91Èȱ¬

Richard Wilson plays Dr Constantine

There are two doctors in this week's episode of Doctor Who - one of them is the famous Time Lord, and the other is of the medical variety, played by actor Richard Wilson.

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Richard, who is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew in the hit 91Èȱ¬ comedy series One Foot in the Grave, plays Dr Constantine, a hospital doctor in the two-part story.

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Dr Constantine already has his work cut out dealing with victims of the Blitz, but now even more sinister events start to take place.

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A plague seems to have gripped the Albion Hospital in London, leading to all the patients suffering the same symptoms - they appear to be dead and their gas masks are fused to their faces.

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"Dr Constantine is having a really bad time of it," says Richard. "He is a good man and really cares about his patients but there's a limit to what he can do under the circumstances.

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"To start off, he thinks the people in the hospital are simply wearing their gas masks - but later it is discovered that the masks have become part of them and have actually morphed onto their faces.

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"All the trouble and illness seems to have started after a bomb was dropped. That started everything off - one person became ill and then it spread like a plague."

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Richard decided to take on the role of Dr Constantine because he was very impressed by the high quality of the scripts for the episodes.

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"I thought the writing was of a very high standard and very interesting," he says. "I think that is one of the strengths of the new series of Doctor Who - the writing is very good."

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Although Richard's two episodes have been written by Steven Moffat, co-writer of the comedy series Coupling, he doesn't get any funny lines.

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"Obviously there is a lot of humour in the new series, but I don't get funny lines in my bit - there isn't much tittering in my scenes," says Richard.

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Richard has never appeared in a science-fiction series before but he enjoys the genre. "I do read a bit of science-fiction and also sometimes dip into science fiction comics," he says.

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"I also like a good science-fiction film, something like Minority Report. I'm not a science-fiction fanatic but I do find the whole idea of other worlds existing exciting."

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Richard is currently directing a play, The Woman Before, at the Royal Court in London - and he will soon be back on TV for a new series of the 91Èȱ¬ drama Born and Bred, in which he plays Dr Donald Newman.

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At Christmas he will break with tradition and appear in the panto Cinderella at Wimbledon. "I once told a journalist that if they saw me doing pantomime they should call a doctor," he laughs.

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"But the Ambassadors group is trying to revitalise the pantomime with new production values, better writing and more money. They asked me to do it and I thought 'what the hell'. I'm playing Baron Hardup.

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"It'll be my first panto other than a musical version of Peter Pan, in which I played Captain Hook, and one for ITV in which I played the dame.

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"I didn't want to play the dame again, though, as there are too many costume changes at my age!" he smiles.