Karen Gillan: Doctor Who's no bed of roses

Karen Gillan: Doctor Who's no bed of roses
Karen Gillan: Doctor Who's no bed of roses (Image credit: BBC)

Karen Gillan is yet to experience the glamorous side of celebrity while playing Doctor Who's companion. The Scottish actress, who stars as Amy Pond, has endured some odd experiences while making the hit BBC One sci-fi show, including 'lying in a pool of sick with cabbage in it'. "That was quite bizarre," the 22-year-old said while at a Hollywood event to celebrate the influence Brits have had on the entertainment industry in LA. She's also had to learn how to 'act terrified of tennis balls'. I've mastered that art for the CGI afterwards. "Life has been turned upside down for me, it's crazy," said the actress, at a reception at the Consul General's Official Residence. She was effusive about the new Doctor, Matt Smith: "He's great to work with. You never know what's going to happen from one take to the next, so I don't know what's coming."

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.