Mark Gatiss Interviewed

Mark Gatiss shot to fame in the legendary show The League Of Gentlemen and is a celebrated actor, author and comedian. But in recent times his world has been colliding with that of a certain Gallifreyan time-traveller known as The Doctor.

Having written spooky first season episode 'The Unquiet Dead' and last year's face-thieving romp 'The Idiot's Lantern', Gatiss is now heading in front of the cameras as a sinister scientist in the latest story 'The Lazarus Experiment'. Before you know it he'll be singing the Doctor Who theme tune as well. We caught up with the ubiquitous, multi-talented man for a chat about his latest Whovian endeavour...

You're known for being a dyed-in-the-wool Doctor Who fan. How did it feel to appear on the show?
"It was beyond exciting. I didn't know what to do. I didn't sleep at all the day I got the call. I thought, 'This is exactly how I imagined it would always be'. I was so excited - I couldn't stop thinking about it. Thank God, it's everything I hoped for: a brilliant part, great script, a proper meaty baddie role, so I was just delighted."

How gruelling was the make up process to turn you into a 76-year-old man?
"Yeah, it's a prosthetic mask that Neill Gorton did. It's amazing - this is not just actor's w**k, believe me - but it changes everything: the way you sit, the way you move. Honestly, I found myself reaching for a cup of tea in the make up chair and I was slightly delicate. When you see yourself like that, it changes everything. I weakened my voice and watched how old people move. My key contribution - apart from dandruff, I was very keen they put than on my tuxedo - old people, no matter how spruce they are, always have bits of skin falling off! I insisted on having dulled eyes, because bright eyes always give it away. So they made me these slightly rheumatoid, blind eyes. They take the shine off. It made a hell of a difference."

You've written for the show in the past as well. Do you find that being involved behind the scenes detracts from your enjoyment of the show when you watch it?
"No, I mean, obviously it's a thrill to watch your own show be made. I was just saying to someone else who was trying to get tidbits out of me for the rest of the season, but I honestly don't know - I always try not to know. I mean, if you're writing episode seven, it's always useful to watch the previous six to see where it's going, but at the same time, I really like not knowing very much. I know very little about how the rest of this season pans out, and I love that. It's like being a kid again - you watch each episode as it comes. It's very exciting that way."

Is it true you're writing an episode for the fourth season?
"I don't know. I do hope so, it's up to them if they want it! If they do, it's theirs."

Have you received one of Russell T Davies' legendary storyline shopping lists?
"Sort of. They've shrunk over the three years."

Can you give us any hints as to what might have been on there?
"Oh, I can't tell you, it would give everything away. But then things always change - you start out with a particular template and my last one, they wanted a rock and roll '50s one, and it became about the Coronation and became five years too early for rock and roll, became quite austere, almost post-war. It totally changes the whole feel of things. But if they liked that idea you'd go with that, really."

The BBC's faced criticism for moving the show's timeslot around. Do you think it's now on too early in the evening?
"Well, it wouldn't be if we didn't have global warming. I have to say, hand on heart, if I could change anything, it would be that this show was filming later in the year and going out in the winter in the kind of Robin Hood slot where it belongs. But having said that, the fact it's getting these amazing ratings in the heatwaves, then, is fantastic. My episode this week will get no viewers at all. There's something wintery about Doctor Who - when the Christmas specials are on, it just feels so right, doesn't it. But also, that's about the mechanics of television. If you're casting The Doctor, you might have someone you definitely, definitely want to do it, and then they're not available for two years. It just changes, you know. Similarly, in order for the programme to come back when it did, it had to be like this. Now it's in a cycle of production which you'd have to break in order to change it."

If you could bring back one classic baddie, who would it be?
"Mm, well, you know, I love the fact that the Macra came back the other week. It was such a thrill, I felt like a child, it was like 'F**k, it's forty years on'! Brilliant. I really like the fact that they're being quite careful with that. The Macra's not like a big baddie - obviously the Daleks and Cybermen need to come back and I would like the Ice Warriors. I think, for myself, I'd most like the Yeti to come back."

Perhaps you could write that one?
"Russell, I'd like to write the Yeti story. There! I would. I think the two stories they were in are both absolute classics. Even though they're slightly cuddly, I just think they're a brilliant idea, the whole thing with the Great Intelligence. You can do this thing now - the second one was set on the Tube, and it's a brilliant setting, the London Underground, and that was forty years ago. You could do it again. You're doing it for a new audience, it's not about thinking 'oh, we can't possibly do that'. The first episode of the new series was obviously the Autons coming through the shop windows - that's one of Doctor Who's greatest hits, but you can do it again for a new audience."

If Russell were - heaven forbid - ever to step down as the show's supremo, would you be interested in taking over?
"Oh, I can't say that. I don't think so."

Would it be too much pressure?
"It's not so much that, I worship the programme - I've given most of my life to it and several pints of my blood! It's really a very good thing to be slightly more detached and just to contribute as I am with a script and appearing in it like that. I couldn't be happier. It's such an extraordinary response and for Russell to have pulled it off so brilliantly...who would have thought a couple of years ago? And it's more popular than it's ever been, that's the most amazing thing."

Have you been surprised by the scale of the show's success since it came back?
"I always used to say that the way to do it would be for someone to have faith in it, to have a vision but fundamentally to make it a new programme for a new audience and this is exactly what Russell's done. The kids, they might be finding out now about old Doctors, but to them it's their show. The Doctor's their Doctor, the Daleks are their Daleks, each monster's their monster. The idea that in twenty years time someone might say - 'do you remember that one with the old lady and the ghosts' or something like that ... that's the best thing. I would have that on my tombstone. Although it would have to be quite a big tombstone, wouldn't it?"

'The Lazarus Experiment' will be shown on BBC One on Saturday, May 5 at 7pm