Paul McGann Biography

Paul McGann (born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the 1986 television serial The Monocled Mutineer. He is best known for starring in the 1987 dark comedy Withnail and I, and for portraying the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television film (a role he reprised in 72 audio dramas and the 2013 mini episode "The Night of the Doctor").

Early life

McGann was born in Kensington, Liverpool, in 1959 into a Roman Catholic family. His mother, Claire, was a teacher, and his father was a metallurgist. His parents encouraged him and his siblings to develop their talents from an early age. McGann's talents were further developed when he attended Cardinal Allen Grammar school in West Derby, Liverpool. One of McGann's teachers advised him to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and to pursue a career as an actor. Acting on his teacher's advice, McGann applied and was offered a role on the acting course at the RADA.

McGann is the third of six children in the McGann family. His mother had twin boys, Joseph and John, who were born in 1958, but John died shortly after birth. McGann has three younger siblings: Mark (born in 1961), Stephen (born in 1963) and Clare McGann (born in 1965). All three of his brothers are also actors and the four of them starred together (as four brothers) in the 1995 TV serial The Hanging Gale about the Irish Famine. The same year he played the role as Grigori Potemkin in TV film Catherine the Great, with Mark and Stephen too. These brothers also formed the pop quartet the McGanns, releasing the single "Shame About the Boy". McGann's sister, Clare, is a programme finance manager for Channel 5.

Career

Early appearances

Give Us a Break

McGann's breakthrough role was Give us a Break, devised by Geoff McQueen who also created the long running ITV series, The Bill. McGann played a good snooker player who got into scrapes with Robert Lindsay, who played his wideboy manager. The series was a comedy drama in the vein of the popular ITV series of the time, Minder. The series only lasted one series and it was concluded by a one off special.

The Monocled Mutineer

McGann's first major dramatic role was the infamous British deserter and criminal Percy Toplis in the 1986 BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer. The film was based on the 1978 book of the same name, written by William Alison and John Fairley.

Although McGann received praise for his dramatic performance, the drama was never re-broadcast on the BBC. This is because the BBC came under fire from the Conservative Government due to the sensitivity of the subject matter of the taples Mutiny in 1917 at the "Bull Ring", a harsh British Army training ground in taples, France. The events that occurred at the Bull Ring remain the subject of debate; the relevant documents will remain sealed until 2017. The critics claimed that the film was inaccurate and displayed a "left-wing bias". Toplis was a mysterious figure and the film, like the source book, depicted him as an active participant in the taples Mutiny, before he was tracked down and killed some years after the end of World War I after he went on a violent criminal rampage. As a result, a minor political crisis in Britain was launched which prompted the BBC to remove all planned repeat screenings of the film. Despite the banning controversy, The Monocled Mutineer was released by the BBC on video in the early 1990s, and on DVD in 2007.

Film career

Following on from that part of Percy Toplis, McGann sought a less controversial and more comedic role for his next project. In 1986, he was cast as the eponymous "I" in Bruce Robinson's cult film comedy, Withnail and I. He also starred as Anton Skrebensky in Ken Russell's 1989 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow. McGann's other early film appearances include The Monk, Dealers, Tree of Hands and the epic war film Empire of the Sun. McGann and other young British actors who were becoming established film actors such as Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bruce Payne were dubbed the 'Brit Pack'.

Since 1989, McGann has concentrated primarily on television work, including Nice Town and Nature Boy for the BBC, and The One That Got Away and the second series of Hornblower for ITV. However, he has had small roles in a number of high-profile American films like The Three Musketeers and Alien 3. His role in Alien 3 was originally larger, but much of it was edited out of the final print. The cut footage can be seen in the extended version of the film.

In 1993, he was cast as Richard Sharpe, the lead character in the Sharpe series of made-for-TV movies based on Bernard Cornwell's novels, however he injured his knee while playing football just days into filming Sharpe's Rifles in the Ukraine. He was replaced by Sean Bean and the role effectively kick-started Bean's career and is the one that he is most closely identified with. McGann's injury led to what was at the time the largest insurance settlement in British television history, a sum of 2,128,172.

Doctor Who

Paul McGann played the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the Doctor Who 1996 television film. The television film also starred Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook, and the outgoing Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. McGann's brother, Mark McGann, also auditioned for the title role.

The Doctor Who television film was a joint venture between the BBC, Universal Studios and the Fox Broadcasting Network. McGann had signed a contract to appear as the Eighth Doctor in a new Doctor Who series, if Fox or Universal exercised their option. Thus, the television film was supposed to be a "back door pilot" in that, if it obtained respectable ratings, the new series would continue to be produced. The film was shown on 14 May 1996 in the US and on 27 May 1996 in the UK. Although it earned 9.08 million viewers and was very successful in the UK, ratings were very low in the United States. As a consequence, Fox did not exercise its option to pick up the series and Universal could not find another network interested in airing a new Doctor Who series. Thus no new series was produced until 2005, after all the contractual rights had returned to the BBC.

McGann gave permission for his likeness to be used on the covers of the BBC's Eighth Doctor novels and he has reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor in an extensive series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions. A number of these plays have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 7 (later BBC Radio 4 Extra).

Rumours abounded that Paul McGann would reprise the role of the eighth Doctor in a new series of television films, alongside the current television series. McGann has denied these rumours on the grounds of not having been asked back to play the part but if he were to be asked would be interested as long as he "didn't have to wear a wig".

After months of speculation, on 14 November 2013 (coincidentally McGann's birthday), as part of the show's 50th Anniversary celebrations, Paul McGann finally reprised his role as the Eighth Doctor, in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor". In this appearance his incarnation of the Doctor finally regenerates, 17 years after his first television appearance, into a previously unknown Doctor played by John Hurt.

After Doctor Who

In the years following his appearance as the Doctor, Paul McGann continued to diversify his acting portfolio with the television and film roles he accepted. In 1997 he appeared as a concerned father in the film FairyTale: A True Story and later that same year as Rob in Downtime, then in 1998 he appeared as Capt. Greville in The Dance of Shiva.

In the 2000s McGann's film appearances began to increase with films like My Kingdom (2001), Listening (2003) and Gypo (2005). Perhaps his most iconic role since Doctor Who came in 2002, when McGann appeared in the film adaptation of the third story from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, Queen of the Damned. McGann played the part of David Talbot, a member of the secret organisation the Talamasca, which researches and investigates the supernatural. Talbot has appeared in many of Rice's novels and has become a central character over the years. The film also starred Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau and pop star Aaliyah. McGann has also been in demand for voice-over work in Britain in recent years, particularly on television documentaries and commercials.

In 2006, he appeared in the television drama Tripping Over. In 2007, McGann starred alongside Dervla Kirwan, Lorraine Ashbourne and David Bradley in BBC One drama True Dare Kiss, written by Debbie Horsfield. In 2010, McGann played a major role in a feature-length episode of long-running BBC mystery series Jonathan Creek, as well as appearing as a regular in the crime drama Luther. In 2011, McGann played a major role as an Assistant Commissioner with something to hide in the final episode of Waking The Dead. It was also announced that he will be featured in Simon Gray's Butley alongside Dominic West at the Duchess Theatre.

Audio books and voice work

McGann is also known for audio book narration having read several Pat Barker and Bernard Cornwell novels. He narrated the abridged audiobook of Jeff Noon's 1993 cyberpunk classic Vurt.

McGann continues to play the Eighth Doctor on audio. McGann's first Big Finish audio play appearance was in 2001 in the story Storm Warning which featured Blake's 7 leading man, Gareth Thomas. McGann's main companions in the audio plays are Charley Pollard (played by India Fisher) and C'rizz (played by Conrad Westmaas). It was through the Big Finish audio plays that McGann's Doctor finally got a chance to face many of the classic Doctor Who villains like the Daleks (The Time of the Daleks) and the Cybermen (Sword of Orion).

Five Eighth Doctor dramas were broadcast in BBC 7's The 7th Dimension slot between August 2005 and January 2006. They were in release order, starting with Storm Warning, although Minuet in Hell was judged unsuitable for the timeslot, and skipped. Two more Eighth Doctor audios, Shada and The Chimes of Midnight were broadcast in December 2005 and January 2006; all six of these stories were rebroadcast on BBC7 beginning in July 2006. As of January 2007, a series of all-new plays starring McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as companion Lucie Miller is being broadcast on BBC7.

His voice also featured in the 1997 video game Ceremony of Innocence together with those of Isabella Rossellini and Ben Kingsley.

After hearing him sing in The Monocled Mutineer, composer Bernard J. Taylor invited McGann to create the role of Benedict in the concept studio recording of Much Ado, a musical based on of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The recording also included top West End singers Claire Moore and Peter Karrie.

Personal life

In 1992, McGann married Annie Milner, with whom he has two sons, Joe McGann (born in 1988) and Jake McGann (born in 1991). They divorced in 2006.

He had a relationship with the actress Susannah Harker from 2006 until 2008.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Withnail and I	Marwood / "... and I"
	Empire of the Sun	Lt. Price
1989	Tree of Hands	Barry
	The Rainbow	Anton Skrebensky
	Dealers	Daniel Pascoe
1990	The Monk	Father Lorenzo Rojas
	Paper Mask	Matthew Harris
1991	Afraid of the Dark	Tony Dalton
1992	Alien 3	Golic
1993	The Three Musketeers	Girard/Jussac
1996	Doctor Who	The Doctor
1997	FairyTale: A True Story	Arthur Wright
	Downtime	Rob
1998	The Dance of Shiva	Capt. Greville
	The Rime of the Ancient Mariner	Samuel Taylor Coleridge/Ancient Mariner
2001	My Kingdom	Dean
2002	Queen of the Damned	David Talbot
2003	Listening
2005	Gypo	Paul
	Naked in London	Mr Johnson
2006	Poppies	Tony
	Always Crashing in the Same Car	Bill
2009	Lesbian Vampire Killers	Vicar

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Give Us a Break	Mo Morris
1986	The Importance of Being Earnest	John Worthing
	The Monocled Mutineer	Percy Toplis
1990	Drowning in the Shallow End	Colin
1992	Nice Town	Joe Thompson
1995	Catherine the Great	Potemkin
	The Hanging Gale	Liam Phelan
	The Merchant of Venice	Bassanio
	The One That Got Away	Chris Ryan
1998	Our Mutual Friend	Eugene Wrayburn
1999	Forgotten	Ben Turner
2000	Nature Boy	Steve Witton
	Fish	Jonathan Vishnevski
2001	Hotel!	Ben Carter
	Sweet Revenge	Patrick Vine
2002	Blood Strangers	DC David Ingram
	The Biographer	Andrew Morton
2001-2003	Hornblower	Lieutenant Bush
2003	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Dr. Peter Lord
2004	Lie with Me	Gerry Henson
2005	Kidnapped	Colonel MacNab
2005	Fables of Forgotten Things	Clarence
	Agatha Christie's Marple	Dickie Erskine
2006	If I Had You	Philip Andrews
	Tripping Over	Jeremy
	Sea of Souls	Christopher Chambers	1 Episode
2007	True Dare Kiss	Nash
2009	Collision	Richard Reeves
2010	Jonathan Creek	Hugo Dor
2010-2011	Luther	Mark North
2011	Waking the Dead	ACC Tony Nicholson
	New Tricks	DCI James Larson	1 Episode
	Britain's Greatest Codebreaker	Narrator
2012	A Mother's Son	David
2013	Ripper Street	Stanley J. Bone	1 Episode
2013	Moving On	Phil
2013	Wildest Latin America	Narrator
2013	Doctor Who	The Doctor	Mini-episode: "The Night of the Doctor"
2013	The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot	Himself	BBC Red Button webcast