View source for Going back to the future is a hazardous enterprise

{{article
| publication = The Times
| file = 2009-01-09 Times.jpg
| px = 650
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| date = 2009-01-09
| author = Dan Sabbagh
| pages = 53
| language = English 
| type = 
| description = 
| categories = cast changes
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| text = 
Well, he is called Doctor Who. Matt Smith, an unknown, will take over from David Tennant as the next driver of the Tardis some time next year. He is neither female nor black, as the rumour mill predicted, but Mr Smith, 26, remains a smart choice politically. Young and unknown means cheap, of course. and the BBC couldn't afford to pay Ross-style millions. Some of the names mentioned, If they were ever serious, would have hardly been affordable — Billie Piper and James McAvoy, for example. Nor is it necessary, either: the role always made the actor's name. It is easy to forget, in the era of his celebrity status as Hamlet, that on his debut as Dr Who David Tennant was hardly a household name either.

Yet, even that is not quite the point: if the BBC is about anything off screen it should be generating and nurturing talent — more Adrian Chiles than Gary Lineker, if you will ITV's job is to air dramas that rely on household names to lure audiences: that is a tried and tested strategy. This time, the BBC got it right, when looming government reviews meant that it was wise to do so. Let us hope that Mr Smith can act the part too. 

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