Sacha Dhawan and Mandip Gill share photos and stories from SpyFall filming

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In coordination with BBC America, Mandip Gill and Sacha Dhawan decided to simultaneously watch the two Doctor Who Series 12 episodes that make up Spyfall while tweeting with the #SpyMaster hashtag.

The shared many behind-the-scenes photos and stories in their tweets. Here are some of the highlights:



This last scene in Spyfall, Part Two where the Master reveals that he is the one responsible for the destruction of Gallifrey has a story behind it which Sacha Dhawan shared on the Rule Not The Exception podcast.

Dhawan describes it as a particularly difficult scene for him because he had to memorize a three-minute monologue.

“In the script there was this huge monologue that I have. My time doing it was three minutes. That’s quite a lot of dialogue. But it was written as a voice-over. So I thought, ‘Maybe do I have to learn this?’ And I remember asking production and no-one got back to me.”

Fortunately, Jodie Whittaker had his back.

“But, as I’m going to Cardiff to film, I get a call from the AD saying, ‘you know that voice-over, we’re filming it tomorrow.’ And I said, ‘I asked if this was going to be a voice-over,’ and they went ‘oh, you’ll be fine. The director said you can just have the script by your side if you want while you film a bit and we might not even use all of it.’ And I said, ‘I don’t work like that – I need to…’ I felt a bit of a diva and I was like, ‘I just can’t. I tried to do some of it.’ So I ring up Jodie and I said, ‘Jodie, am I being a bit of a diva here about not knowing this?’ and she said, ‘Leave it with me.’ And the fact that she answered my call, when she’s got a kid as well and she cares about my happiness, really meant a lot for starters. But basically, when we went on set that day, she made sure that scene was not filmed to allow me the time to [learn] it. And I have so much respect because, with the amount she’s got going on, she doesn’t have to do that.”

Dhawan made a mental note to follow Whittaker’s lead.

“To see what she delivers on screen, which is amazing but, just going out of [her] way – I really took a note, and if I ever get into the position where I am number one or an executive producer of some sort, to really take on that responsibility… And I hope and pray for the day that I’m able to do a job were I’m executive producer and the majority of the people behind the camera and in front of the camera are like me. I will take real joy in looking after everybody, and this is very important.”

I think we can all thank Jodie Whittaker for setting the tone and aiding Sacha Dhawan in his brilliant performance.