Advertisement

Doctor Who: 11 actors who nearly played The Doctor

The lead role in Doctor Who is arguably the biggest part in British television and whoever is chosen to play the character always causes a storm of debate over their suitability. The show’s producers gave the show its key to eternal life in 1966 when they replaced William Hartnell with Patrick Troughton, through a Time Lord practice called “regeneration”. Jodie Whittaker is the 13th (official) incarnation of the beloved Time Lord, but many actors have narrowly missed landing the role in the past.

Here are eleven performers who came close to holding the sonic screwdriver without actually getting to walk into the TARDIS as an official Doctor. How good do you think they’d have been?

Read more
Bradley Walsh joins Doctor Who as companion
Peter Capaldi on his emotional final episode
The best Doctor Who episodes of the modern era