Doctor Phew! (The Sun)

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• Publication: The Sun
• Date: 1996-05-25
• Author: Shoba Vazirani
• Page:
• Language: English

10 far-out facts on the new Time Lord (who gets his first kiss after 33 years)

PAUL McGANN becomes the first Time Lord to enjoy a sexy clinch when he revives the role of Doctor Who this week.

He exchanges passionate kisses with his sexy assistant Dr Grace Holloway, played by Falcon Crest beauty Daphne Ashbrook, in the new £3million Hollywood special.

But Paul, star of cult film Withnail And I, says: "I kept my lips together when 1 kissed Daphne because I didn't want the love scenes to be too sexy.

"It is the first time the Doctor has been seen kissing and I didn't want to do anything that might upset a family audience."

Paul, 36, stars in the first DOCTOR WHO adventure for seven years (Monday, BBC1, 8.30pm). He takes over the role from Sylvester McCoy, who is gunned down by a drug gang at the start of the two-hour film.

Surgeon Daphne helps the Doctor save the world from his arch-enemy The Master — played by Julia Roberts' brother Eric.

If the Doctor's new adventure is successful, it will be followed by six more — making Scouser Paul a millionaire.

Here are 10 things we found out about TV's eighth Dr Who:

1. He admits he took hard drugs, including heroin, before shooting to fame in the BBC1 drama The Monocled Mutineer in 1986. These days he is a keep-fit fanatic who exercises daily — but he admits to occasional booze binges.
2. He landed the role of swash-buckling hero Sharpe in ITV's hit drama but had to pull out when he injured his knee playing football on location in the Crimea. He was replaced by Sean Bean. Paul says: "What made it worse was that I was skint at the time and was only doing Sharpe for the money —and it was fantastic money:"
3. He nearly died four years in a car crash in Spain. He and his brother Joe — star of ITV's The Upper Hand — were in a hired car which plunged over a bridge on to a dirt road. They suffered neck and back injuries. Paul says: "It took months for the shock to go away."
4. He was romantically linked with Darling Buds Of May star Catherine Zeta Jones in 1994 but insists the love of his life is his wife Annie. They met 14 years ago when he was in a play in Basingstoke, Hants, where Annie was assistant stage manager.
5. He reckons the best day of his life was the day he married Annie in 1992. They hired a railway shed in Bristol, and threw a party that lasted for 18 hours. Paul says: "We were so skint afterwards we couldn't afford a honeymoon!" They now live in a modest house in Clifton, Bristol, with sons Joey, eight, and Jake, six.
6. Paul was born in Liverpool on November 14, 1959. As well as Joe, brothers Mark, 35, and Steve, 33, are also successful TV actors. The fab four have appeared together only twice — in West End musical Yakety Yak in 1985 and last year in the BBC drama The Hanging Gale. Sister Clare is 31 and their mum, also Clare, is 61. Their dad Joe, a metallurgist, died in 1984.
7. At school, Paul was a national junior triple jumper and strongly tipped to compete in the Olympics. But he decided he wanted to act and went to top drama school RADA.
8. He was called "potty" by telly chiefs in 1983 when quit hit snooker drama Give Us A Break to concentrate on a doomed singing career.
9. He originally turned down the Doctor Who role, claiming he could not imagine wearing woolly scarves and eating jelly babies. But he changed his mind a year later when he realised taking the part would pay his mortgage. He says: "You've got to ask yourself realistic questions like where are we going to live, what is going to happen and what if .. . what if?"
10. Paul angered Doctor Who TV fans by labelling them "anoraks" while filming the special in Canada. But Gary Gillatt, editor of Doctor Who Magazine, says: "Most fans are decent, intelligent, witty people."

DOCTOR WHO TRIVIA QUIZ — Page 15

OH MY DALEK ... the Doctor grabs Grace for a historic first snog

LUST IN SPACE ... lovers aboard the Tardis

GUESS WHO . .. Doc in disguise

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• APA 6th ed.: Vazirani, Shoba (1996-05-25). Doctor Phew! (The Sun). The Sun .
• MLA 7th ed.: Vazirani, Shoba. "Doctor Phew! (The Sun)." The Sun [add city] 1996-05-25. Print.
• Chicago 15th ed.: Vazirani, Shoba. "Doctor Phew! (The Sun)." The Sun, edition, sec., 1996-05-25
• Turabian: Vazirani, Shoba. "Doctor Phew! (The Sun)." The Sun, 1996-05-25, section, edition.
• Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Doctor Phew! (The Sun) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Phew!_(The_Sun) | work=The Sun | pages= | date=1996-05-25 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=3 April 2025 }}</ref>
• Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Doctor Phew! (The Sun) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Phew!_(The_Sun) | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=3 April 2025}}</ref>