Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A free 10 pounds from Paddy Power (and how to bet it)

Our Irish pals over at Paddy Power are offering a simple £10 match bonus on sportsbook betting. Here’s how it works: Make a £10 bet, get £10 for another bet. That’s it.

And so since there’s much space to be filled on your computer screen, please allow LCD to weigh in on a few props in the ever-increasingly misnamed “sports” betting section; after all, clever punters who followed LCD’s advice took $156.25 per $100 with Miss Venezuela’s win in the Miss Universe contest earlier this month.

This week, we’ve got £100 pounds to play with, and under the microscope is LCD’s all-time favorite television programme, Doctor Who.

As fans of the currently all-the-rage sci-fi show know, the lead role occasionally changes hands by means of an in-scripted plot device which allows the protagonist’s body to “regenerate,” thereby utterly changing in appearance. Some 10 actors have played the part over the show’s nearly 44-year history, with David Tennant currently in the role.

In nearly every one of Tennant’s four years with the programme has there been speculation over his departure and replacement, and of course as the years roll on, a new actor for the BBC’s flagship show seems likely. Recent speculation has Tennant leaving the show before the 2010 season kicks off in March of that year; however, some (not necessarily accurate) British tabloids say the Beeb’s offered Tennant a nigh-unrefusable offer.

We’ll see. In the meantime, let’s spread that poundage around.

The favorite. David Morrissey, most recently seen by international audiences in The Other Boleyn Girl, is the favorite at 13-8. Morrissey is a vaguely familiar face to British audiences, though he carries nowhere near the cachet of a Chris Eccleston or Tennant, the two actors to get the part in this decade’s version of the show. Plus, Morrissey will be appearing in a Christmas Day episode of the series, decreasing his chances to be cast as The Doctor. But, hey, there’s a reason he’s the favorite. The LCD bet: £40.

(Yes, once in the 1980s, a one-serial character returned to play the main role, but true Doctor Who fans with taste don’t like to talk about that.)

The international name. Robert Carlyle (6/1), he of the hee-yooge worldwide box-office smashes The Full Monty and Trainspotting, has been linked with this gig since at least 2006, though he’s repeatedly denied anything concrete. Most recently, Carlyle told British media that "It's David's [Tennant] part and nothing to do with me, so I can't really think about it at the moment. But... would I do it? Possibly."

LCD opines that this is the no-brainer choice if the network’s thinking on the biggest scale. The new version of Doctor Who is becoming increasingly popular in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand as it continually conquers audiences at home. On America’s Sci Fi Network, the show now runs only about one week behind the British screening, indicating the UK folks are perfectly willing to keep American geeks nice and hooked. Carlyle represents a proven and lovable name to English-speaking audiences the world over. Combined with Carlyle’s recent run of lower-drawing, smaller films, this is clearly the smartest choice for network, show and actor. The LCD bet: £25.

Ain’t gonna happen. Though John Simm (5/1) was insanely popular in Life on Mars – yes, that series that was remade in the ‘States and flopped early into season one – he appeared on Doctor Who as the star’s chief nemesis and was, by some accounts, undirectable. LCD doesn’t believe the show’s producers will push internal consistency that much.

Meanwhile, longshot Hugh Grant (80/1) claims he was offered the part before the show’s 2005 revamp but turned it down and today regrets it. Here’s to thinking that the BBC won’t offer the sort of contract Grant would demand, simply because they don’t need to with the show’s success relatively secured.

The connected. The show’s new producer will be one Stephen Moffatt, something of a bigwig in BBC production; one work to his credit was “Hyde,” a redo of the classic Jekyll-and-Hyde tale which starred Irishman James Nesbitt. Nesbitt received kudos for his acting in the fantastical mini-series, and Moffatt has stated that the dreamy type portrayed by Tennant is not his kind of doctor: “I don’t think young, dashing Doctors are right at all. The Doctor should always be a but more Picard and less Kirk. He should be forty-plus and weird looking..."

Now take a look at Nesbitt and tell LCD what you think about his possibilities at 12/1. The LCD bet: £20.

The fan’s choice. Richard E. Grant (10/1) – vaguely known to general American audiences, loved by cult freaks for his smashing Withnail & I, co-starring former Doctor Who lead Paul McGann – has actually played in Doctor Who twice before: once in an online cartoon version of the show and once in a parody-for-charity production of the programme. This choice might be too good to be true, though...The LCD bet: £15.

Not into sci-fi? Right, then, now for something completely different: Be sure to check out Paddy Power’s “Eggy Cam” prop. The Paddies have numbered ten ordinary chicken eggs, placed them in an incubator, and set a webcam up for would-be punter to view progress of the ova.

And Paddy Power’s gone all out here, with facts and fun stuff, not to mention the obligatory blog. Yesterday’s blog entry goes like this:

So the eggs survived their first weekend. Farmer Duncan came in this morning to check the incubator was the correct temperature (teenchy bit too hot, so we readjusted some knobs.) Now that they are three days old, the ears, lets, beak and wings have started to develop.

Today the embryo rotates so that it lies on it’s left hand side (eh, good luck what with all the rotating we do) and by this time tomorrow all the major body organs are evident. Man it happens so fast! They’ll be chicks in no time!

The eggs are due to hatch around 1pm GMT on Monday, 28 July, so get bets in quickly! Aside from simply choosing the first hatched (#8 is the favorite at 13/2 as of this writing), you can bet on time of hatching, sex of the first chick, second hatched, third hatched, and more.

What else can LCD add to this hilarious new promo except “eggs-cellent!"