Doctor Who’s Lenny Rush remembers his terrified first reaction to Sutekh

“I was acting, then this deep voice came on and I was like, ‘OH MY GOD, THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING?!'”

By James Hibbs

Published: Friday, 21 June 2024 at 18:00 PM

The climax of Doctor Who season 14’s penultimate episode, The Legend of Ruby Sunday, proved to be a shocking and terrifying sequence, as classic villain Sutekh was revealed as the season’s big bad.

However, it turns out the episode wasn’t just a fright-fest for viewers at home, but the actors also had to contend with some real-life scares on set.

Speaking in this month’s issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Morris Gibbons star Lenny Rush revealed that he and other cast members heard Gabriel Woolf as the voice of Sutekh on set, but he hadn’t known that was going to happen.

He explained: “I was acting, then this deep voice came on and I was like, ‘OH MY GOD, THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING?!’ The editors will be like, ‘Wow, he’s really good at acting scared,’ but I actually was. Of course I was.”

In the interview, Rush also teased that Morris’s Segway “has some secrets” that may help him in the finale, Empire of Death.

Sutekh in Doctor Who's The Legend of Ruby Sunday staring menacingly into camera
Sutekh in Doctor Who’s The Legend of Ruby Sunday.
BBC

Rush spoke about his experience living with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, saying: “I think realistically, and brutally, there are some things that, because of my disability, I can’t do. On the other hand, there are many things, because of my disability, I can do.”

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Rush explained that he got his role in Jack Thorne’s Old Vic adaptation of A Christmas Carol in part because they were looking for “a kid with a disability”, with this later leading to him playing the character again in Steven Knight’s 2019 TV adaptation.

“None of that would have happened if I didn’t have my disability,” he explained. “A lot of life with a disability is just making adaptations. I love living with my disability. I love it.

“I get a lot of people, particularly on Instagram, messaging me like, ‘My child has dwarfism,’ or whatever disability, ‘and watching you makes them so happy,’ and honestly, that means so much to me. To know that I do that. I don’t know what I do, but to know that I make people feel like that, I feel very, very lucky.”

Rush was originally meant to play a different character in Doctor Who season 14, voicing the space baby Eric, but after an impressive readthrough performance, showrunner Russell T Davies took the opportunity to cast him in the larger role of Morris.