Frank Skinner confirmed for Doctor Who role

Friday, 16 May 2014 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC today announced that comedian Frank Skinner will be playing a role in the new series of Doctor Who. The Room 101 presenter, who previously cameoed in Peter Davison's 50th Anniversary's tribute The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, is to feature in the episode written by Jamie Mathieson, whose story is in the current filming block directed by Paul Wilmshurst.

Skinner, a long-term fan, said:

I love this show. I subscribe to Dr Who magazine, I've got a TARDIS ringtone, a five-foot cardboard Dalek in my bedroom and when I got the call saying they wanted me to read for the part, I was in the back of my tour bus watching episode three of The Sensorites. I am beyond excited.

Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat commented:

It's no secret that Frank's been pitching vigorously to get into Doctor Who for a while. He's been volunteering to be 'third monster on the left' as long as I've been in this job. But now, in Jamie Mathieson's sparkling script, we finally have a part that can showcase all of Frank's famous wit and charm. Hopefully he'll get out of my garden now.

Mathieson commented on the casting on his blog:

I was a stand up for a living for quite a few years. When I was trying to figure out how to do it in 1996, his first two stand up videos were part of my boot camp, so there is a nice synchronicity for me to be writing lines for him to deliver nearly twenty years later.

The episode will also feature the return of two more 'classic' series guest stars: Janet Henfrey appeared as Mrs Hardaker in the seventh Doctor adventure The Curse of Fenric in 1989; and Christopher Villiers hails back to the fifth Doctor era, appearing as Hugh in 1983's The King's Demons. Other guest stars announced include David Bamber (Rome, What Remains) and Daisy Beaumont (The Armstrong and Miller Show, A Touch of Cloth, You, Me, and Them).