LITTLE-KNOWN actor Sylvester McCoy is to be the new Doctor Who, taking over from Colin Baker and becoming the seventh actor to play the famous TV Time Lord.
He will team up with Bonnie Langford, as his assistant Melanie, when the BBC's long-running science-fiction series returns in the autumn.
McCoy has just finished starring in the title role of the National Theatre's production of the Pied Piper and before that he played three Shakespearean roles.
Forty-three-year-old McCoy will become a famous face when he takes over in the series, which has a regular British audience of more than seven million and a huge following in Europe and America.
Colin Baker pulled out of Doctor Who after being told that his contract would end during the coming series. He was asked to appear as The Doctor in the opening episodes before his contract finished—-but he refused and quit the role immediately.
The BBC is now working out a plot to kill off Colin Baker and regenerate Sylvester McCoy into the role.
Delighted
Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner said: "I am delighted to have signed Sylvester as the seventh Doctor Who. I saw him as the Pied Piper and realised at once that he possessed all the qualities necessary to play the Doctor."
The first five Doctors were William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and Peter Davison.
McCoy said he decided to apply for the job when he heard that Colin Baker was leaving. "I phoned my agent and asked him to put me up for it. They came and saw me and I got the job," he said.
Married with two children, McCoy said reaction from his two sons, Joe, nine, and Sam, 11, was: "Yipee".
Caption: DOCTOR and assistant...new Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy pictured in London with co-star Bonnie Langford inside their tree-travelling telephone box the Tardis.
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