Ocover story this issue marks a sad and thankfully rare event: the death of a Doctor.
John Hurt, of course, came to Doctor Who relatively late in his career, and in rather unusual circumstances. In fact, he might be unique among Doctors insofar that mention of his name wouldn’t automatically conjure up the words ‘Doctor Who’ in the minds of the general public. But when you’re one of the greatest actors that the United Kingdom has ever produced, with an amazing body of work in film, theatre and television over a period of many decades, that’s understandable. But it was nevertheless pleasing to see that John’s role in The Day of the Doctor was mentioned proudly alongside his other credits when BBC News ran its report of his death in January.
What was particularly lovely about John Hurt’s involvement with Doctor Who was how enthusiastically he threw himself into it. Not just the show itself, but with all his promotional appearances too, in things like The One Show and Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty. You just know that in the parallel universe where the BBC didn’t stop making Doctor Who in 1989, and they really did cast John Hurt as the Doctor in the 1990s, he would have been there, proudly flying the flag for our favourite TV show.