With less than a week to go before the new series of BBC Wales’ Dr Who, here are 10 things you may or not know about the series:
First Doctor – William Hartnell (1963–1966)
William trained as a jockey before deciding to ditch it in favour of acting.
Second Doctor – Patrick Troughton (1966–1969)
Patrick commanded a gunboat in the Second World War.
Third Doctor – Jon Pertwee (1970–1974)
When serving in the navy, Jon woke up one morning to find he’d had a tattoo done the night before!
Fourth Doctor – Tom Baker (1974–1981)
Tom appeared in cartoon form in The Simpsons.
Fifth Doctor – Peter Davison (1981–1984)
At the time, Davison was the youngest actor to play the role, aged 29. When he revisited it for Time Crash (2007), he was 56, the same age that William Hartnell was when he took up the role in 1963.
Sixth Doctor – Colin Baker (1984–1986)
Colin had previously appeared in the series as a different character who had shot the Fifth Doctor.
Seventh Doctor – Sylvester McCoy (1987–1989, 1996)
Before becoming an actor, Sylvester considered working in either insurance or the priesthood.
Eighth Doctor – Paul McGann (1996)
McCann beat his brother, Mark, to the role.
Ninth Doctor – Christopher Eccleston (2005)
Christopher met his successor, David Tennant, whilst shooting the movie Jude (1996). Eccleston played the lead role and Tennant had a bit part as a drunk student who taunted him.
Tenth Doctor – David Tennant (2005–2010)
David found out he was the new Doctor whilst rehearsing for the live TV broadcast of The Quatermass Experiment (2005). Head over heels with excitement, he nearly went… well, head over heels live on air as he ran across the set!
Eleventh Doctor – Matt Smith (2010)
Matt wanted to be a professional footballer and played for Northampton Town Under-11 & 12s, Nottingham Forest Under-12, 13 & 14s and Leicester City Under-15 & 16s before a back injury forced him out of the game.
