Who the hell is Rory Kinnear? Who the hell is Mandrake? And why is Russell Tovey composing poems about Doctor Who on Twitter?
That’s right – we are a full week removed from Matt Smith’s announced departure from Doctor Who, and things got a little wibbly wobbly over the weekend. There is not a single shred of evidence to support any of the claims which have been made, and after Matt Smith’s name never came up until literally the morning of the day he was announced it is best to ignore all of this nonsense. However, if you can’t resist here’s what went down:
Friday (6/7): Starburst Magazine reported that a UK newspaper had discovered who the BBC has cast as the new Doctor and was going to run the story on Sunday. As such, the BBC was going to beat the paper to press by announcing the new Doctor Saturday night. Starburst went on to report their sources indicated a photoshoot with the new Doctor and a Tardis prop had been completed. While offering the observation “we can’t really be sure that these three are in the running at all” Starburst further reported they’d been told the three finalists for the role were ones no one had guessed: Domhnall Gleeson, Daniel Kaluuya, and Dominic Cooper [see my previous article, I KNEW Dmhnall Gleeson's name was going to come up eventually].
Saturday (6/8): The BBC’s official Doctor Who Twitter feed made a brief announcement in the early AM hours. It read: “We can confirm there is no #DoctorWho announcement planned for today.”
Sunday (6/9): The UK Newspaper The Telegraph reported that Rory Kinnear had officially been offered the role of the 12th Doctor. The report was attributed to the paper’s gossip column Mandrake, which is a long-standing gossip column with a known editor but a variety of sources of gossip whose reports are all identified by the code name Mandrake. So, according to Mandrake, Rory Kinnnear “has been offered the part and we are waiting to hear if he will accept; He is the perfect choice.”
Since then, there has been no official confirmation or denial on the part of the BBC, anyone at Doctor Who, or Rory Kinnear. Sources other than The Telegraph are saying Kinnear has now accepted the role. Rumors of a connection between Kinnear and Doctor Who have been around for at least a couple of months, going back to April when the corresponding rumors of Smith’s impending departure began. In an interview with The Independent, when Kinnear was asked about it he claimed to have never seen Doctor Who and offered, “I think I’m being used as a decoy on that front … It’s the first I’ve heard!”
If this speculative image from The Mirror alarms you, i.e., you cannot picture this guy as the Doctor, worry not – this is all probably bullshit.
Kinnear is most known for playing Bill Tanner, the assistant to Judi Dench’s M character in the most recent James Bond films, Skyfall and Quantum of Solace. So, if it helsp imagine his name as James Bond-style, “Kinnear, Rory Kinnear.” He also has over a decade of British television work to his name. At first glance, he has the appearance of someone you’d more expect to play a UNIT foot soldier than the Doctor.
Now, everyone is scrambling to react to the Telegraph’s report. Insider sources speaking anonymously to the UK paper The Daily Mirror indicate, “We’re still at the start of the search.” However, the British bookies aren’t buying it, with Ladbrokes having now closed off all bets on who might be cast as the next Doctor.
This situation is not dissimilar to what happened in 2008 when an Australian newspaper reported that obscure stage actor David Knijnenburg could be replacing David Tennant, but when neither the BBC nor the actor denied the report it gained some traction with other sources. However, there the speculation was that Knijnenburg might have simply auditioned for the role whereas here the reports are that the role is Kinnear’s if he wants it.
And you thought the many jokes the show about Eccleston’s hears were bad, it would have been nothing compared to what they would have done with Tovey.
Someone, if we can trust his word, who did legitimately audition to replace David Tennant is Russell Tovey, who confirmed as much in an interview with The Independent published a little over a month ago. There, he said he was relieved when Smith beat him for the role because “I don’t know what I would have done with all the attention.” With his name again popping up in reaction to Smith leaving, Tovey offered the following observation through his Twitter account, “Doctor doctor? Who’s there? Russell Tovey? Russell Tovey, Isn’t he gonna be the new twelfth Doctor Who? No.”
Of course, it is probably advisable at this point to trust absolutely nothing you read, even an actor’s denial on Twitter, until the BBC has made an official announcement. Personally, I prefer that when the time comes for the BBC to announce the new Doctor we react with a genuine, “Oh, I did not see that coming?” as opposed to “Oh, that guy everyone said it was going to be.” It is worth noting, again since I wrote about it elsewhere on the site, that when Matt Smith was being cast everyone was positive the role was either going to Patterson Joseph or Robert Carlyle.
Rory Kinnear could very well end up being just the latest in a long line of “rumored to have been offered/considered for the role of the Doctor” actors. Or in 2014 the Tardis could get its first Rory since Arhur Darville’s Rory Williams left halfway through season 7. Considering how all of this is all based in unfounded rumor with one paper reporting something an unnamed source said and one paper retorting with someone an unnamed source said let’s calm down and wait for the next crazy rumor.