Apparently, Russell T Davies, the man once judged 'the wrong sort of gay for scifi' and reviver of the Doctor Who TV series, has suggested who he would like to play the Eleventh Doctor after David Tennant leaves. RTD, who has just passed the exec producer baton onto Steven Moffat (an incredible writer, responsible for delights such as "The Empty Child" and "Blink") has suggested this man:




Russell Tovey.

You may never have heard of or seen him. For me, I could never forget his brilliant performance as Rudge in the innumerable incarnations of Alan Bennett's The History Boys (the immortal line to Frances Delatour, "History, miss? It's just one fuckin' thing after another."), producer Ben in Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, Tintin on the West End (give the guy some credit) and the smaller part of valiant Midshipman Frame in the Christmas special of Doctor Who, "Voyage of the Damned" (yes, the one with Kylie in it... *sigh*).

I'd love him to play the part - great actor, young, regional accent and so forth ("Lots of planets have a North..."), but I highly doubt he'll get cast. Why?

The great British public won't like a gay Doctor.

We'll all sit down for a couple of weeks and enjoy his adventures, and after a few episodes, lots of little kids will say, "I want to be like the Doctor!". Then they'll see a photo of Russell Tovey and his boyfriend together and start asking questions. In will flood the letters of complaint.



Sigh.

V.