John Bishop might just be starting off as the newest companion in Doctor Who, but he’s already unsure about his future in the role.
The comedian was recently announced as Jodie Whittaker’s pal on board the TARDIS following the departure of Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole, but with the current Time Lord set to leave at the end of the next series, could he also be facing a premature exit?
John plays Dan Lewis in the upcoming chapter along with Mandip Kaur Gill’s Yaz, who has been there since Jodie’s first episode.
Both companions are expected to depart along with Jodie and showrunner Chris Chibnall, as Russell T Davies prepares to take the reigns once again, meaning John’s Doctor Who career could be over before it’s even begun.
When asked by the Radio Times if he would return to the show, John says he hasn’t got a clue.
‘I think the official line is you say you don’t know,’ he admitted, before going on to insist: ‘I genuinely don’t know.’
John joined Doctor Who at an incredibly strange time – not just for the show, but the world at large.
However, he revealed that had it not been for the pandemic, he may not have been able to take up the role at all.
At the start of 2020, ‘Chris Chibnall approached me and said that he was writing a character and I kept on coming to mind,’ he explained, and said while he was ‘so flattered … it was just impossible’.
‘My stand-up tour was already in progress, I also had another television commitment, and it just wasn’t gonna work out. I regretfully said I couldn’t do it,’ he continued.
But as we are all painfully aware, in early 2020 the world came, essentially, to a stop, and with no stand-up tour to embark on, John ‘asked them if the opportunity was still there’.
‘It was a godsend,’ he admitted.
After a video audition over Zoom, John was invited to Cardiff to step into the Tardis for a chemistry test with Jodie, where, after impressing the Doctor and the producers, he was offered the role of Dan.
Despite not having been in an episode yet, Dan is already turning into a fan favourite, with John describing him as ‘an everyday working man, a little bit down on his luck, a bit unlucky in love’.
John is far from a novice in the entertainment world, but being a part of Doctor Who, with its incredible special effects, is a world away from what he’s used to.
Trying to get to know his co-stars at a time where socialising was actively discouraged was also difficult, he admitted – but says it helped him find his way into Dan’s character in a way that may otherwise have been impossible.
‘The Doctor and Yaz have known each other for years, so Dan’s a bit of an outsider to begin with,’ he explained. ‘In some respects that was like it was on set because Jodie and Mandip already knew each other…’.
He revealed, however, that all three are ‘now genuine friends’.
Doctor Who fans are waiting with baited breath for the return of the Doctor and Yaz, and the introduction to Dan, and they don’t have much longer to wait, with the new series premiering this weekend.
On Monday evening, Whovians were even awarded a sneak peak at John’s character with a brand-new teaser that aired on BBC’s The One Show, and the new companion is already proving hugely popular.
Also on the show, John revealed his video audition for Doctor Who was far from traditional.
He acted out the role in a performance over Zoom on his mobile phone, which he had stuck to the wall with blu-tack.
‘Because I’m not a trained actor I couldn’t learn the lines’, he admitted.
The comedian stuck the script on the wall alongside his phone, and ‘whenever I was thinking of a line I looked mysteriously away so I could read it’!
Doctor Who returns this Sunday, October 31 at 6.25pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
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