Farewell Bear Facts - Vaduz

More on Vaduz here.

Princess Theresa was a real risk. Introducing a new romantic interest for a main character, only four episodes from the end, and expecting the audience to care, and to want them to get together, was quite a tall order; and giving her such a high-concept identity as a foreign Princess even more so. I felt there was a definite risk of shark-jumping. 'Oh, right, so Martin's going out with a Princess now? Fine…'

In the end, though, I haven't heard many complaints about Theresa, and I have heard quite a lot of enthusiasm, which I think is largely down to Matilda Ziegler's fantastic, warm, intelligent, amused performance. The other thing that helps, though, is that though the character is new; the situation is set up in Newcastle - Theresa is quite a lot like Linda Fairburn, but with the crucial differences that a) Theresa quite fancies Martin and b) Martin has changed between N and V. He's still going to make a stammering fool of himself, of course, but… well, he truly does earn that medal for teasing recognition. Speaking of which, here is a Deleted Medal:

THERESA                  Super, that gets you the Holy Cross of St Luzius. Have you been to Triesenberg?

MARTIN                       I… I don’t think so.

THERESA                   Do you want to go to Triesenberg? Basically, we have this whole medal foreigners can get for going to Triesenberg. I think it was some kind of eighteenth century tourism thing. I tell you what, you can have it for now, if you don’t go to Triesenberg in ten years, send it back.

And here's another deleted scene, in which Martin gives Maxi some advice:

MARTIN                       Maxi… what does the Sheik of Qatar do, exactly?

MAXI                             (SULLEN) It’s not just him. It’s all the boys. They laugh at me all the time. And they call me Serena. 

MARTIN                       Why do they do that?

MAXI                            I don’t know.

MARTIN                       Was it after you told them to call your Your Serene Majesty?

MAXI                              …I can’t remember.

MARTIN                       Look, can I give you some advice?

MAXI                            You? But you’re a commoner!

MARTIN                       Even so. Look, I used to be in the air cadets. Well, you know that. And I was the first in my flight to become a Junior Corporal. And, and it’s just good military discipline to address people by rank, rather than name, or… anything else.

MAXI                           Of course.

MARTIN                       Yes. But, looking back, even though I was technically right, I sort of wish I hadn’t insisted.

MAXI                            Wouldn’t they call you it?

MARTIN                       No, no they would. They wouldn’t stop calling me it. I mean… there are people I see when I go back home who still call me Junior Corporal. What I mean is, the thing to remember about bullies-

MAXI                            I know, I know, ‘they’re cowards really, you’ve just got to stand up to them.’

MARTIN                       No, no. Some of them are cowards, but some of them really aren’t. No, the thing about bullies is, they do it for fun.

MAXI                            How does that help me?

MARTIN                       Well, it gives you a strategy. Be boring to bully.

MAXI                            How?

MARTIN                       Don’t react much. Don’t try really hard not to react, because that’s fun to watch. But otherwise… just sort wait for it to finish.

MAXI                             And that works?

MARTIN                       I don’t know… I never learnt to do it. But I think it might.