Doctor Who: 10 Actors Who Almost Played Different Characters

2. Bernard Cribbins

Doctor Who Silhouette
BBC

Who He Almost Played: The Fourth Doctor

Who He Actually Played: Wilfred Mott

Aside from casting Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant as the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, you could argue that former showrunner Russell T Davies' most genius casting choice was getting Bernard Cribbins to play Wilfred Mott.

Cribbins brought such humanity and warmth to the episodes he appeared in that he feels genuinely irreplaceable, particularly in The End Of Time, which contains several moments where his performance just absolutely breaks our hearts.

For such a talented actor then, it's almost not surprising that his name was floated about to play the Doctor at an earlier stage in his career.

In an interview with Den Of Geek, Cribbins states that he "went along for an interview" with the producers when Jon Pertwee was leaving the show, meaning that Cribbins was one of the actors considered to play the Fourth Doctor.

Of course, Tom Baker snagged that role in the end, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Nor would we want Cribbins to have missed out on playing Wilf. This whole thing definitely worked out for the best.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.