The Doctor is stuck on Earth in Stranded, the latest Big Finish series to feature Paul McGann’s Time Lord, and discovers that his house in Baker Street has been turned into flats. One of the tenants is Tania, played by Rebecca Root, and the actor chatted with Paul Simpson on the day of release about her character. NB There are some minor spoilers for Stranded within.

You’d done a couple of Big Finishes previously, haven’t you? Zaltys for Barnaby Edwards and Gallifrey: Time War 2; were those recorded before Stranded?

Yes they were done before. Barnaby was my introduction to Big Finish in 2016; that was with Peter Davison and that was an absolute delight. I loved every minute and I said to Barnaby and [producer] David Richardson afterwards, “Oh my God, can I please come back and play again?” And they said, “Of course, we’d love to have you back.”

That’s often the way with jobs as an actor. If you strike gold and find a company that you love working for. and you love the script and just the whole vibe and energy and the whole… well, everything, it’s an absolute delight and the fact that you then get paid (laughs) it’s really just the icing on the cake.

I made it very clear that I would love to come back and then they got me back for the Time War with Scott [Handcock]. That was it for a year or so and then out of the blue Stranded came along.

I didn’t get the memo from my agent that this was going to be a regular, that my character was going to be a regular, a companion. I didn’t realise. So when we were recording a couple of weeks before Christmas, David pulled me aside to do the CD extras and he said, “How do you feel about Tania being made a companion?”

I knew that it was one box set – that was what I had been told – but I didn’t realise there were going to be three other boxsets and that she was going to be made a companion. I said, “Are you pulling my leg?” And he said no.

I said to my agent later, you could have told me this big news, and he said, “Oh I thought I had, sorry I probably forgot.” He wasn’t being dissy or anything but it was very funny.

Once I’d picked myself up from the floor I thought, flipping heck this is like all my Christmases at once. To land a part like that is just an absolute gift, and not least it’s with a great group of people with fab scripts and a lovely character so I was really super chuffed.

Growing up were you a fan of the Doctor?

Yes, very much. I caught the end of Jon Pertwee as a kid and Tom Baker of course was my big one and then I caught a bit of Peter, I suppose. When did Peter come in?

1981.

And then who was after Peter?

Colin Baker.

Colin, that’s right and then…

Sylvester McCoy.

I think around that time I was probably drifting away a bit, I’ll be honest, like I suppose many others like me, and then of course it went into hiatus, didn’t it?

Paul McGann’s TV movie was 1996.

I love the fact that he’s now got a whole following, a cult status. It’s fantastic and I love his portrayal, I love his version of the Doctor, he’s great.

Before you recorded Stranded, did you listen to any of the earlier stories with his Doctor?

No, I didn’t actually. I hadn’t heard any with Paul and Hattie and Nicola at all. It’s probably a dreadful confession to make…

No, it’s not; a lot of people don’t because the point is your character doesn’t know who they are.

Exactly, but you quickly warm to them and the ways of the characters.

What did you get told about her when you came onboard or was it purely what you read when you read the script?

It was purely what I read. I wasn’t quite sure about the background at Torchwood is, other than she’s been planted there to keep an eye out. I’m sure that will unravel over the course of the next number of box sets as we traverse through the storyline but I was delighted really to discover that she is part of Torchwood. There’s a chance of a spin off (laughs) I’m totally making that up but if I plant that seed now, at least in my imagination…

When you get into the character you start exploring the nuances and also what their ulterior motive is and what are they actually playing at – I love all the shenanigans going on in the house. It’s brilliant: all the other characters, the mysterious vanishings and comings and goings and the other tenants. Of course Tania is part of that as well. It’s really a delightful storyline.

When you read the scripts was there anything that you thought, “I’m not sure about this for this character” or were you very happy to go along with what Matt Fitton and the others had written?

I was very happy. Obviously it’s no secret that Tania is trans, no secret that I’m trans, and I was delighted to find such a positive coming out, if you like, or moment of conversation where there’s that idea of “There’s something I need to tell you.” It can be so clunky, I’ve read so many scenes in plays, movies, TV shows etc and it’s just like, “Oh God here we go again”, it’s awful, but with Tania and Liv it’s just gorgeous. I would say it’s up there with the famous scene in Boy Meets Girl which was the TV show I was in.

It’s especially delightful because I love the idea that Liv is from the future so the idea of gender identity and things being a sort of a “problem” in our period, it’s just not even a thing for her. I loved that. It gives a lovely dimension to her own character. I thought the scene played out beautifully.

And of course, with everything that’s going on at the moment, the serendipity of its release…

I know, you couldn’t make that up, could you? You really couldn’t. I’ve had an almost surreal five or so days with the whole JK Rowling [row] and then the Gender Recognition Act review.

I wrote an article in the Sunday Times, and that also brought me to a new readership and an audience who were very sympathetic. All the Doctor Who stuff has gained an awful lot of traction; the story’s been picked up all over the place. I stumbled across an article on the Mirror and I’ve never been in the Mirror before, on the Mirror celeb page on their website and the Daily Mail Online. All these titles that I’ve never had anything to do with before, never even during Boy Meets Girl was I interviewed by them. They were very upbeat and positive about this Doctor Who news so I’m really pleased.

So what got you into acting? What was the bug? Are you one of those people who came out of the womb singing and dancing or is it something that you’ve found along the way?

No, I suppose I just always enjoyed being on a stage. It makes me sound like a frightful egotist doesn’t it? There’s always something of the egotist isn’t there, in performance?

I think you have to have that self confidence otherwise you’re not going to do it.

Precisely. I did school plays when I was a kid and some of my earliest memories, four or five years old, were doing Nativity plays and just thinking, I absolutely love this, how can I do more? It is, in that respect, like a drug – people talk about being bitten by the acting bug but it’s like anything: if you get into it and you discover a true sense of identity with a profession or a craft or something that really gives you that buzz, you cannot but somehow attempt to pursue that.

That is why there is, very sadly, great instances of mental health difficulties in the theatrical and entertainment world because if you aren’t working, it affects your mental health.

It affects your sense of self-worth, doesn’t it?

Exactly.

What do you look for in a script? Obviously the fact that somebody’s going to write you a nice cheque at the end of it is always a bonus but…

I’ll be honest with you, I have turned work down or said I’m not interested in going for a job because the scripts and the character have been clunky, two dimensional, wooden, cliché and stereotype.

I don’t just play trans characters as you probably know. I play a lot of cis characters as well. The turn off is if the character is 2D and it’s a tired and worn stereotype of what it is to be a trans person. Conversely the attraction of course is if you find a character who’s got depth, nuance… Personality always helps. I love a character who’s got a sense of humour, I have a sense of humour and I enjoy injecting my characters and my performances with that. I hope that comes across.

You want to look for complexities in a character and you want something that gives you something to really get your teeth into. I would say Judy was a delightful character, in Boy Meets Girl. She was enchanting, she was an absolute delight but, as a comedy, she didn’t have some of the depth of, for example a character I played in a play called Trans Scripts, who was a very complex deeply troubled, unhappy person who nevertheless had sharp wit and a brilliant mind. The way she interacted with the other characters was extraordinary. One moment she was at loggerheads with somebody and the next she was empathetic and sporting so that sense of complexity is what really pulls you.

Are there particular roles that you’d really still love to have a go at that you’ve previously gone, “Maybe I’m not ready for it yet” but you feel that you are now?

I think any actor would jump at the chance of playing a character like Richard III or Hamlet. I would love to play Hamlet. I suppose now I’m in my fifties, on paper I’m probably a little too old but not necessarily, depends on the take.

I love Chekov and Pinter, Shaw, Ibsen I love those classics, but if I’m thinking of more contemporary drama I’d love to have a crack at a detective like Nicola plays in Unforgotten, who has her own complexities and her own trials and tribulations, which of course what makes a police drama so watchable, isn’t it? You see the personal storylines playing alongside the professional and she does it so brilliantly, she’s such a great actor. But that’s the sort of part I would die for.

Then of course, I still have ambitions of playing the Doctor. Maybe in the TV version once, you never know. Anything’s possible, isn’t it? I’m probably not in the top ten of choices but I might be somewhere down the line. I do know Chris Chibnall so I nudge him every so often and I say, “Oh how about it Chris, when Jodie’s contract’s up?” (laughs)

Have you recorded any more Stranded beyond the box set that’s out now?

Yes, we had a wonderful virtual studio set up in May. I think we recorded the next box set. Anybody who works in radio or audio is laughingly describing their home studio setups as their six year old self making a fort again and getting the mic out under the duvet. We weren’t quite as bad as that but my partner and I moved recently and the flat is still a bit upside down because we haven’t been able to buy an awful lot of furniture that we had to replace from our last place.

Making our little home studio was quite a challenge but we made it and we all linked up with the other actors via Zoom or some other such technological thing [to see each other; the audio isn’t recorded via Zoom] and it was actually rather fun. The only thing I would say is I missed the green room banter because that’s one of the delights of working with Big Finish. I flatter myself if I include myself in what I’m about to say but they get some terrific actors, don’t they? Honestly, the actors that they get are top flight, actors, at the top of their game. Whenever I’m with them I always feel incredibly lucky to be working with those actors because I learn from them. It’s a real delight.

And some fantastic lunches…

Ah yes, the lunches had to be mentioned at some point. You can’t do a Big Finish interview without mentioning the lunches; it’s a rule.

Exactly, so I missed all of that but the storyline, the episode was terrific, really cracking. I can’t wait for those to come out.

 

Thanks to Steve Berry for help in arranging this interview.

Read our reviews of Stranded starting here

Click here to order Stranded volume 1 from Big Finish