logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2018
46m 53s

Matt Smith

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Matt Smith is best known as the eleventh Timelord in the BBC One series, Doctor Who. At 26, he became the youngest actor to take the part.

His future looked set to be in football: he played at youth level for Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City until a serious back condition ended his highly promising career prematurely. His drama teacher encouraged him to take up acting and he joined the National Youth Theatre and studied drama at the University of East Anglia. He played Lockwood in the National Theatre's touring production of The History Boys and was nominated for an Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award for his performance in Polly Stenham's That Face. He also appeared as a political researcher in the BBC Two parliamentary drama, Party Animals.

Despite being a surprise choice to play The Doctor in 2009, he became the first actor to be nominated for a BAFTA television award for his performance in this role, and has won two National Television Awards. When he left Doctor Who at the end of 2013, he appeared on stage as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: The Musical.

In 2016 he took the part of HRH Prince Philip Mountbatten, The Duke of Edinburgh, in the Netflix series The Crown, and received great acclaim, leaving the role at the end of the second series in late 2017.

Presenter: Kirsty Young Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Up next
Jul 5
Professor Lucy Easthope, emergency planner
Professor Lucy Easthope is an adviser on disaster recovery and planning. She’s an expert in planning for and reacting to major incidents: natural disaster, terrorist attacks, pandemics and fires, and is the visiting Professor of Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of ... Show More
51m 36s
Jun 29
Romesh Ranganathan, comedian and broadcaster
Romesh Ranganathan is a comedian and BAFTA-winning broadcaster who has been a fixture on British television screens for the past decade. In addition to his TV shows and stand-up tours he presents the Weakest Link on BBC One, Radio Two’s Saturday morning show and another weekly Ra ... Show More
50m 23s
Jun 22
Abdulrazak Gurnah, writer
Abdulrazak Gurnah is emeritus Professor of Post-Colonial Literatures at the University of Kent and the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Born in Zanzibar in 1948, the second of six children, Abdulrazak grew up in the dying days of the island’s status as a British protectorat ... Show More
51m 17s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2024
Andrew Scott
Andrew Scott won a BAFTA as the evil Moriarty in Sherlock, but is equally loved for a divine television role as the hot priest in Fleabag. A prolific and versatile stage actor, he has starred in many plays by contemporary dramatists, including Port and Birdland by Simon Stevens. ... Show More
44m 13s
Mar 2004
Bill Nighy
This week Sue's castaway is the award winning actor Bill Nighy. Originally from Caterham in Surrey, he left school at 15 without any qualifications and ended up working at his local employment office. He hoped to become an author and began work on The Field magazine as a messenge ... Show More
33m 41s
Dec 2023
Daniel Kaluuya
Daniel Kaluuya is an Academy Award-winning actor, first nominated for his groundbreaking role in "Get Out" and then for his portrayal of Fred Hampton in "Judas and the Black Messiah," which also earned him SAG, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations. Born in London, Kaluuya honed hi ... Show More
2h 8m
Aug 2023
Stephen Fry
Actor, writer, comedian and broadcaster Stephen Fry first made his name as a comic performer as a Cambridge University undergraduate with the Footlights company. He went on to forge a television partnership with his university friend Hugh Laurie on the sketch show A Bit Of Fry an ... Show More
43m 56s
May 2022
Rory Kinnear on the film Men, Lord Parkinson on the new UK City of Culture, The Duchess of Cornwall, Mo Abudu on Blood Sisters
Actor Rory Kinnear plays ten characters- all the male roles but one- in the new psychological horror film from Alex Garland, Men. He joins Samira Ahmed to discuss how he approached playing multiple roles in this exploration of fear and loathing in the English countryside.The UK’s ... Show More
42m 13s
Jun 2023
In the Studio: Matthew Xia
***This programme contains racially sensitive language and themes that may be upsetting.*** Matthew Xia is a theatre director and Olivier award-winning artistic director of the Actors Touring Company. As his alter ego DJ Excalibur, he performed to a global audience of over a bill ... Show More
27m 35s
Nov 2020
22: Emma Thompson
Two time Academy Award winner Dame Emma Thompson is one of Britains most celebrated actors as well as being a human rights and environmentalism activist. Harrys.com/hour June's Journey - http://onelink.to/ykz5f2 All the music in this episode is by ‘Waiting For Smith’, go and chec ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2020
16: Florence Pugh
Florence Pugh is one of Hollywoods most exciting young actors. At 18 she starred in The Falling and has since gone on to have roles in Lady Macbeth, Fighting with My Family and most recently Little Women for which she received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Florence will next ... Show More
1h 8m
Nov 2019
Episode 3: Aberfan
On the 21st of October 1966, a devastating tragedy befell the Welsh mining village of Aberfan, claiming the lives of 116 children and 28 adults. In this episode, we hear from head of research Annie Sulzberger, lead director and executive producer Ben Caron, and BAFTA award-winnin ... Show More
43m 59s