INTERVIEW BY BENJAMIN COOK
War is hell,” declares Mark Gatiss, sitting on a folding chair amidst the cratered, muddy, foggy bleakness of a First World War battlefield. “But I’m having a brilliant time,” he adds. Mark, 51, is not only a prolific Doctor Who writer (of such episodes as 2005’s The Unquiet Dead, 2010’s Victory of the Daleks and this year’s Empress of Mars), but also a four-time guest star. Previously, he portrayed Professor Lazarus in 2007’s The Lazarus Experiment, voiced ‘Danny Boy’ in Victory of the Daleks and 2011’s A Good Man Goes to War, and guested as Gantok in 2011’s The Wedding of River Song. Now, in Twice Upon a Time, he dons an army uniform and a moustache to play a First World War captain who, moments before his death, is plucked from his timestream and dropped into the South Pole in 1986. “Fourth time’s a charm,” says Mark, fondly recalling one of Doctor Who’s greatest character actors. “I’m the new Philip Madoc!”
Mark says this will probably be his final work on TV Doctor Who. “A few months ago, in an Empress of Mars production meeting, Steven [Moffat, showrunner] took me to one side and said, ‘Look, I know you get booked up very quickly. Would you keep June and July free? Because I’m writing a nice part in my last story, and I’d like you to be there when I go.’ Which I was very touched by. Immediately I started crying, probably. I said, ‘I’d be delighted.’ And it’s a fantastic part.” In 2007, Mark became only the third person in Doctor Who history to have chalked up both a writing and an acting credit on the TV show (after Victor Pemberton and Glyn Jones). In Twice Upon a Time, he’s joined in the trenches by the fourth: Toby Whithouse (writer of episodes including 2006’s School Reunion, 2011’s The God Complex and 2017’s The Lie of the Land), who’s playing a German soldier in the War to End All Wars. He’s spent most of this morning aiming a semi-automatic pistol at Mr Gatiss’ head.