David Bradley has revealed that he and Peter Capaldi were close to tears when they filmed their final scene together for the ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special.
The 75-year-old actor portrays the First Doctor opposite Capaldi, 59, as the Twelfth Doctor in the festive episode ‘Twice Upon a Time’, which sees both incarnations of the Time Lord trying to stop their regeneration into their next bodies.
The last words the pair speak to each other take place on a war-torn battlefield and Bradley admits it was emotional that he and Capaldi almost ruined the take by crying.
Speaking at Q&A and screening held at the Science Museum in London on Wednesday night (13.12.17), he said: "When Peter and I were stood in that muddy field, we had a bit of dialogue and we knew something was going to happen but we didn’t really rehearse it with everyone else. We were stood there and then suddenly all these guys stood up around us. We were so close to blubbing and ruining the take, because it was just so totally unexpected and beautiful."
The First Doctor was played by the late William Hartnell in the 1960s.
Bradley was chosen to bring the original TARDIS owner back to life after portraying Hartnell in the biographical TV film ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’, which was written by Mark Gatiss and aired in 2013 and told the story of how the BBC sci-fi series was created.
The ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ star thought that would be his last foray into ‘Doctor Who’ after he had a guest role in 2012 adventure ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ – in which he starred as villain Solomon opposite Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith in an episode written by incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall – so he was delighted to get the call from Steven Moffat asking him to play the Doctor.
He said: "I thought having played William Hartnell as opposed to Doctor Who, thanks to Mark Gatiss, I thought that was going to be my ‘Doctor Who’ experience. I must say I was just so overwhelmed watching this tonight, it was just absolutely fantastic and I thought, ‘I’m in this!’ "
‘Twice Upon A Time’ will mark the final episode made by Moffat and starring Capaldi before Chibnall takes control of the show and Jodie Whittaker becomes the first woman to take over the TARDIS as the Thirteenth Doctor.
The special will air on BBC One on Christmas Day (25.12.17) at 17:30.
David Bradley close to tears when filming Doctor Who Christmas special
