David Bradley to guest star in Doctor Who

David Bradley, RSC member, is to star in the forthcoming series of long-running BBC sci-fi TV show Doctor Who. Of course, unfortunately it’s not this David Bradley nor is it that RSC that are involved. The less well-known David Bradley, who plays the caretaker or something in some movie about a boy wizard and is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company is set to get another Doctorate when he appears in series/season 7 of the show. Apparently, that David Bradley cut his teeth in the franchise as the voice of the vulturine Shansheeth character in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor.

Thanks to Jen Gristock for alerting me to this marvellous news. Other guest stars in the new series will include Rupert Graves, well known as Detective Inspector Lestrade in Steven Moffat’s other show Sherlock (Doctor Who is basically Sherlock with a sonic screwdriver, Tardis and alien nasties, and Prof Moriarty simply becomes The Master). Mark Williams (of Fast Show fame who also plays alongside Bradley in the Harry Potter movies as Arthur Weasley and was recently a vampire historian in Being Human).

Intriguingly, the original Paget illustration of Moriarty bears an uncanny resemblance to that David Bradley…and if he wore reading glasses, probably to me too…