The actor playing the new Doctor Who has spoken about feeling “ready but nervous” for his new role.
Ncuti Gatwa auditioned for the part in February 2022 and was unveiled to the world by showrunner Russell T Davies two months later.
In an exclusive interview with the Big Issue magazine, Gatwa said: “It’s felt like I’ve been the Doctor and also had to hold off from being the Doctor for most of the last two years.
“So how do I feel about people seeing it? I feel ready. But I’m sooooo nervous.”
Gatwa said it was exciting to have David Tennant and Catherine Tate back for some special episodes, adding: “A nice little lead-in for me! It feels like it’s come full circle – because David was my Doctor and such a great inspiration to me as an actor.
“I would have been 13 – a pivotal time. And firstly, he’s Scottish. Plus he was so charismatic and fun – I mean all the Doctors have been fun, all the way back.
“Well, I don’t know if you can say that about William Hartnell. Maybe he wasn’t fun. But David had such a Scottish almost feral-ness to him, which is what I liked. I felt an affinity to that. So for him, of all people, to be handing the baton over – it just feels really surreal.”
In 2020, Gatwa revealed in an interview with the Big Issue about his experiences of becoming part of the hidden homeless crisis while sofa-surfing as a jobbing actor.
The Sex Education star said then: “A majority of people are one bad incident or one bad pay cheque away from a really drastic situation. I don’t know if this is the right thing to say to the Big Issue, but to this day I still wake up and check my bank balance and that there’s food in my fridge.
“And that’s because of that brief period where I was struggling. I feel good that I spoke about it.
“Because it can happen to anyone and can be extremely difficult to get out of. There’s just so much judgment towards people who are homeless.”
The Big Issue is out on Monday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here