Wadia (41), a star of the BBC’s long-running soap
EastEnders and the hit film
Bend It Like Beckham plays a battleaxe named Zainab Masood in the soap, but in
Doctor Who she will portray an evil psychiatric expert, playing alongside new Doctor, Matt Smith, who has just taken over from tenth Doctor David Tennant.
Wadia’s sharp-tongued
EastEnders character is at war with her gay son Syed, whom she
forced into marrying Amira Shah, played by Preeya Kalidas. Syed (played by Marc Elliott) has been in a relationship with another character called Christian Clarke (John Partridge). The episode in which they featured their first kiss was fiercely criticised, mainly on religious grounds because the character of Syed is a Muslim.
According to the tabloid
Sun,
Wadia said of her
Who role: “It was brilliant to be let out [of
EastEnders] for a couple of days to do something else and it was great working with Matt Smith.
“I play a bit of a baddie. And yes, like my
EastEnders character Zainab, she’s not a very pleasant woman – but at least I’m human and not some kind of strange alien life-form. I play a doctor – more of a psychiatric doctor than a traditional medical one.”
Indian-born Wadia gained fame in the BBC comedy
Goodness Gracious Me, and has been playing the strong-willed postmistress in
EastEnders since 2007.
Wadia follows her j
Goodness Gracious Me colleague Meera Syal into the long-running sci-fi series. Syal
confirmed last November that she would be joining
Doctor Who in the 2010 series.
