Fans want Hugh Laurie to star in Doctor Who film

Fans want Hugh Laurie to star in Doctor Who film
Fans want Hugh Laurie to star in Doctor Who film (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Hugh Laurie has been named the favourite actor to play Doctor Who in the upcoming big screen outing for the Time Lord. The House medic beat Gary Oldman to step into the TARDIS for David Yates' big-screen adaptation of the beloved TV sci-fi series, according to more than 7,000 readers of entertainment website IGN.com. X-Men: First Class stars Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy took third and fourth places in the list, with Ewan McGregor taking fifth spot. Chris Tilly, the website's entertainment editor, said: "As one of the UK's most celebrated TV characters of all-time, fans are thrilled about the prospect of a Doctor Who movie, with talk immediately turning to who should play the lead role. "And with his combination of wit, intelligence, charm and eccentricity, Hugh Laurie was the runaway winner of our poll, with fans believing the Brit to be the perfect man to play the Time Lord on the big screen." The planned movie, to be directed by the Harry Potter filmmaker, is expected to take 'two to three years' to get right. It hasn't been decided if Matt Smith, as the current incarnation of the Doctor, would portray him in the feature. "It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena," David told Variety.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.