EXCLUSIVE Ncuti Gatwa spoke at pro-Palestine rally outside Parliament just days after sudden on-screen exit as Doctor Who
As the BBC 's Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa came under fire when he mysteriously pulled out of his Eurovision hosting duties moments after Israel qualified last month.
Now it can be revealed that three days after the actor departed Doctor Who, he spoke at a pro-Palestine demonstration outside parliament.
On 3 June, the actor, 32, stood in front of a banner reading ' Gaza: Actions Not Words' and delivered a speech to hundreds of people at the Westminster event, organised by Choose Love – a charity that this week supported Greta Thunberg 's 'selfie yacht' trip to Gaza.
Gatwa had withdrawn from his role as a Eurovision Grand Final spokesman just 18 days before his speech at the rally.
It has prompted renewed speculation as to his motivation for pulling out of the role and whether the BBC was aware that he would do so if Israel qualified.
He had been due to announce the UK jury's points during the live broadcast but was replaced at short notice by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, 46.
The BBC made the change public only two minutes after Israel qualified for the final – prompting speculation that his withdrawal was a protest.
The broadcaster cited 'unforeseen circumstances' as the reason.
The timing raised eyebrows, as Israel's contestant, Yuval Raphael – a survivor of the October 7 Nova music festival attack – secured her place in the final that same evening.
Gatwa has previously expressed support for the Palestinian cause on social media, sharing images of 'Free Palestine' graffiti and promoting fundraising campaigns.
The Rwanda-born, Scotland-raised actor made history as the first Black actor to lead Doctor Who, taking on the role of the Fifteenth Doctor in 2023.
However, his tenure ended after just two series, making him the second shortest-serving Doctor in the show's history – only Christopher Eccleston's single-series run was shorter.
Gatwa's departure was announced in May 2025, when his character regenerated into Rose Tyler played by Billie Piper, 42, ending his 18-month stint in the Tardis.
One attendee at the Westminster rally told the Mail: 'He actually read out the names of deceased Palestinian children from his mobile.
'Ncuti appears unaware that, despite his support for Palestine, he could face serious risks in parts of the Middle East. Given the timing – coming so soon after the Eurovision controversy and his abrupt departure from Doctor Who – his appearance may reflect a belief that his position at the BBC had become untenable.'
He was joined at the rally by comedian Alexei Sayle and his former Doctor Who co-star Varada Sethu.
Sethu, 33, who played companion Belinda Chandra in Doctor Who, who left the sci-fi show at the time as Gatwa, also spoke at the rally.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Edinburgh Festival faces a summer of Gaza sponsorship rows
A quick recap, then a look at why this matters. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg pulled out of an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) in 2023 on account of its long-standing relationship with Edinburgh-based investment firm Baillie Gifford. She viewed this hook-up as an example of 'green-washing' by a firm gaining from investments in companies whose interests were inimical to her beliefs. 'Green-washing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social license to continue operating,' she said in a statement. 'I cannot and do not want to be associated with events that accept this kind of sponsorship.' Following Ms Thunberg's withdrawal, and on the eve of the festival, over 50 authors published an open letter calling on the EIBF to end its relationship with Baillie Gifford. In May 2024, the EIBF announced it was doing just that. The Hay Festival, also sponsored by Baillie Gifford, announced the same decision a week earlier. Full disclosure: I was entirely on the side of the authors in the 2023 row and had little time or patience for the arguments of those who opposed them. Certainly not the cultural warriors of the right, who viewed the campaign as a chance to pour scorn on the 'wokerati' – but not even those festival directors and high-placed arts practitioners in the invidious position of having to defend tie-ins with companies such as Baillie Gifford. Grow up, they said, the arts wouldn't exist in their current form without this sort of corporate sponsorship. Really? I'm not so sure. Anyway, if you're right would that be such a bad thing? Fast forward another year and we have just had the launch of the 2025 EIBF. In the absence of Baillie Gifford as a corporate sponsor (a relationship which was always and self-evidently transactional in nature) we now have (cue drum roll) Sir Ian Rankin. As revealed in The Herald, the sainted knight has stepped in – though stepped up might be a better phrase – and agreed to help back the festival financially, along with fellow author Jenny Colgan and other organisations and companies including Edinburgh-based legal firm Digby Brown and privately funded arts charity the Hawthornden Foundation. I'm not saying it was easy to fill the funding gap left by Baillie Gifford, and I don't know how well it has been plugged, but the festival has announced its largest number of events since the pre-pandemic days. Just saying. But don't think this issue is going away. Even as I write this, in Tel Aviv Greta Thunberg is being forced onto a plane, a method of travel she abhors and avoids for conscientious reasons. This is following her detainment while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza aboard UK-flagged humanitarian vessel The Madleen. Greta Thunberg was detained by Israeli authorities while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza (Image: AP) Along with the wider situation in Gaza and the West Bank and the ongoing climate emergency – and as tensions, tempers, emotions and body counts mount – there will be more and more scrutiny by more and more activists of more and more companies and institutions with links to, say, arms sales to Israel or fossil fuels or [insert injustice of your choice]. This will inevitably impact on the UK's arts institution and, as Edinburgh gears up for August, it will be inevitably be felt in Scotland. Actually it already is. A body signing itself the 'Edinburgh International Festivals' was one of the co-signatories supporting a recent open letter by Sir Alistair Spalding and Britannia Morton of London's Sadler's Wells venue published in the Financial Times (ha!). In it the authors complained about the 'relentless negativity' of 'activist groups' such as the one which 'pushed out' Baillie Gifford from its place as a sponsor of the arts. They added: '[P]artnering with businesses ensures our work goes further and has a greater impact. It adds more value and enables growth, ambition and risk taking.' Quoted in The Art Newspaper last week, corporate fundraising expert Martin Prendergast addressed the open letter and said 'the causes are right but the targets are wrong'. But creative producer Naomi Russell had a different take. 'I think protest and resistance drive change and historically this has great precedent,' she told the publication. 'That can be uncomfortable for the powers and established structures.' And so we come full circle: which side are you on? It's a question being asked a lot these days. Think carefully before you answer. Read more: Reel life Do you remember your first time? No not that. I mean the first time you realised there was more to the big screen than the latest James Bond or superhero offering. The first time you had your eyes opened to the kinds of films that maybe did not have car chases or shoot-outs and maybe did have subtitles and which – just as important – were shown in venues dedicated to what you later learned was called 'art-house cinema'. If you don't, I'm sorry. If you do, you'll know why I'm so delighted that Edinburgh's Filmhouse has announced its re-opening date: Friday June 27, just in time for this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) to return to its spiritual home. I was 16 the first time I went to the Filmhouse – in 1982, to see Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva. It was also the first subtitled film I had ever seen. A little later, still at school, I saw Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film Rumble Fish. It's still my favourite of his films and definitely in my all-time top five. Matt Dillon in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film Rumble Fish (Image: Universal/Criterion) In the same year I also saw director Nicolas Roeg discuss working with Gene Hackman in a Q&A following a screening of Roeg's film Eureka. Many decades later I found myself in my usual spot on the back row of Cinema One and chatting to an older man in the next seat. I told him about my love of the Filmhouse, and about these seminal events in my cinematic life and how vividly I could still remember them. It turned out I was talking to former EIFF director Jim Hickey, who ran the Filmhouse between 1979 and 1993. He was the one on stage interviewing Roeg that night 30 or so years earlier. I could have cried. Him too, probably. It's a very personal story, but it is in no way meaningless because so many people in Edinburgh have similar ones to tell. That's why the Filmhouse's absence since the collapse in 2022 of parent organisation the Centre for the Moving Image has left such a huge hole. Sure there's still work to do to keep Filmhouse 2.0 afloat. But now, thanks to the efforts of those who battled to keep the flame alive, it has returned. Eureka! Read more: And finally The Herald's theatre critic Neil Cooper has been busy recently. His peregrinations have taken him first to Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum where he watched The Mountaintop, a production of Katori Hall's Olivier Award-winning play about Martin Luther King Jr's last night alive. Five stars for that one. Just around the corner at the Traverse Theatre he took in Ramesh Meyyappan's radical reworking of King Lear, then watched the entertaining Meme Girls at Oran Mor in Glasgow, part of the ongoing A Play, A Pie And A Pint season, and hot-footed it to Pitlochry for Nan Shepherd: Naked And Unashamed, the latest chapter in the cult Aberdeenshire writer's move from the margins of literary history to the centre. Elsewhere music critics Keith Bruce and Teddy Jamieson have also been busy, Keith at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall where he heard the Royal Scottish National Orchestra perform 'the mighty juggernaut' that is Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No 11 and Teddy at Glasgow's O2 Academy where he watched Morrissey. A slew of Smiths songs will have pleased many in the audience but Teddy was left wondering who the bequiffed Narcissus is really addressing these days.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Nathalie Emmanuel is radiant in a chic sportswear look as she joins Clara Amfo at radio host's charity jewellery launch in London
Nathalie Emmanuel was radiant in a chic sportswear look as she joined Clara Amfo at a jewellery launch. The radio host, 41, has launched a new jewellery collection in support of international humanitarian charity Choose Love. Stars were out in force for the launch of Clara Amfo x Rachel Jackson for Choose Love at Before The Lights in London's Fitzrovia on Thursday. Among those was Game Of Thrones star Nathalie, 36, kept it casual for the event in a white oversized Umbro v-neck t-shirt with orange and green striped sleeves. She paired the t-shirt with an olive green pleated miniskirt, patent loafers, knee-high socks and a huge pair of silver hoop earrings. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Meanwhile Clara opted for a black ruched midi-dress with a racy thigh-high leg split and a pair of platform open-toed heels. Also in attendance was singer Ella Eyre, 31, who looked effortlessly chic in a boat-neck blue and orange patterned midi-dress layered over baggy blue denim jeans. She paired the look with denim flip flops and accessorised with a gold choker, chunky earrings and a bag - wit her hair styled in a 90s-style spiky updo. Meanwhile model Munroe Bergdorf, 37, turned heads in a ruched tan maxi dress featuring balloon-style arms and a pair of metallic stilettos. Comedian Michelle de Swarte, 44, also joined the stars and stepped out in a white button-up shirt and linen trousers, as well as multi-coloured loafers. Clara's product launch comes after she revealed that she 'debated having liposuction ' after 'getting in her own head' about her body image on Tuesday. The presenter candidly discussed her relationship with her body image as she covered the December edition of UK Women's Health. In the accompanying interview, Clara reflected on how she thought her career 'would be different' if she looked a certain way. The broadcaster explained how she 'tries to stop herself' from constantly thinking about her body in an industry that is 'obsessed' with people's appearances. She said: 'If I had done all these things but I existed in a different body, maybe had a looser hair pattern, or if I was a few shades lighter, I wonder if my career would be different, and I wonder if I would get treated better.' 'I'll be so real with you, I was debating having lipo. I won't lie, towards the end of last year – because I got in my head, I had the consultation and everything.' Explained what stopped her, she added: 'I obsessively research things, and I was just looking at all the times when it had gone wrong for people. 'I think I scared myself out of it, to be honest.' In the UK, private liposuction surgery can cost between £2,000 and £6,000. The op, which tends to last a few hours, involves removing unwanted body fat by inserting a tube under the skin and sucking out small areas of fat. After bruising and swelling from the operation has healed, the areas treated visibly shrink. Recovery can take weeks. Graduating with a media arts degree in 2006, Clara joined Kiss FM as a marketing intern in 2007, progressed to stand-in presenter. She then secured a role as drivetime host, leading to BBC Radio 1 Extra in 2013 and her daytime Radio 1 show in 2015.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Fresh twist for Doctor Who as BBC lines up spin-off series after Ncuti Gatwa's exit - and it's worlds away from the original
A Doctor Who spin-off series is in the works and is set to launch on children's channel Cbeebies - targeting a whole new audience. The pre-school animation series will bring the iconic Doctor to screens for a younger viewers. It comes as Doctor Who was hit with changes in recent times after Ncuti sensationally left the show after just two series playing the iconic science fiction character. TV producer Russell T Davies was the chief writer and executive producer of Doctor Who from 2005 to 2010 and returned in 2023. The latest series was produced by Bad Wolf, who have also produced the likes of Dope Girls, Industry, I Hate Suzie and A Discovery Of Witches. However, the BBC are advertising for a new company to create the series. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. A spin-off series of the popular BBC show is in the works and is set to launch on children's channel Cbeebies. Pictured: Ncuti Gatwa It comes as Doctor Who was hit with changes in recent times after Ncuti sensationally left the show after just two series playing the iconic science fiction character 'The BBC is set to expand the Whoniverse as it launches plans for a brand new pre-school animation series which will see the Doctor's adventures come to CBeebies for the first time ever,' the announcement reads. 'The BBC is looking for a passionate production company to create and produce the series, which will run independently from the main show, that will see the Doctor travelling through time and space for the pre-school audience, solving mysteries and problems alongside their companions and other friends. 'And, of course, they may come up against one or two challenges on their way…' BBC boss Patricia Hidalgo described it as an 'exciting opportunity. She said: 'Everyone is welcome at CBeebies, including the Doctor! 'This much-loved franchise entertains millions around the world, so it is only right that our younger audience get to experience the wonder and the magic of the Doctor in a brand new format. 'This is an extremely exciting opportunity, and we are looking forward to welcoming companies to pitch for this new project, as we continue our commitment and investment in the UK's animation industry.' The show will target a much younger audience than the mainline series As a matter of policy, the BBC invites production companies to pitch for new series when they are announced. Their official guidance explains: 'Since 2016 the BBC has been putting all new business out to competition, and tendering a number of returning network television series made by BBC Studios as part of its commitments in the BBC Charter, which sets out that 100% of relevant television content should be open to competition by the end of 2027. 'These opportunities will be open to any independent production company who meet the eligibility criteria, along with BBC Studios. The criteria will vary by programme, depending on the requirements of the show.' It comes after Ncuti's time on Doctor Who came to an end last month when the curtains were drawn on the most recent season. In a statement released by the BBC Ncuti, said: 'This journey has been one that I will never forget, and a role that will be part of me forever. 'There are no words to describe what it feels like to be cast as the Doctor, nor are there words to explain what it feels like to be accepted into this iconic role that has existed for over 60 years and is truly loved by so many across the globe.' 'I'll truly miss it, and forever be grateful to it, and everyone that has played a part in my journey as the Doctor,' he added.
