10 Doctor Who Guest Actors Who Also Played The Doctor
3. Lenny Henry
Lenny Henry played the villainous tech mogul Daniel Barton in series 12's two-part opener Spyfall. Henry made a great Doctor Who villain, and it's promising that he abruptly exited stage right when his and the Master's plot fell apart. Could he be one of the forces being drawn against the 13th Doctor in her final adventure?
Prior to his appearance in Doctor Who, Lenny Henry had been vocal about the lack of a black actor in the lead role. Back in the 1980s, Henry became the first black Doctor on an episode of his sketch show. It's a fairly standard Doctor Who spoof, with gags about technobabble, running down corridors and the Doctor and companion wanting to have sex with each other. That's actually the best gag in the sketch, which suggests that family friendly Doctor Who was taken off the air in 1985 so that the Doctor and Peri could get it on with each other.
Lenny Henry's Doctor is dressed, rather brilliantly, as a cross between John Shaft and Rupert the Bear, which is as good a description of the character as any. The Henry sketch is also archly satirical in retrospect, as the evil Thatchos (a Cyberman dressed as Maggie Thatcher) has automated all jobs in the year 2010.