13 Great Non-Doctor Who Performances By Each Doctor
5. Peter Davison In A Very Peculiar Practice
In a 1990s interview, Steven Moffat once stated that Peter Davison was the best actor to ever play the Doctor. Whilst that's certainly up for debate, there's no doubt that he's been consistently in work since his time on the show ended in 1984. Davison often excels as an increasingly flustered straight man amid a cast of weirdos or maniacs. The best iteration of this is in Andrew Davies' satirical university-set drama series A Very Peculiar Practice.
Appearing alongside fellow Doctor Who alumni David Troughton, Graham Crowden and Barbara Flynn, Davison plays Doctor Stephen Daker, a new recruit to the Lowlands University Medical Practice. Daker is a bundle of nerves and anxieties, plagued by strange dreams, competitive colleagues and the red-tape and bureaucracy of 1980s university life.
A Very Peculiar Practice is a surreal comedy marvel, anchored by Davison's everyman performance. We root for him as he tackles relationship difficulties and workplace politics. It's his finest performance, and one of Davison's own personal favourites.
It's not hard to see why, this is a pitch-perfect satire of 1980s academia. So much so that practically every student watching it on TV thought that Lowlands was based on their own university!