Let’s start with the obvious, Jack’s greatcoat. Made to a WWII era R.A.F. Officer pattern, this is the key part of the outfit that, if you can get right, will channel the Captain’s panache more than any other lower garment. Although the reasons behind John’s multiple different greatcoats is mostly based on real-world practicalities, canonically Jack must have changed his coat a great many times over his lifetime every time it got badly damaged. If you want an in-universe explanation for the changes, this explains them away nicely, Children of Earth even featured a scene with Ianto stating he got Jack a replacement coat from military surplus.
Below is a run through of all the variants Barrowman has worn over the years, though I’ll preface it by talking about obtaining a decent alt. The two most common paths available nowadays is to either find a vintage R.A.F. coat and re-rank it, or buy one of these replicas specifically marketed to cosplayers. Personally, I prefer the former as genuine greatcoats are much warmer and higher quality, the low cost replicas often look a bit cheap and costumey by comparison. If you don’t live in the UK, many Commonwealth countries (such as Canada, New Zealand, et cetera) used the exact same basic uniform design for their air forces, just with country patches on the upper arm and extra text (such as R.C.A.F. Or NZ) on the buttons.
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| This Flight Lieutenant’s garment is an entirely typical example of a WWII era officer pattern R.A.F. greatcoat. Jack’s coats are based on this design, but all have various differences explained further down in the article. |
Officer’s coats are made to a different pattern to enlisted personnel, whose coat is more plain by comparison. The greatcoat pattern used by warrant officer equivalent ranks is pretty close to officer’s pattern, so would make a good option. Normally these vintage WO ones have a full belt and shoulder seams that are sewn down like Jack’s, but have one fewer cuff button per side, and are missing the second row of buttons that would be present on an officer’s coat. This means that they are missing the lower buttonholes on the lapels.
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| This coat is a later style of officer pattern that was introduced at some point after the war, I’m not sure exactly when but nowadays it is more common than the belted kind. |
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| An enlisted greatcoat (left) compared to a warrant officer’s one (right). Enlisted coats lack any form of shoulder strap or board, and will either have a plain half-belt or none at all. |
If you do go the real greatcoat route, be sure to purchase 1.5m of Flying Officer braid. Pilot Officer braid is narrower and often Group Captain rank slides are one piece slips that slide over the strap, Jack’s rank is four individual Flying Officer stripes wrapped around the shoulder straps. Less than this might not be enough to wrap all the way around the underside, most replicas just put the braid on the top.
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| Shoulder boards showing every possible officer rank within the Royal Air Force. Note the three different thicknesses of rank braid, and how they are attached separately rather than as a single rank slide. |
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| These are rank slides, do not buy these. They are one piece tubes that slip over the shoulder strap, rather than individually applied rank stripes. |
Also, regarding the difference between button types, I’m going to use the common vernacular of King’s Crown and Queen’s Crown. As part of the Crown Jewels, there are multiple different official crowns that a British monarch can choose to wear, though a single preferred crown is chosen to be used for their official crest. The Tudor Crown has been chosen by all Kings following Victoria (Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Charles III), whereas the lone Queen (Elizabeth II) elected to use the St Edward’s Crown. Whenever a crown style change occurs, subsequently produced military uniforms incorporate the new button style, though there is often a protracted transition period whilst old supplies are used up and the new paradigm put into production. As of the time of writing, newly passed out R.A.F. personnel are still being issued uniforms with Queen’s Crown buttons, over three years after her death.
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| A comparison between the St. Edward’s (Queen’s) Crown and Tudor (King’s) Crown. |
Although John has never been pictured in one, the character of Jack would likely have worn an Army greatcoat at one point in his life. Canonically the character was a Captain in the British Army during WWI, fighting in many prominent battles including Gallipoli, Passchendaele, and the Somme, with a tattered coat being directly mentioned. During this period there were both single and (early style) double breasted greatcoats in use, the former being more common. The shorter British Warm was an alternate overcoat also worn by officers in the British Army during this period, and remains in use to this day. Khaki trench coats were also popular private purchase pieces during the Great War due to the gabardine fabric’s waterproof properties (very useful in the trenches), so he may well have worn one of these. Whilst disguised as an F.B.I. Agent during the first episode of Miracle Day, Jack would wear a black Burberry trench coat.
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| John Barrowman has been seen in Captain Jack’s WWI uniform on two occasions, the left is from 2006’s Small Worlds and the right is a card number 108 the 2008 Torchwood Trading Card Collection. |
The Royal Air Force was formed in April 1918. The original uniform colour was a pale blue (which proved unpopular) but was replaced by the now iconic blue-grey in September 1919, making this the earliest Jack could’ve plausibly worn a variation of an R.A.F. greatcoat during his immortal life. Note that an R.A.F. Group Captain is a significantly higher rank than an Army Captain. Group Captain is equivalent to a Colonel in Army ranks, which is three grades higher than an Army Captain.
1.1. British MOD vintage R.A.F. Blitz coat:
Years Used: 2005
For his debut, John Barrowman wore a vintage R.A.F. officer’s greatcoat. This coat was cut to the WWII era full-belt pattern, at some point after the war the standard design for an officer’s coat changed to be a half-belt with turnback cuffs. Genuine greatcoats are made of a very heavy and thick wool melton material, my one is in a similar size to John’s and weighs in at around 3.4kg for reference.
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| Note how the lapels on this coat are narrower than the typical examples towards the start of the article. |
• V shaped button placement fans out less at the top placement of the button, resulting in narrower lapels
and collar.
• Action pleat present in the wearer’s spine area.
• Belt loops are present making the belt removable, normally it is sewn down.
• Shoulder straps are sewn in at the shoulder seams, normally they are removable boards on this earlier
pattern.
• Non-functional cuffs, normally there is overlapping fabric under the cuff buttons whereas these buttons are just sewn on without an actual purpose.
I don’t know why this coat had these non-standard features. As officers are responsible for purchasing their own uniforms it is possible that these features were requested for some reason. It is also possible that it was simply made by a smaller manufacturer or individual tailor who took some minor liberties with the design.
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| Barrowman popped his collar up differently on this coat to his later moleskin one, likely due to the fact that this coat has no stiffening beyond the sturdiness of the wool. |
Unlike the later moleskin coat, this one was a little bit shorter (military regulation states a coat’s hem should be 14 inches above the ground) and was only half-lined, which is typical for one of these. The exact lining colour can vary in these coats can vary in shades of grey and blue, Jack’s coat has a grey lining that matches the wool.
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| Note the coat’s grey half-lining, vertical inside pocket, and regulation length of a little below the knee. |
Years Used: 2006-2010, 2020
When it came to produce the first series of Torchwood, the heavy vintage greatcoat wouldn’t cut the muster. Duplicates were required, and John’s wool allergy would’ve made using a melton coat problematic.
The solution that costume designer Ray Holman concocted was to create a new batch of coats using a much more lightweight cotton moleskin fabric. This material has a soft nap that gives it a wool type appearance, but is also thin enough to be more comfortably worn on warmer days. An added bonus of the more lightweight material is the ability to blow around heroically in the wind.
Angels Costumers produced these brand new coats for the series. Given that these had all the unusually design details from the vintage R.A.F. greatcoat they seemingly traced the pattern and copied it directly. The only notable design changes were:
• The coat was lengthened slightly.
• The coat was fully lined, rather than just half-lined.
• The rank was altered from Squadron Leader to Group Captain, and a subtle stitch line was added to
the top of the shoulder straps about 1cm inside the perimeter.
• The internal pockets were changed slightly, at the chest there is a horizontal double welt pocket on
either side, at the waist is an 8 inch square patch pocket.
• Given how Jack usually wears the collar popped up, the coat must have had some form of malleable
stiffening here to make it hold its shape. Perhaps a coat hanger wire or something similar?
Inside, these coats used a fine twill lining fabric that matched the exterior colour, though can look lighter or darker in some photos due to how it reacts with light. The pockets appear to be lined in a matching grey plain weave cotton.
Various coats were made for the production, some were slightly shorter to prevent John tripping over the skirt during running scenes. Some were made of pre-shrunk moleskin to use for wet scenes. For Children of Earth a new batch of coats was presumably made as the ones used for that series have one fewer buttonhole, being missing one on the wearer’s lower right.
Although the moleskin coat wasn’t used for Miracle Day, Barrowman’s personal coat that he retained was used once more for his 2020 appearance in Fugitive of the Judoon. He also occasionally wears this coat to public appearances.
The reason behind the rank discrepancy has never been properly explained. Most likely the (two positions higher) rank of Group Captain was chosen by the producers to more closely match his Time Agent rank of Captain, though the tile of Group Captain is never really shortened to just Captain which makes his use of it a bit confusing. When the real Jack Harkness is revealed in the episode Captain Jack Harkness, he is shown to be a Group Captain rather than a Squadron Leader as was portrayed by Barrowman during the Blitz. An in-universe head-canon explanation would be that the original Jack Harkness was a Squadron Leader that was either only very recently promoted to Group Captain before his death, or was a Squadron Leader who held the acting rank of Group Captain. Either way, the historical personnel records available to a Time Agent might not reflect this nuance. It is also worth noting that although nowadays Group Captain would be an unusually high rank for someone with John's youthful appearance, during the war the R.A.F. in particular promoted people very quickly due to the high pilot mortality rate.
As of Torchwood’s second series, there were five greatcoats in use. An interview with Lindsay Bonacorsi (costume designer/supervisor for Children of Earth) mentioned that Ray Holman had "three new versions made for that series alone" which I presume means three new coats. That puts a tentative number of eight Cardiff era moleskin coats being made, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was higher. Conditions are going to vary a lot as some had holes for stunt harnesses cut into them, distressed for Jack being buried alive, and so on. The one that was on display at the Doctor Who Experience seems to have a stab wound in the lapel that must've come from the episode Sleeper, so I assume that became a stunt coat afterwards.
I am hoping that a truly good replica of this coat becomes available at some point in the near future, all of the ones I’ve seen thus far either look a bit cheap or have some significant accuracy issues. The screen accurate moleskin is actually still available so if you need some of that then get in touch via email or Instagram, I can source incredibly accurate lining too. In terms of the brass hardware, actual vintage ones are the best but can be hard to find, especially the correct sized buckle. Magnoli also make replicas of this hardware, though their kit contains insufficient length of rank braid to properly do the shoulder straps.
1.3. Di Stefano Miracle Day coats:
Years Used: 2011
Although I do not have access to a screen used moleskin coat for comparison, the Miracle Day coat has a measured half-chest of 21.5 inches. Assuming Barrowman was around a 40 chest at this time, this kind of measurement (43 inches garment circumference, so +3 over the body) would be about right for a suit jacket, but not enough for an overcoat that’s designed to be worn over a jacket. So although it is based on an overcoat design, it is fitted more like a bodycoat. For comparison, my R.A.F. greatcoat is around a size 40 and has a 23 inch half chest, which I imagine would be comparable to the Angels coat. This slimming down is visible in the arms too, a screen used Angles coat was measured at around 8 inches laid flat above the cuff buttons, whereas on the Trpcic coat it’s 6.75 inches in this area.
Aside from the slimmer fit, the overall design details have been mostly maintained from the moleskin coat. There have however been a few details that have been altered:
• The Miracle day has more of a Y shaped button placement rather than the soft V that the moleskin one had.
• As a result of this altered button placement, the shape of the lapels and collar are both a bit different.
• The horizontal spacing of the buttons is less, resulting in slightly less fabric overlap at the front. These buttons are held on with backer buttons in the coat’s interior.
• The shoulder straps are shorter (5.5 inches compared to the Angels coat’s 6.5 inches).
• The R.A.F. belt buckle has been replaced with a more generic looking rectangular one. The buckle appears to be a metric sized one, as the strap is a shade thinner at 60mm (2.4 inches) as opposed to a perfect 2.5 inches.
• The coats are missing the same buttonhole that was absent on the Children of Earth coats.
Screen used heavyweight coat, note the Y shaped button placement and missing buttonhole.
The final change to the coat was to swap out the materials entirely. Moleskin has a pretty tight weave and nap that makes it a little warmer than an equivalently heavy twill, so was deemed a bit much for the California climate. As a result the exterior fabric was swapped for a more breathable lightweight wool in a more blueish shade. The lining was changed from grey to a deep iridescent red Cupro Bemberg, presumably to make it more visually striking. It is important to note that there are actually two main styles of Miracle Day coats (excluding ones modified for practical purposes, like being shortened for running scenes), these are both covered below.
I’m not sure how many coats were made for the production, but several of them (both lightweight and heavyweight) have subsequently come up for sale. If I had to make a wild guess I might put the number at around ten.
1.3.1. lightweight coat:
Years Used: 2011
1.3.2. heavyweight coat:
• For this coat a heavy wool melton was used.
• Multiple heavyweight coats were made, some had King’s Crown buttons but some had Queen’s Crown
(which wouldn’t actually exist until the 1950’s).
Seemingly the only appearance that this coat makes is for the 1928 flashback scenes in Immortal Sins. Royal Air Force uniform was developed shortly after the First World War, so it’s plausible that Jack could’ve had such a greatcoat made in this era. I’m not sure why the heavyweight coat was created given the limited screen time it had. My only guess is that perhaps the more modern looking cashmere coat appeared too lightweight to fit in with the more insulating fabrics favoured during this period. This would give a pretty reasonable canonical explanation for the differences, that they aren’t meant to be physically the exact same coat given the 83 year time difference and the heavyweight one was simply the specific greatcoat he owned in 1928. Though much of the outfit worn during the scene weren’t given this same period correct treatment.
1.4. Angels moleskin Revolution coat:
Years Used: 2021
• The shoulder straps are much shorter, they have proportions more like the Miracle Day coat.
• The buttons are staybrite Queen’s Crown buttons, made of anodised aluminium rather than brass.
meaning they don’t need constant polishing. Presumably these were easier to obtain than vintage King’s Crown ones.
• The lapels look a little more sharply pressed, the Cardiff coat had more of a gentle roll. John’s fresh new moleskin coat, nearly identical to his Cardiff era one.
The collar and lapels do sometimes look a little different, but I suspect that’s a combination of being more sharply pressed and the way he wears his collar. In Torchwood, Jack would usually pop his collar up a bit. He doesn’t with this new coat, so it’s possible the collar of this one wasn’t stiffened.
I’m not sure who made this new coat, but given the design similarity must have been patterned off the earlier Angels coats. It’s likely that Angels made this one too, alternately it could’ve been made by the show’s inhouse costume team. It is unknown how many copies were made, though multiple seems probable.
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| Jack’s moleskin coat has the most screen-time of any of his greatcoats. The patch pocket is just visible in this shot, it extends as high as the lowest row of buttons. |
The solution that costume designer Ray Holman concocted was to create a new batch of coats using a much more lightweight cotton moleskin fabric. This material has a soft nap that gives it a wool type appearance, but is also thin enough to be more comfortably worn on warmer days. An added bonus of the more lightweight material is the ability to blow around heroically in the wind.
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| A selection of Barrowman’s backshots. The rear of the coat contributes a lot to the look. Notice the grey ~15mm buttons in the vent and the lining colour visible in the top right. |
Angels Costumers produced these brand new coats for the series. Given that these had all the unusually design details from the vintage R.A.F. greatcoat they seemingly traced the pattern and copied it directly. The only notable design changes were:
• The coat was lengthened slightly.
• The coat was fully lined, rather than just half-lined.
• The rank was altered from Squadron Leader to Group Captain, and a subtle stitch line was added to
the top of the shoulder straps about 1cm inside the perimeter.
• The internal pockets were changed slightly, at the chest there is a horizontal double welt pocket on
either side, at the waist is an 8 inch square patch pocket.
• Given how Jack usually wears the collar popped up, the coat must have had some form of malleable
stiffening here to make it hold its shape. Perhaps a coat hanger wire or something similar?
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| Auction photos of screen used greatcoats. As they are fully buttoned up these images show off the button placement better. Compared to the typical R.A.F. layout, these have a tighter spacing at the top. |
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| This promo photo from Torchwood’s first series is (to the best of my knowledge) the only occasion we see the coat buttoned all the way up. |
These coats used faithful period correct brass hardware, utilising King’s Crown buttons and the correct elongated octagon shaped belt buckle. The R.A.F. greatcoat buckle is slightly larger than that found on R.A.F. tunics, being designed for a 2.5 inch strap rather than a 2.0 inch one. Presumably they sourced this vintage hardware from somewhere, the frontal 23mm KC buttons aren’t too rare but the 17mm KC ones (found on the cuffs and shoulders) and correct sized buckle are harder to find.
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| These photos show the inner stitching a little into the strap, as well as the length and way the strap tapers slightly. |
Inside, these coats used a fine twill lining fabric that matched the exterior colour, though can look lighter or darker in some photos due to how it reacts with light. The pockets appear to be lined in a matching grey plain weave cotton.
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| Auction photo of the label within one of the moleskin coats. The material around the label appears to be the pocketing and lining. |
Various coats were made for the production, some were slightly shorter to prevent John tripping over the skirt during running scenes. Some were made of pre-shrunk moleskin to use for wet scenes. For Children of Earth a new batch of coats was presumably made as the ones used for that series have one fewer buttonhole, being missing one on the wearer’s lower right.
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| Shots from Children of Earth, note the missing buttonhole on the wearer’s right hand side. This scene set in 1965 (right) is one of the few occasions Jack wears the coat buttoned up. These pictures show off the button placement, roomy fit, and sleeve length very well. Note as well the hourglass type cut of the coat, with a skirt that billows out below the waist. |
Although the moleskin coat wasn’t used for Miracle Day, Barrowman’s personal coat that he retained was used once more for his 2020 appearance in Fugitive of the Judoon. He also occasionally wears this coat to public appearances.
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| John’s personal coat that he brought with him for his appearance in Fugitive of the Judoon. |
As of Torchwood’s second series, there were five greatcoats in use. An interview with Lindsay Bonacorsi (costume designer/supervisor for Children of Earth) mentioned that Ray Holman had "three new versions made for that series alone" which I presume means three new coats. That puts a tentative number of eight Cardiff era moleskin coats being made, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was higher. Conditions are going to vary a lot as some had holes for stunt harnesses cut into them, distressed for Jack being buried alive, and so on. The one that was on display at the Doctor Who Experience seems to have a stab wound in the lapel that must've come from the episode Sleeper, so I assume that became a stunt coat afterwards.
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| Magazine article detailing Jack’s five greatcoats used in series two. |
I am hoping that a truly good replica of this coat becomes available at some point in the near future, all of the ones I’ve seen thus far either look a bit cheap or have some significant accuracy issues. The screen accurate moleskin is actually still available so if you need some of that then get in touch via email or Instagram, I can source incredibly accurate lining too. In terms of the brass hardware, actual vintage ones are the best but can be hard to find, especially the correct sized buckle. Magnoli also make replicas of this hardware, though their kit contains insufficient length of rank braid to properly do the shoulder straps.
1.3. Di Stefano Miracle Day coats:
Years Used: 2011
The most radical change to Jack’s coat came come 2011 with the advent of Miracle Day. This new series was quite different to the previous three and was aimed at drawing in an American audience. The new costume designer for this series was Shawna Trpcic, who decided to modify Jack’s look for various aesthetic and practical reasons. Shawna unfortunately passed away in 2023, but she is well known for her work on shows such as Firefly, Angel, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, The Mandalorian, Foundation, and many others.
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| The brand new coat, created exclusively for Miracle Day, this one is the lightweight version. |
The new coat was made by L.A. based Neapolitan style tailor Di Stefano. This style of tailoring, combined with some weight loss by Barrowman, resulted in a noticeably slimmer cut. The body has a straighter fit with less volume, and the sleeves are similarly slimmed and shortened by around a coupe of inches to end around the middle of the metacarpals, measuring 25.5 inches (taken off a screen used coat). Despite the slimmer fit the coat still has fairly wide overcoat type shoulders, meaning the sleeves fit longer than a 25.5 inch measurement would on a jacket.
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Another promo shot of Barrowman in the lightweight coat. |
Although I do not have access to a screen used moleskin coat for comparison, the Miracle Day coat has a measured half-chest of 21.5 inches. Assuming Barrowman was around a 40 chest at this time, this kind of measurement (43 inches garment circumference, so +3 over the body) would be about right for a suit jacket, but not enough for an overcoat that’s designed to be worn over a jacket. So although it is based on an overcoat design, it is fitted more like a bodycoat. For comparison, my R.A.F. greatcoat is around a size 40 and has a 23 inch half chest, which I imagine would be comparable to the Angels coat. This slimming down is visible in the arms too, a screen used Angles coat was measured at around 8 inches laid flat above the cuff buttons, whereas on the Trpcic coat it’s 6.75 inches in this area.
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| This shot shows off a bit of the lightweight coat’s lining. |
Aside from the slimmer fit, the overall design details have been mostly maintained from the moleskin coat. There have however been a few details that have been altered:
• The Miracle day has more of a Y shaped button placement rather than the soft V that the moleskin one had.
• As a result of this altered button placement, the shape of the lapels and collar are both a bit different.
• The horizontal spacing of the buttons is less, resulting in slightly less fabric overlap at the front. These buttons are held on with backer buttons in the coat’s interior.
• The shoulder straps are shorter (5.5 inches compared to the Angels coat’s 6.5 inches).
• The R.A.F. belt buckle has been replaced with a more generic looking rectangular one. The buckle appears to be a metric sized one, as the strap is a shade thinner at 60mm (2.4 inches) as opposed to a perfect 2.5 inches.
• The coats are missing the same buttonhole that was absent on the Children of Earth coats.
Screen used heavyweight coat, note the Y shaped button placement and missing buttonhole.
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| Screen used heavyweight coat, note the Y shaped button placement and missing buttonhole. |
The final change to the coat was to swap out the materials entirely. Moleskin has a pretty tight weave and nap that makes it a little warmer than an equivalently heavy twill, so was deemed a bit much for the California climate. As a result the exterior fabric was swapped for a more breathable lightweight wool in a more blueish shade. The lining was changed from grey to a deep iridescent red Cupro Bemberg, presumably to make it more visually striking. It is important to note that there are actually two main styles of Miracle Day coats (excluding ones modified for practical purposes, like being shortened for running scenes), these are both covered below.
I’m not sure how many coats were made for the production, but several of them (both lightweight and heavyweight) have subsequently come up for sale. If I had to make a wild guess I might put the number at around ten.
1.3.1. lightweight coat:
Years Used: 2011
This one is essentially the “Hero” coat for Miracle Day. It is main coat used about 95% of the time in the show and appears on all the promotional photos. As before, King’s Crown buttons were used on this coat, but aside from that and the rank braid every material was different from the Cardiff era coat.
The material itself is very lightweight for a full length overcoat and according to an interview with Trpcic was a roughly 50:50 wool and cashmere blend, with the cloth being soft enough to be hypoallergenic. The colour is closer to a true airforce blue than the moleskin coat, which was pure grey rather than the grey-blue colour of a real piece of R.A.F. uniform. In terms of weave, the material is a twill with a lightly brushed surface, probably best described as a worsted flannel. I suspect it was probably an Italian fabric, due to the tailor’s origins and the propensity of Italian mills to produce these sort of luxurious cashmere blends.
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| Screen used lightweight coat. |
The material itself is very lightweight for a full length overcoat and according to an interview with Trpcic was a roughly 50:50 wool and cashmere blend, with the cloth being soft enough to be hypoallergenic. The colour is closer to a true airforce blue than the moleskin coat, which was pure grey rather than the grey-blue colour of a real piece of R.A.F. uniform. In terms of weave, the material is a twill with a lightly brushed surface, probably best described as a worsted flannel. I suspect it was probably an Italian fabric, due to the tailor’s origins and the propensity of Italian mills to produce these sort of luxurious cashmere blends.
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| Some closeup shots of a screen used lightweight coat. |
For a point of reference, my issued greatcoat weighs around 3.4kg, whereas a screen used lightweight coat was measured at 1.7kg, literally half the weight of the real uniform.
1.3.2. heavyweight coat:
Years Used: 2011
As far as I can tell, this one is identical to the lightweight coat, but with two key differences:
• For this coat a heavy wool melton was used.
• Multiple heavyweight coats were made, some had King’s Crown buttons but some had Queen’s Crown
(which wouldn’t actually exist until the 1950’s).
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| Screen used heavyweight coat. |
Seemingly the only appearance that this coat makes is for the 1928 flashback scenes in Immortal Sins. Royal Air Force uniform was developed shortly after the First World War, so it’s plausible that Jack could’ve had such a greatcoat made in this era. I’m not sure why the heavyweight coat was created given the limited screen time it had. My only guess is that perhaps the more modern looking cashmere coat appeared too lightweight to fit in with the more insulating fabrics favoured during this period. This would give a pretty reasonable canonical explanation for the differences, that they aren’t meant to be physically the exact same coat given the 83 year time difference and the heavyweight one was simply the specific greatcoat he owned in 1928. Though much of the outfit worn during the scene weren’t given this same period correct treatment.
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| John Barrowman wearing the heavyweight coat for the 1920’s scenes in Immortal Sins. |
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Some close up shots of a screen used heavyweight coat. |
1.4. Angels moleskin Revolution coat:
Years Used: 2021
When the time came for Barrowman to have a larger role in the Whittaker era for Revolution of the Daleks, a new coat was required. Ray Holman deemed that the old coat was looking a bit tatty, so had a new one made out of the same moleskin as was used before. This one is almost identical to the Cardiff era coat, but with a few noticeable differences:
• The shoulder straps are much shorter, they have proportions more like the Miracle Day coat.
• The buttons are staybrite Queen’s Crown buttons, made of anodised aluminium rather than brass.
meaning they don’t need constant polishing. Presumably these were easier to obtain than vintage King’s Crown ones.
• The lapels look a little more sharply pressed, the Cardiff coat had more of a gentle roll. John’s fresh new moleskin coat, nearly identical to his Cardiff era one.
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| John's fresh new moleskin coat, nearly identical to his Cardiff era one. |
The collar and lapels do sometimes look a little different, but I suspect that’s a combination of being more sharply pressed and the way he wears his collar. In Torchwood, Jack would usually pop his collar up a bit. He doesn’t with this new coat, so it’s possible the collar of this one wasn’t stiffened.
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| Notice the more sharply pressed lapels. |
I’m not sure who made this new coat, but given the design similarity must have been patterned off the earlier Angels coats. It’s likely that Angels made this one too, alternately it could’ve been made by the show’s inhouse costume team. It is unknown how many copies were made, though multiple seems probable.
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| Rare behind the scenes shot from Time Fracture showing the lining. Unlike the Children of Earth era coats this one has a full compliment of buttonholes. |
Come back soon for more instalments!
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