The Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker, will appear in the soap opera as a date for Diane
Doctor Who’s Colin Baker is trading the TARDIS for the Wool Pack as he heads to Emmerdale. The former Sixth Doctor will appear in an episode later this month when Diane Sugden tries her hand at love again. But Baker’s character Michael has a strange passion that leaves her taken aback. But will the two ultimately hit it off? And what will Diane’s ex-husband Rodney (Patrick Mower) make of Michael?
Colin Baker recalls watching the Dales based soap opera in the early days. A time when a certain other Doctor Who actor was one of the main stars. “I am so old that I remember watching Emmerdale Farm long before it became just Emmerdale,” he told ITV, “when my friend, and colleague from [my] Doctor Who days, Frazer Hines was a youthful Joe Sugden and the wonderful Arthur Pentelow was in the cast.”
“So to get a call to join the cast, albeit briefly, as a possible love interest for Elizabeth Estenson, an actress I had long admired, certainly appealed to me. A bonus was the fact that also in my scenes was Rodney Blackstock, played by my old friend Patrick Mower. I enjoyed my covid compliant time with both of them in Leeds inordinately. As to what happened, well you’ll just have to watch and find out. It’s a bit of a puzzle actually!”
Baker’s no stranger to the world of soap, of course. Pre-Doctor Who he was most famous for his starring role in The Brothers (imagine Dallas but with a road haulage firm in London instead of Ewing Oil). While he’s also made appearances in The Bill, Brookside, Hollyoaks, Doctors and Casualty. One of his Casualty guest roles was particularly memorable – as a mysterious patient who arrives at Holby Emergency Department with strange burns on his hands and glow in the dark eyes, claiming to have had a close encounter with an alien spaceship!
