The casting
was revealed by BBC News, quoting Skinner as being “beyond excited” at being given the chance to appear in a show that he is a long-time fan of.
He will appear in an episode of Peter Capaldi’s first season of
Doctor Who, which
has been filming since the beginning of January.
In an interview with the BBC,
Skinner said, “I love this show: I subscribe to
Doctor Who Magazine; I’ve got a TARDIS ring tone [and] a five-foot cardboard Dalek in my bedroom.”
The 57-year-old also
revealed, “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.”
The Sensorites is a
Doctor Who serial from 1964 that features
William Hartnell, the actor who made the character of the Doctor a household name.
Since Hartnell’s time in Doctor Who, to date, twelve further actors have played the role on television, including
Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy,
John Hurt and
David Tennant. Capaldi took over from
Matt Smith in 2013’s Christmas special,
The Time of the Doctor.
Skinner entered the world of stand-up in 1987, and made his first TV appearance one year later. Two years on, in 1990, while continuing his stand-up career, he co-wrote and starred in Channel 4’s comedy-variety show,
Packet of Three. For three years, from 1995 to 1998, he presented his own chat show on BBC One.
Acting-wise, he has appeared in the sitcoms,
Blue Heaven and
Shane, both of which he wrote, and as Buttons in an ITV television production of the popular pantomime,
Cinderella.
TARDIS Room 1Who1
On radio, from 2009, Skinner presented Absolute Radio’s
Saturday Morning Breakfast Show and, for BBC Radio 4, wrote and performed the 2011 comedy series,
Don’t Start.
Since 2012, Skinner has presented the BBC’s
Room 101, the TV series in which celebrities are invited to discuss their pet hates with the host and try to persuade him to consign them “a fate worse than death” in Room 101 — named after the torture room in the Ministry of Love described by George Orwell in his novel,
Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell’s Room 101 is itself named after a meeting room in the BBC’s Broadcasting House, where the author once had to sit through tedious meetings.
Speaking to
BBC News about Skinner joining
Doctor Who, the show’s head writer and executive producer,
Steven Moffat, said, “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 […] Hopefully, he’ll get out of my garden now.”
The new season of
Doctor Who, starring
Peter Capaldi (the Doctor),
Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) and
Samuel Anderson (Danny Pink), will be shown later in 2014, as will a Christmas special.
