'. He says: "I'm a huge fan of the programme and of David Tennant. As for any talk of me taking over as the next Doctor, well, if or when they do choose someone, they would have to be totally different to David, which I am!" As someone famed for deft physical transformations – he lost two stone to play Gordon Brown in 'The Deal', for example – it will be interesting to see what incarnation Morrissey's doctor takes if he emerges out of the Tardis.

Casting call for an invisible Prophet...

Hot on the heels of the controversy over 'The Jewel of Medina', a book about the Prophet Mohamed's marriage, Hollywood is planning to remake a 1970s biopic of the Prophet, which was bankrolled by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and called 'The Message'. Its opening in America sparked a siege that ended in two deaths. Casting of the central character could be problematic as Islam forbids the figurative depiction of the Prophet or his direct family. Even the 1976 original didn't dare. Oscar Zoghbi, a producer of the original, is involved in the remake. This week, he insisted that the film would be respectful – as its working title, 'Messenger of Peace', suggests.

Back to Basra

It may have seemed like a tall order for playwright Annie Caulfield (right) to attempt to capture the dark humour of war but she made such a storming effort in her Radio 4 play last autumn, called 'On the Field', which revolved around a football team on a British army base in conflict-riddled Basra, that real-life soldiers who tuned in for the drama are now crying out for more. Caulfield said the BBC have commissioned a sequel to be aired next May due to popular demand by army personnel. "I got emails from the forces in Iraq who loved it. So this second play will go back to the same characters for the endgame. It's a dark comedy in which people die, terrible things happen. It's the closest thing to 'M*A*S*H' on radio," she said.

The future queen of Theatreland?

Stephan Elliott, the Antipodean writer of the camp 1994 road movie 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' about the adventures of two drag queens and a transsexual, which spawned an outrageously sequinned stage version in Australia, has cast some doubt over its reception in Britain when it transfers to the West End next spring. "It's outrageous and it's very out of the closet. How will it go down in England?" he asked. But one thing might work in its favour, Elliott added: the recession. He predicts that London's theatreland will shrink by a third. By the time 'Priscilla' gets here, he said, it will be just the buoyant, high-kicking musical comedy that Brits need.