20 Things Doctor Who Wants You To Forget

17. Invasion Of The Nortons

Doctor Who Forget
BBC

The British TV presenter, Graham Norton, may have helped to promote Doctor Who in recent years (even playing himself in a special Doctor Who sketch written for the National Television Awards 2011), but he has also made two appearances that caused quite an outrage.

Shortly after the opening credits rolled for the first time on the resurrected show, due to a technical fault Norton could be heard hosting Strictly Dance Fever, spoiling the creepy mood for Billie Piper’s opening scene.

Fans could just about forgive that error, but the deliberate overlay of an animated, gurning Norton during the Time of Angels cliff-hanger incensed over 5,000 fans - enough for them to write in to complain. Norton took it all with great humour, apologising in his chat show as another animation rolled - a Dalek exterminating his cartoon alter-ego. Norton might still be a valuable asset when it comes to marketing the show, but let’s hope his cartoon avatar has been banished for life.

Contributor
Contributor

Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.