Latest news with #NcutiGatwa
South Wales Argus
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- South Wales Argus
Danny Dyer wants to play the next Doctor Who with a twist
The actor, known for roles in EastEnders and Rivals, discussed his hopes for the role, sharing that he would like to put a "working class" twist on the BBC sci-fi show. It comes after it was confirmed that Ncuti Gatwa would be stepping away from Doctor Who, with Billie Piper expected to take on the role. But Dyer hopes that one day he might get the chance to step into the TARDIS. Danny Dyer wants to be the next Doctor Who Speaking to The Mirror about Doctor Who, Dyer said: "It's such an iconic thing to do. It's almost – not on the same level – like James Bond. It's a character that's loved by so many. "It gives you an opportunity with Doctor Who, because of the nature of the work, to bring something left-field, something a bit mental, a bit stylised, which I love. I love the idea of it." Sharing what his doctor would be like, Dyer said: "Well, he would be an incredibly working-class Dr Who. "Yeah, maybe a bit alpha. What I do, really. You've hired me for a reason - I don't think you'd want me to come in and play Doctor Who, you know, really posh." Recommended Reading Dyer added that maybe Doctor Who needs a bit of change with a working-class approach: "I don't think we've ever had a working-class Doctor Who, have we? Well, Jodie Whittaker, she brought a bit of that to it." Despite his hope, Dyer said that he has never been approached to play the role, sharing: "I'll be honest, no one's ever approached me about it. "But I see things now and again, my odds have been slashed to this, that and the other - it's definitely something I would consider."
Glasgow Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Danny Dyer wants to play the next Doctor Who with a twist
The actor, known for roles in EastEnders and Rivals, discussed his hopes for the role, sharing that he would like to put a "working class" twist on the BBC sci-fi show. It comes after it was confirmed that Ncuti Gatwa would be stepping away from Doctor Who, with Billie Piper expected to take on the role. But Dyer hopes that one day he might get the chance to step into the TARDIS. Danny Dyer wants to be the next Doctor Who Speaking to The Mirror about Doctor Who, Dyer said: "It's such an iconic thing to do. It's almost – not on the same level – like James Bond. It's a character that's loved by so many. "It gives you an opportunity with Doctor Who, because of the nature of the work, to bring something left-field, something a bit mental, a bit stylised, which I love. I love the idea of it." Sharing what his doctor would be like, Dyer said: "Well, he would be an incredibly working-class Dr Who. "Yeah, maybe a bit alpha. What I do, really. You've hired me for a reason - I don't think you'd want me to come in and play Doctor Who, you know, really posh." Recommended Reading Dyer added that maybe Doctor Who needs a bit of change with a working-class approach: "I don't think we've ever had a working-class Doctor Who, have we? Well, Jodie Whittaker, she brought a bit of that to it." Despite his hope, Dyer said that he has never been approached to play the role, sharing: "I'll be honest, no one's ever approached me about it. "But I see things now and again, my odds have been slashed to this, that and the other - it's definitely something I would consider."
Metro
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Doctor Who legend takes swipe at 'grumpy old fans' of BBC series
Doctor Who's Mark Gatiss has told disgruntled viewers of the long-running BBC sci-fi series that 'it's not for you anymore'. The 58-year-old Sherlock co-creator has contributed to the show in more ways than one, penning nine episodes and guest-starring as various characters across Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat's eras of the show. As well as being the mastermind behind episodes such as The Unquiet Dead, Victory of the Daleks and Robot of Sherwood, he also played Richard Lazarus in season three's The Lazarus Experiment and the Captain in 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon a Time. In a new interview, the acclaimed screenwriter has defended the show from backlash in recent years from certain fans who have claimed it has declined in quality since Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa's tenures as the titular Time Lord. 'As much as I love old stuff, the job of the show constantly is to regenerate itself,' Gatiss told the Radio Times. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. He continued: 'And sometimes when I meet grumpy old Doctor Who fans, you think, 'You've just fallen into the same space time trap, that it's not as good as it used to be, because it's not for you anymore.' If you still like it, that's great. It's great, but it's not for you.' The creative believes that the show's primary audience will always be younger, explaining that his 2014 Peter Capaldi episode (Robot of Sherwood episode) featured a scene where the Doctor and Robin Hood fight with spoons. When he attended a friend's wedding shortly after, he saw two children fighting with spoons and thought 'that's job done'. He warned about the pitfalls of nostalgia: 'It's a strange thing, because I've revived so many things, but I think nostalgia is a great enemy, and we have to all be careful of it. 'It's part of the reason we're in the mess we are, I think – weaponised nostalgia,' calling it a 'dangerous' path to go down. ''Nothing's as good as it used to be,' and yet people can't see that people have always thought that, even when it used to be better. It's a dangerous thing,' he concluded. Some fans have accused the show of relying too much on nostalgia in recent years, from bringing David Tennant and Catherine Tate back for the 60th anniversary to Billie Piper's shock return in the latest season finale. More Trending Former Doctor Peter Davison (and David Tennant's father-in-law) called it a 'completely mad idea' that he couldn't quite wrap his head around. Meanwhile, the future of the show since Ncuti Gatwa's exit as the 15th Doctor remains up in the air as we wait to see if Disney Plus will renew its deal for more seasons. In a recent chat with Deadline, BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell remained optimistic about the show returning, saying: '[BBC Studios is] really committed to Doctor Who and is continuing to look at ways in which we can bring the show to fans.' View More » Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: MasterChef's John Torode reportedly used 'worst racial slur there is' before sacking MORE: BBC confirms Two Doors Down is returning 2 years after show was cancelled MORE: Why is EastEnders not on tonight? Latest news on today's episode
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Doctor Who Just Landed Its First Emmy Nomination Ever – But Not For The Reason You Think
There's a whole host of TV gems that have been recognised in this year's Emmy nominations, but it's Doctor Who that might just be the biggest curveball. And that's not because it isn't a great show in its own right, but rather, because of the surprising category it's been recognised in. The beloved BBC sci-fi series was announced among shows like The White Lotus, Severance and The Last of Us when the 77th Primetime Emmys nominations were revealed on Tuesday, making it Doctor Who's first ever nod at the prestigious awards in the 62 years since it first aired. But it wasn't the acting, directing or even styling that landed the show such recognition – no, it was for the razzle dazzle. Choreographer Jack Murphy has been nominated in the Outstanding Choreography For Scripted Programming category for the routine There's Always A Twist from the season 14 episode The Devil's Chord. The big production moment showcases Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor and his companion Ruby (played by Millie Gibson) breaking out into a huge '60s-style dance number after meeting The Beatles. The scene also features brief cameos from Strictly Come Dancing stars Shirley Ballas and Johannes Radebe. And choreographer Jack is actually nominated more than once in the same category, having also been recognised for his work in Bridgerton. The category is completed by nods for ballet show Étoile, police procedural drama Will Trent and, of course, the spectacular choreography and merriment sequence in the second season of Severance. The Emmy Awards will take place on 14 September this year at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The announcement comes after Barbie star Ncuti recently opened up about why he left Doctor Who and whether he would ever return, having departed after just two seasons. 'I'm getting old and my body was tired,' the 32-year-old explained in a recent BBC interview. 'I've now just started doing some ballet, so I'm making some good decisions here.' Related... Is Ncuti Gatwa Done With Doctor Who? His 3-Word Reply Says It All The 2025 Primetime Emmy Nominations Are Here: Read The Complete List Ryan Gosling Totally Made Ncuti Gatwa Melt While Making Barbie
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why every Doctor Who actor has left the BBC series
Doctor Who is one of the most iconic roles in British television, a coveted part passed from actor to actor with great pomp and ceremony. So when one of them decides to leave, it's always a great shock, and audiences wonder why they're going. Ncuti Gatwa is the most recent star to portray the Time Lord, leaving after just 18 months in the role and with two series under his belt. He is the actor with the second shortest stint of the Modern Who era, coming after Christopher Eccleston, who departed the BBC show after one series. The star, who also appeared in the Barbie movie, has now revealed exactly why he left the series so early, and he is not the only person to have done so over the years. Here is what every star who has played The Doctor has said about their reasons for leaving. During an appearance on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on 13 July, Gatwa explained his reason for leaving the series, citing that it "took a lot out" of him and he was "getting old". The actor joined the show in November 2023 in the show's 60th Anniversary specials and starred in two series and Christmas specials before bidding farewell. When asked why he left, the 32-year-old actor said: "Because I'm getting old. My body was tired. It's the most amazing job in the world. It's a job that any actor would dream of, and because it's so good, it's strenuous. "It takes a lot out of you, physically, emotionally, mentally. So, it was time." Despite his departure from the show, the actor teased that he would return to the role when the time was right, telling Kuenssberg, "Never say never" when asked directly about a future cameo. Whittaker joined the BBC series alongside showrunner Chris Chibnall, and the pair revealed they had made a deal when they first started working together that they would stay together until the end, meaning they would also leave at the same time when they felt it was right. Whittaker announced her departure from the show in 2021, sharing a statement: "I cannot thank Chris enough for entrusting me with his incredible stories. We knew that we wanted to ride this wave side by side, and pass on the baton together. "So here we are, weeks away from wrapping on the best job I have ever had. I don't think I'll ever be able to express what this role has given me. I will carry the Doctor and the lessons I've learnt forever. I know change can be scary, and none of us know what's out there. That's why we keep looking. Travel hopefully. The universe will surprise you. Constantly." Chibnall also reiterated that the deal was the reason behind his and Whittaker's departure: "Jodie and I made a 'three series and out' pact with each other at the start of this once-in-a-lifetime blast. So now our shift is done, and we're handing back the Tardis keys." Peter Capaldi portrayed The Doctor for four years, appearing in three series and several specials during this time. The actor is famously a super fan of the show, having even sent fan letters as a child to the BBC, and so getting to portray the character felt like the chance of a lifetime. But there came a point where he knew it was "the right time to move on" because of the impact it had on him and the time he had dedicated to it. Speaking with the Courier Mail in 2018, he said: "Doctor Who is a great show and experience, but to be at the centre of that brand is a lot of work. There's a lot more than just acting. "It was hard to maintain that level of commitment with that schedule any longer. I tried my best to make the Doctor come alive." The actor added that he "stopped being anything" for four years and needed rest after such a huge undertaking. In an interview with Radio Times in 2017, he said: "I love this show, but I've never done anything where you turn up every day for 10 months," he explained. "I want to always be giving it my best, and I don't think if I stayed on, I'd be able to do that." Matt Smith also played The Doctor for four years, departing after the 50th anniversary special and Christmas specials in 2013. Since leaving the BBC show, the actor has not stopped working, starring in critically-acclaimed projects like House of the Dragon, Last Night in Soho and The Crown. Ahead of his departure, Smith told The Hollywood Reporter that playing The Doctor is a huge undertaking and it felt like the perfect time to leave: "It's a very intense process to play the Doctor. The line-learning is really hard, and you have to live away from home for nine or 10 months a year. I love the show, and it wasn't an easy choice to come to, but it's the right time for both of us." However, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, via Female First, the actor admitted he considered doing another series but ultimately changed his mind: "I'd have very happily done another year. It's a wonderful show. But I think you gotta go when you gotta go, and for me, it just felt like the right time to move on." When David Tennant took the role of The Doctor in 2005, it was the opportunity of a lifetime, as a longtime fan of the series, the actor was beside himself with delight. He quickly became a firm favourite for viewers, and regularly tops lists as the best Doctor. Tennant initially left the role in 2010, after more than four years as The Doctor, and he told the BBC that he ultimately chose to do so in order not to "outstay [his] welcome". He explained: "It would be very easy to cling on to the Tardis console forever and I fear that if I don't take a deep breath and make the decision to move on now, then I simply never will. You would be prising the Tardis key out of my cold, dead hand. This show has been so special to me, I don't want to outstay my welcome." Tennant has since returned to the role on a handful of occasions, appearing in the 50th anniversary special with Smith and then portraying the Fourteenth Doctor for the 60th anniversary episodes that were released ahead of Gatwa's introduction into the series. Of the Modern Who era, it is Christopher Eccleston who holds the shortest stint as The Doctor as he left in 2005 after just one series in the role. The actor departed after facing creative difficulties with showrunner Russell T Davies. At the time the BBC falsely claimed the actor left to avoid being "typecast", a statement they have since rescinded, while Eccleston has become increasingly candid over the years regarding his reason for leaving the role and the backlash he faced. The actor explained he had issues with how the show was run behind the scenes. In a panel appearance at New York Comic Con in 2019, he explained: "I left because my relationship with the showrunner and producer broke down, I left only because of those three individuals and the way they were running the show. I loved playing the character, and I loved the world... and I felt, 'I'm going to play the Doctor my way and I'm not going to get involved in these politics.' And that wasn't workable, so off I went." He also told Radio Times in 2018 that he couldn't in good conscience stay on the series because of the struggles he had behind the scenes: 'My relationship with my three immediate superiors – the showrunner, the producer and co-producer – broke down irreparably during the first block of filming and it never recovered. They lost trust in me, and I lost faith and trust and belief in them." In an interview with The Guardian in 2018 Eccleston revealed that he was blacklisted by the BBC as a result of leaving Doctor Who: "What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career. I gave them a hit show, and I left with dignity, and then they put me on a blacklist. "I was carrying my own insecurities as it was something I had never done before and then I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted. I was told by my agent at the time: 'The BBC regime is against you. You're going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change.'" Eccleston has been asked to return to the show, such as for the 50th anniversary special, but has declined. His animosity toward Davies and the show's producers continues, because as recently as 2023 he said at For The Love of Sci Fi convention that he would only return to the show on one condition: "Sack Russell T Davies. Sack Jane Tranter. Sack Phil Collinson. Sack Julie Gardner. And I'll come back. So can you arrange that?" He added: "I love being associated, just don't like being associated with those people and the politics that went on in the first series. The first series was a mess, and it wasn't to do with me or Billie [Piper], it was to do with the people who were supposed to make it, and it was a mess." Between the Classic and Modern Who eras on TV was a TV movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, which aired in 1996. Doctor Who had been cancelled by the BBC due to dwindling ratings, and the TV movie was a bid to try and breathe new life into the franchise. Ultimately, it didn't work, and so McGann's appearance as the Doctor was a one-and-done occurrence. In 2013, McGann reprised the role for the show's 50th anniversary, appearing in an online-only min-episode called The Night of the Doctor. He also appeared briefly in 2022's The Power of the Doctor as one of the 'Guardians of the Edge'. The Classic Who era ended in 1989 with Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, after he portrayed the character across three series. McCoy's departure from the show was not his own making; the BBC decided to cancel Doctor Who after audience numbers reduced to the point where it was no longer feasible to keep going. Ironically, the cancellation came after McCoy had agreed to make a fourth season of the show. "The plans were afoot [for a fourth season]," McCoy told RadioTimes. "We were going to carry on with the mystery, drop hints that the Doctor was more than just the Doctor, a more powerful kind of being - not a being, really, an alien, whatever he is! That was the kind of idea. We never achieved that because of what happened." Colin Baker took over the role of The Doctor in 1984, and he portrayed the character for almost three years as the sixth iteration of the character. The actor is an exception to his cohort because he didn't leave the role of The Doctor, he was fired. Baker was dropped from the series due to dwindling ratings. Baker refused to return to film a regeneration scene for incoming actor Sylvester McCoy, and in 2019 he said at a BFI screening that he regretted the decision because he forgot about the fans. Per Radio Times, he said: "I was being brutally selfish at the time and I just felt annoyed. Because I loved that part... and I thought I had more to offer." In a chat with the BBC in 2013, Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison revealed that he was advised to only stay on the BBC show for three seasons by Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor. "I had to make the decision absurdly early," Davison explained. "It was at the end of my second season. The producer asked about staying beyond a third year, and I said I would call it a day because that had been my plan, as suggested by Patrick Troughton. 'Do three and get out,' he said. "I stuck with that. I had a chance to change my mind, but I thought that would be chickening out, and there were other things I wanted to do." The actor to have the longest stint as the Time Lord is Tom Baker, who portrayed the character for seven years and left the role in 1981. In an interview with Digital Spy, the actor revealed that his reason for leaving the show was ultimately because of the difficult relationship he had with John Nathan-Turner, the producer of his third and final era in the role. "I didn't like his approach to anything very much," Baker said. "His approach as a producer, to the scripts and to my managed somehow — how terrible — to diminish me. He made assumptions about how I should do things, or what lines meant, or how it should be shot, which diminished me, and I found that unbearable." Ultimately, Baker has since come to the conclusion that it was a good thing because the producer "nudged me toward the realisation [that Doctor Who] had run its course and I should go somewhere else. I think, in a way, when I said when I wanted to go, he was relieved, that he wouldn't have to have that fight". The third iteration of The Doctor was portrayed by Jon Pertwee, who played the character between 1970 and 1974. He ultimately left the role after his costar Roger Delgado, who played The Master, died in a car accident, and Pertwee didn't want to act with anyone else in that role. The departures of show producer Barry Letts and his onscreen companion Katy Manning also led him to that decision because it felt like the "end of an era". As mentioned, Troughton previously advised Davison that he should only stay in the role of The Doctor for three series, and this was something the actor did himself. He ultimately left because of the gruelling filming schedule for the show, and because he didn't want to be typecast after staying in the part for too long. The very first Doctor was portrayed by William Hartnell from November 1963 to October 1966, putting the character on the map and creating an icon for the BBC. Hartnell left the role after almost three years because of his deteriorating health, which made learning lines more difficult for him. It was decided during his tenure that, because the Doctor is an alien, he would be able to regenerate, thus allowing the lead role to be recast and the series to continue. Hartnell is the one who suggested his successor, Troughton. Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
