Doctor Who star's character "polar opposite" to Torchwood role
Doctor Who's Indira Varma has said her new character is the "polar opposite" to Torchwood villain Suzie Costello.
Varma appeared in the first season of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood to play Captain Jack Harkness's disgruntled teammate Suzie Costello, who secretly used the shadowy organisation to conduct dodgy experiments with a resurrection gauntlet.
Ahead of her Bridgerton-esque Who episode 'Rogue' this coming weekend, the actor took part in a Q&A alongside co-star Jonathan Groff to discuss playing a Regency-era Duchness in Doctor Who.
"The Duchess is from Regency Era England. She's a woman of society and is throwing an enormous party," said Varma of her latest role. "It's all very fabulous and fashionable, her costume is amazing. We find her at the centre of it all.
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"She's the polar opposite to Suzie. The Duchess has her own agenda but she's whimsical, greedy and playful."
Suzie appeared in two episodes of Torchwood back in 2006, which was of course created by Russell T Davies, and further along Varma opened up about how her Who casting materialised.
"I got an email from Russell, via my agent, asking me if I'd like to play the Duchess and was really excited. I worked with Russell on Torchwood back in the day. That was such a laugh," she recalled.
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"My character in Torchwood, Suzie, was only meant to be in the first episode. She was set up as one of the gang, but turned out to be the rotten egg and died. But then, as you can in the Whoniverse, was brought back to life for an episode as she was the only one who knew how to use the magic glove!"
Varma, who also boasts Game of Thrones, Luther and Obi-Wan Kenobi on her CV, added: "It is so much fun to be part of this world and I really wanted to join the gang again."
Doctor Who debuts new episodes at midnight on Saturday, airing on BBC One in the UK and Disney+ elsewhere. Classic episodes of Doctor Who are available on BBC iPlayer in the UK.
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