With a huge 2016 ahead of him, let’s celebrate some of Matt Smith’s best roles beyond the TARDIS…
Bert and Dickie (2012)
Retitled Going for Gold in the US, Bert and Dickie was made as part of the BBC’s 2012 Olympic season.
Smith plays working class lad Bert Bushnell who was recruited to become half of Double Skulls rowing pair in the 1948 competition and went on to take the top medal, overcoming food rations, class struggles and a mere five weeks of training.
Party Animals (2007)
Made by the team behind Line of Duty – as well as classics such as Ultraviolet, Cardiac Arrest and This Life – the setting for Party Animals is the political world of Westminster. The show follows the young researchers and political hopefuls who struggle to support their MPs while balancing the pressures of life in their early twenties.
An incredibly young Matt Smith plays Danny Foster, one of the team who works for a Labour minister. As well as dealing with his politically ambitious brother Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch), with whom there is a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, he also has to cope with bearing a torch for his colleague Kirsty (Andrea Riseborough). Together they meet the demands of keeping MP Jo Porter (Raquel Cassidy) on message and in the headlines for the right reasons.
Although the political landscape has changed wildly since it made, Party Animals is an absorbing series. Sadly, it failed to score high enough ratings and did not gain a second season.
What’s your favourite Matt Smith role? Let us know below…