7 Actors Who Hated Being On Doctor Who

A cheap, green, slimy fat suit? Sounds like a great career move!

By Danny Meegan /

The acting space is often described as a playground for adults, and there's no show that better fits that description than Doctor Who.

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The series lets a bunch of grown-ups run around a spaceship on a make-believe planet, all the while being chased by a sweating six-foot stuntman bolted into a rubber suit, as well as a few tin cans armed with plungers. It's the ultimate playground - a group of sci-fi nuts with a budget and the backing of a major broadcasting company.

But while the show sounds like an absolute blast on paper, it's not always sunshine and rainbows for the actors who take part. Whether they had issues with the production crew they worked with, or they simply dislike how their episodes (or specific seasons) turned out, there have been a few actors in the show's history who have less-than fond memories of the time they spent making it.

Working on Doctor Who might seem like a dream job, and for most actors, it certainly is - but not everybody walks away from it having had a totally positive experience.

7. Robert Glenister

Robert Glenister's first appearance in Doctor Who was in 1984's The Caves of Androzani, the final story to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.

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It's generally regarded as one of Davison's best outings in the role, but Glenister... well, he doesn't exactly feel as positive about the whole thing.

The actor played a character called Salateen in the serial, but in an interview with the Radio Times, he revealed that it's one of the biggest regrets of his career. He stated that he feels "appalled" every time he recalls the role, and that he looked like "a complete berk" as his character:

"I probably shouldn’t say this, but about 30 years ago I played an android in a Doctor Who story called The Caves of Androzani. I still get people outside the stage door with that picture of me looking about 12 and I am appalled at myself every time I see it. I looked like a complete berk and wish I never had to see it again."

The weirdest thing about this is that Glenister recently appeared in an episode of Doctor Who alongside Jodie Whittaker, playing Thomas Edison in Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - and he even appeared in a Big Finish audio drama in 2007.

So, clearly, his experience with The Caves of Androzani didn't put him off Doctor Who altogether, but it's still strange that he'd want to revisit a show that, for the longest time, he thought of as a massive regret.

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