At the weekend, Doctor Who attempted to pull off the holy grail of a surprise regeneration, with Billie Piper appearing to step into the shoes of the departing 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa in a move that, unless you are constantly online in the fandom rumour mills, would have come as a shock. Gatwa’s exit gives him one of the shortest ever tenures in a role that has been a fixture of British television for more than six decades.
Fresh from making waves in Sex Education, 32-year-old Gatwa is young and beautiful in a way that the Doctor has not always been. His incarnation of the Time Lord delivered scenes it is hard to imagine most of the other actors inhabiting – whether that was him clubbing, pulling off a 1960s dance number, using a glitter cannon to fly through space, or saying “babes” a lot.
