Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Captain Jack Harkness

Captain Jack's American accent is an intrinsic part of the character, emphasising his slightly cheesy space hero personality, and differentiating him from the predominantly British cast. However, Captain Jack wasn't originally envisioned as an American, despite the producers singling out John Barrowman for the role.

In reality, Jack's accent was something that came about organically during the audition process, as revealed by RTD at San Diego Comic-Con in 2009:

"We really singled John out for that part when we met him because we loved him. He did it in a Scottish accent and his normal American accent, even an English accent. In the end I decided it made it bigger if it was an American accent. It just felt right at that time, little knowing then that he would go on to have his own show!"

Barrowman was born in Glasgow in 1967, and moved to the USA when he was eight years old. Interestingly, you can hear his Scottish inflection in early interviews during the promotion of Doctor Who and Torchwood. He also adopts a full-on Glasgow accent whenever he's interviewed by Lorraine Kelly, or in the company of David Tennant.

So it definitely made more sense for him to try and play Captain Jack with a Scottish accent rather than an English accent. Ultimately though, the American accent was clearly the right choice, and a classic Doctor Who character was born.