Christopher Ryan guest-stars - Radio Times, April 2008

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Christopher Ryan guest-stars - Radio Times, April 2008

RT's Nick Griffiths meets the man behind the mask as The Young Ones star Christopher Ryan joins Doctor Who to play a Sontaran general.

This week's new two-parter [The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky] not only sees the return of previous companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) but also the reappearance of old adversaries the Sontarans, and an actor who's been here before. Christopher Ryan was in Doctor Who in 1986, opposite Colin Baker's Doctor. Then he played Lord Kiv, which involved sitting immobile covered in make-up, with, he recalls, "a sluggish, reptilian tail".

Now, 22 years later, Ryan is back, with another intensive make-up job, as Sontaran General Staal, chief of a warlike race of clone creatures: short, stocky, aggressive.

Each morning it took three hours to get the costume on. "It was actually quite relaxing," says Ryan. "The prosthetics team was brilliant. The quality of work is amazing and done under such pressure. It's quite frightening coming into Who - like running alongside a speeding train and having to jump on and be up to speed. So having the make-up put on was a break."

Famous as Mike the Cool Person in The Young Ones, Ryan, now aged 58, talks to RT during a break from theatre work. He says Staal lives "for war, glory and honour. He's single-minded. It's good to be able to have a go every now and again, let anger and frustration out. In a controlled way, of course. But I was glad to have that opportunity."

For research, Ryan bought DVDs of 1970s Sontaran stories, as well as the new Doctor Who, which he had to watch on a portable DVD player. "I got rid of my TV years ago. Reality stuff started and there were things in my life that needed attention and I thought, 'I wonder if I can live without a TV?' And I found that I could. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out," Ryan says of his Sontaran role. "Although I don't know whether I'll get to see it."

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