In a break from rehearsing his new play, State Red, Doctor Who star Samuel Anderson gave CultBox some of his time to answer our questions about the life and death of Danny Pink…
With the character being a teacher and an ex-soldier – and the combination of someone who both cares for children and killed a boy – did you talk to anyone from those backgrounds and did it give you a new appreciation of those people?
“I’ve always felt teachers are underappreciated, they’ve got a very difficult job, and soldiers are put in a very difficult position. I dunno, it’s a tough place to take a political stance on it, like the Doctor, who can’t stand soldiers.
“It’s very easy to take that, but there’s a lot more under the surface that’s going on. I’ve spoken to a few of the guys, soldiers, ex-soldiers, and you forget how young these kids are when they go in. Some of these kids are going in seventeen, eighteen…you can’t really point fingers at kids, they’re kids at the end of the day.
“And they’ve all said, the guys I’ve spoke to, they’ve all said they were young, they didn’t really think about what they were getting into, it just seemed like a good craic with the lads. They wouldn’t do it now. If you asked them now they’d say ‘You must be crazy’.”
I had no idea what I wanted to do at seventeen, certainly.
“No way you would. I mean, my cousin’s just gone in a year or so ago. He’s about twenty-one, and a brother-in-law of mine, they were both a case of not knowing what they wanted to do but knowing they wanted to do something, so it was just like ‘Make a choice there’, you know? I think, especially at that age the last thing you’re thinking about is death, and killing. You’re still invincible.”
And having been through that sets an interesting dynamic. My favourite Danny scene is the one in ‘The Caretaker’ where he’s mocking the Doctor by saluting him.
“He’s seen something in the Doctor that the Doctor hasn’t. He’s so anti-military and yet he’s such a leader, and Danny sees that quality in him because he’s been around it, he’s been around it on a human level at its peak.
“So as funny and smart and dismissive as the Doctor thinks he is, he’s come up against someone who isn’t a pushover and isn’t afraid.”
Last question. I’ve got a friend from Halesowen who would like Doctor Who to visit the Midlands for once. Can you have a word with someone? Can you use any influence?
“I’m from the Midlands, that’s the influence! You can take the boy out, but you can’t take it out of him…a lot of the character is my experiences and Midlands upbringing. It’s not just me, I think there’ve been a couple of Brummies in there.”
There have been, though some were doing RP accents.
“Yeah yeah yeah. But you know, I mean…I’ll fly the flag. The show’s about a guy who travels through the whole of time and space, it’s set in London and filmed in Wales, but y’know…the universe is a big place.
“They can always film something at the Black Country Museum! Tell your friend I will try, but they won’t tell me what’s happening til the morning. I just get picked up and have to ask the driver.”
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Season 8 concludes at 8pm on Saturday 8 November on BBC One with ‘Death in Heaven’.
> Order Season 8 on DVD on Amazon.
> Order Season 8 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
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