A quiet word with the wicked one

Tag : Jelly Stick

The role landed him a place on the drama course at Poole College'shighly regarded Jellicoe Theatre. He hasn't looked back since.
When I finally contacted Bleach late last week, the 45-year-oldactor sounded remarkably mild-mannered, a little bookish even, but,bearing in mind this was before his debut as Davros on Saturday, heskilfully avoided my questions with a pleasant request that I sendhim an email.
This I did. When he finally replied with a cheery "sorry for thedelay" his answers had been filtered through the public relationsoffice that handles all things Doctor Who.
Although almost certainly unedited, they had clearly been given the"once-over" for fear that some amazing secret might haveaccidentally been divulged ahead of Saturday's climactic episode.
I had asked, among other things, what it was like being chosen toplay such an iconic role.
Bleach admitted: "I felt a certain amount of pressure to live up tothe expectations set by previous portrayals of the character."
But he added: "I was nonetheless grateful for the opportunity toplay such an extraordinary part as Davros, extraordinary not onlybecause of what he is, but also because of what he wants."
However, despite an estimated 10 million viewers and rave reviews,he modestly denies that he had much to do with the creation of thecharacter currently doing battle with the good Doctor.
"Davros was originally created in the Seventies," he says. "My jobhas really been to recreate and match as far as possible an alreadyestablished character, so the Davros you see on the screen is notso much my creation as an interpretation of the character aswritten by Russell T Davies, based on previous iconicperformances."
He says he didn't actually meet Davies but loved working on hisscript and found it remarkably easy to learn.
He puts this down to the writing which, he says, is "vivid anddetailed and has a poetic quality which makes it stick in thememory".
As for the Doctor Who team? "They're all very down to earth,professional, gifted and generous but, more importantly, they allseem to have an inexhaustible sense of humour."
Finally, Bleach tells me he was a keen fan of the series as achild.
"I watched it in the Seventies when my favourite Doctor was TomBaker," he says.
"He had an eccentric, Harpo Marx quality about him and as far as Iremember he was the only Doctor to ever threaten anyone with ajelly baby."