C H R I S T I N a S P R E V I E W N I C K F R O S T S a Y S P L a Y I N G S a N T a I N
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Christinas Preview PHOTOGRAPHED EXCLUSIVELY FOR RADIO TIMES BY IAN DERRY Nick Frost says playing Santa in Doctor Who is the perfect present for a fanboy But why is his Father Christmas such a curmudgeon? HEN IT COMES to taking guest way. Mainly my fandom was because I'm a massive fan roles in Doctor Who most of spaceships in particular. When I first watched Star actors - from John Simm to Wars and saw the Mos Eisley scene, I thought - well, Keeley Hawes - have told RT that's what it's like: it's a documentary! Doctor Who was they're doing the Doctor always slightly more about character, though." mainly for their kids. Not Frost's brief teaser appearance as Santa at the end of WNick Frost. The man best known for his comedy Doctor Who's series-eight finale (which had seen a body collaborations with Simon Pegg plays Santa in the count closer to a Tarantino movie including nerdy hero Time Lord's Christmas caper - but has had to keep the Osgood, Clara's boyfriend Danny Pink and possibly the whole thing quiet to avoid giving the game away (and Master/Missy) was potentially the most shocking part we're not talking about the storyline). of the episode. As the Doctor moped around the Tardis, "My son is three - a bit young for Doctor Who," he mourning Clara's departure, Frost barged through the explains. "But I think letting him see me in the costume Tardis doors in full bushy beard, red coat and pointy hat. would fry his three-year-old brain - his dad as Santa? For Doctor Who fans Santa might prove the unlike- To be fair, I do look great. If the acting dries up, I could liest ally the Doctor has had yet. Sure they both defy definitely pitch up outside Westfield shopping centre the laws of time and space. Yes, they both strive to and make a decent fist of it. Although I went to see make things better for the people of planet Earth. Santa when I was a kid at a department store in Ilford Certainly they both have impressive transport. But all and I was terrified of the giant red man with a white the same... the Doctor and Santa? beard. So definitely not one for the boy." "I wouldn't worry about it," Nick Frost tells us. "For a In fact, he confesses, he took the part for another start it's not all 'Ho ho ho!' My Santa is cross, mean and little boy: the young Nick Frost. "I'm a big fan of any curt as well as cheery and funny. He's got a little bit of and all sci-fi," he says, shocking ..«__«„ «-_.»•. Robert De Niro in Mean Streets. And he has history with J 6 «A , • HORROR-STRUCK the Doctor: it's not talked about explicitly but they no one. And growing up in ^ Frost w|f|| hjs frjend have a beef with each other from way back." the 80s, being a sci-fi fan Perhaps Frost's own beef with Santa meant you were a big stemming back to the Ilford incident fan of Doctor Who. I set off his first niggling doubts about loved the reincar the season. "I'm a bit 50/50 about NO TIME LI., nation aspect, the Christmas," he admits. "I love Christmas THE PRESENT pain each incarnation Day, I love cooking, I love everyone Santa (Nick Frost) had, knowing they were coming round and feeding them - teams up with the going but also the ! j^ but I love working. That gap Doctor (Peter chance to start again Capaldi) and Clara between the 22nd of |(Jenna Coleman) with a clean sheet. It December and the 4th of > for this year's • was unusual that Christmas special 12 mm <My Santa is cross, mean and curt as well as cheery and funny* IWBIIBWH NICK FROST 4£.>: < January seems too long to me. And the presents are great but... well, look, never buy me clothes. I hate clothes at the best of times but you'll probably buy me clothes that don't fit and I'll spend the morning worrying about my size." Indeed, his favourite Christmas was about as far from carols, trees and tinsel as you could get. "When I was 181 worked in Israel for a while on a kibbutz," he recalls. "On Christmas Day we all got the day off and they said, what would we like to watch? We all said James Bond, so we had a huge Christmas lunch and a James Bond triple bill with the sun streaming in. Later on, I spent a few Christmasses with my old friends [actor] Michael Smiley, Simon Pegg and a few mates. It was a bunch of blokes, men together, having a 'Here's something I bet you didn't know: Capaldi is a giggler' Who boss Steven Moffat reveals how NICK FROST Peter Capaldi won over his US critics laugh and cooking and watching films. Odd to TEVEN MOFFAT, THE dark lord of we got Nick Frost, well, first of all how perfect think we've all now been in Doctor Who" Christmas telly, likes to toy with our is his name! Nicholas Frost. It's the nom de Which, coupled with working on Steven expectations, but Doctor Who meets plume that Santa Claus would use, isn't it? I Spielberg's 2011 movie The Adventures ofTintin Santa Claus... is he for real? "Rest was really tempted to write in a line where he with Steven Moffat (Moffat co-wrote the screen assured, I haven't completely lost passes himself off as Nicholas Frost, but it's too play and Frost played Thomson the detective), is Smy marbles here," he says. fourth-wall-breaking. Nick is ideal. He's what probably why he felt so at home on set. "Moffat When we last saw the Time Lord in the Santa should be in Doctor Who land." is a very clever man - taking Doctor Who some season finale, he was as startled as we were to Moffat is keen to reassure anyone whose where completely different isn't easy," he argues. find Father Christmas tapping on the Tardis heart sinks at this daft-sounding premise. "I "And he was happy to allow me to improvise on door. It topped a series that hurled a barrage of sense that the very people who think they set and push things out a bit. wacky ideas at viewers, from killer graffiti, to might hate this, won't hate it at all. Of all the "I've agreed not to leak any spoilers but here's the Moon being an egg, to archenemy the Christmas specials I've done, it's the one most something I bet you didn't know: Peter Master becoming a lady. Surely the show- like the paradigm Doctor Who episode." Capaldi is such a giggler. Trust me. runner had qualms about bringing a jolly They've bundled up the festive content in what Whatever you see on screen on figure such as Santa, beloved of children big he describes as "a big lump of goodness" in the Christmas Day, there's a version of and small, aboard the Tardis. "It does look form of Frost's Santa, but Moffat promises: it somewhere with Peter giggling like the most insane moment when "The rest is actually a scary, tense and claustro the whole time..." Santa turns up," he concedes, phobic adventure - as hopefully you saw from STEPHEN "but we haven't gone off our the trailer. It's not selling you a dummy there." ARMSTRONG rockers. No, Santa is written In a nutshell, this year's special, Last in properly, in a science- Christmas, is about scientists beset by HEAVENLY PEACE fiction way, into Doctor Who" monsters at the North Pole. Plus Santa. "It's Frost felt very So he trusts there'll be no The Thing meets Miracle on 34th Street - the at home on "crying children and parents movie we've all been waiting for. It's certainly the Doctor trying to kill me - again". Who set the strangest bloody thing I've ever written." Perhaps it's a miracle that Santa's sleigh and the police T WILL BE Moffat's fifth yuletide yarn, box haven't collided in the matching his predecessor Russell T night sky before. At this time IDaviess tally. Indeed, since taking over as of year, of course, Santa is executive producer in 2010, he's overseen 57 actually rather busy, far too individual episodes and will overtake Davies's busy to help out a lonely Time round 60 next year. But Moffat remains Lord, so for the purposes of undimmed, insisting fresh ideas are never a television he's played by Nick struggle - for his own scripts or those he Frost. Moffat has worked with commissions from other writers. the comedy actor before on the "If you're a writer, you're supposed to have Tintin film, but he didn't write ideas. Whether they're any good or not isn't up Santa with Frost in mind. to me. It's whether you're still excited by it - "I've always had a very clear jumping up and down about the idea you've impression of Santa, but when just had. You've got to bring energy into the > 15 TIME WEIGHS HEAVY A candid moment on set - on 3 October, the final w day of filminq, Peter Capaldi reflects on his first year in the Tardis CAPALDI'S HIGHS EMOTIONS IN CHECK 1"I'm not sure I'm a hugging person now," says an awkward 12th Doctor, as Clara embraces him in the opening episode.