Richard Osman picks Saturday Night Live UK star to be next Doctor Who
Richard Osman has weighed in on the future of Doctor Who, and he thinks one of SNL UK's breakout stars would be perfect as the next Time Lord.
Richard Osman is backing George Fouracres to be the next Doctor Who.
The 55-year-old writer, presenter and television producer has been discussing the future of the BBC's beloved sci-fi franchise, and he has suggested the Saturday Night Live UK breakout star should be the one to follow Ncuti Gatwa into the TARDIS when the show returns.
Speaking on his own The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, he said: "Wouldn’t he be amazing? All the best Doctor Who’s can really do comedy - Matt Smith, [David] Tennant, [Peter] Capaldi.
"They can really do comedy but you could stick them on Shakespeare and they can really do that as well.
"And George Fouracres is a great Shakespearean actor and a great comic."
George impressed viewers on the first season of SNL UK, which has been renewed for a second series.
The future of Doctor Who is unclear after the BBC recently announced the planned Christmas special has been cancelled with the show as a whole put out to tender.
Richard offered some insight into the timeline and process, explaining that plans were already in motion when the BBC's deal with Disney came to an end.
He explained: "What happened was, 2025, Disney pull out, the BBC are still absolutely saying 'no, we'll carry on with Doctor Who, what we'll do is put this out to tender in 2028/2029.'
"At which point everyone says, 'Let's do a Christmas special to bridge the gap.
"And because the BBC were dealing with [the legal case involving President] Trump and Charlotte Moore, who was the chief content officer, was leaving and Kate Phillips was coming in, there was a lot of churn at this point."
He noted that Kate's arrival sped things along, while Richard insisted that being put out to tender is "the opposite of saying we're going to rest it".
However, he pointed out: "As soon as you say you're putting it out to tender, you can't make the Christmas special, because the canon of the show will be affected so much by what they were about to do with [the regeneration of] Ncuti Gatwa to Billie Piper.
"You can't lay that on companies who are working on where they'll take the Doctor Who universe.
"If you're about to drop an enormous Christmas-shaped bomb in the middle of that, it makes that process impossible for everyone."
The BBC has said the decision to "put Doctor Who out to competitive tender" is motivated by "securing the next phase of the show for future generations".
They added: "Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come.
"After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode.
"This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory."
