Samuel West on his “finest moment” replacing Ian McKellen in Doctor Who charity special

West played Cyrian, the assistant to Kate O'Mara's The Rani and a role initially meant for Sir Ian McKellen (hence the character's name).

Speaking to RadioTimes.com to mark his upcoming appearance in the Big Finish series Dark Gallifrey, West recalled: "I got to say ‘30 seconds to computer achieving full power status’ which is still my finest moment, the finest point of my career I think.

"I was very touched. I said, to my agent, who has since retired, ‘Look, I've played Hamlet, I can juggle five balls, I've read the shipping forecast, I only have one professional ambition left and that's to be in Doctor Who but Doctor Who is ending and I haven't been in it,' and she said, 'Okay, leave it with me.’

"And she called me back about a week later saying, 'They're doing an episode for Children in Need and I've got you a job as Kate O’Mara’s assistant. The catch is it was originally offered to Sir Ian McKellen, who turned it down. So he's called Cyrian.'

"At the time, I thought that was it. Since then, of course it's come back and [is] better than ever, and I'm looking forward to one day being in New Who, I hope."

West has since gone on to play the iconic villain Morbius in the Big Finish audio adventures, a character first played on screen by Stuart Fell and Michael Spice, and he'll reprise the role in the upcoming series Dark Gallifrey.

Speaking about what it's like to return to the role, West said: "He's indestructible. He plays fast and loose with other people's bodies and minds. So every time you think he's finished off he inhabits somebody else and takes strength from them in some new and innovative way. I like the fact that it's hard to keep a bad Time Lord down."

He added of what the character's got in store: "There's some very nasty stuff up his sleeve.

"I like the fact that he's written with a certain amount of backstory. He's thought to be of bad blood, he was mistreated as a child, if you were if you were playing him on stage and had lots of time for rehearsal, you'd find things that made him who he was.

"But he's also sociopathic and pulls the wings off flies and has had feeling beaten out of him to the to the extent that he needs to see other people suffer to feel anything, so he's a nasty piece of work!"

Big Finish's new series Dark Gallifrey will begin in April 2024 with its first story, Morbius. Doctor Who will return in May on BBC One.

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