<\/p>
Comedian Frank Skinner was originally suggested to play the lead role in Doctor Who<\/a> spin-off Class, before series creator Patrick Ness steered the show into a different direction.<\/p>\n The short-lived BBC Three drama followed students at Coal Hill Academy, a recurring location in the Doctor Who franchise, as they took on the responsibility of protecting Earth from extraterrestrial threats \u2013 while also juggling complex personal lives.<\/p>\n However, the show looked rather different when writer Patrick Ness was first approached to develop it, with the BBC looking for an adult lead character to unite the teens in a similar manner to The Sarah Jane Adventures<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had been inspired by The Caretaker [series eight, episode six], where The Doctor was undercover at Coal Hill. Their first idea was to have another caretaker type character,\u201d Ness told RadioTimes.com<\/a>.<\/p> As for who the Beeb had been considering to lead the show, it was none other than stand-up comedian and Room 101 host Frank Skinner, who had previously appeared as engineer Perkins in Doctor Who series eight\u2019s Mummy on the Orient Express.<\/p>\n Ness continued: \u201cI remember they\u2019d mentioned Frank Skinner as a possible idea, but I said \u2013 with the greatest respect to Frank Skinner \u2013 if you do that in a show for teens, what you\u2019ve got is a bunch of teens waiting around for an adult to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether the execs intended for Skinner to reprise the role of Perkins, who became a friend to Peter Capaldi\u2019s Twelfth Doctor and was offered a place in the TARDIS, or if they wanted to re-introduce him as a different character altogether.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Ness pushed back against the idea of putting an adult actor in a leadership position on the show, feeling that it would make the premise less appealing to young people.<\/p>\n \u201cI argued that you\u2019d have to get it away from what Sarah Jane Adventures did so beautifully and make it for older teens, who are all about having their own agency and making their own choices,\u201d said Ness. \u201cIn other words, they\u2019re the centre of the show, not the authority character.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThey liked that idea, and my pitch for the show came together really fast. It\u2019s how I knew it was working, ideas came fast and furious \u2013 which they don\u2019t always.\u201d<\/p>\n To find out more about the origins of Class, check out our five-year anniversary feature<\/a> on how the spin-off was made, featuring interviews with the cast and creators.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Looking for something to watch? Have a browse through more of our Sci-Fi<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By David Craig Published: Thursday, 21 October 2021 at 12:00 am Comedian Frank Skinner was originally suggested to play the lead role in Doctor Who spin-off Class, before series creator Patrick Ness steered the show into a different direction. The short-lived BBC Three drama followed students at Coal Hill Academy, a recurring location in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6040,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/10\/doctor-who-spin-off-class-was-originally-supposed-to-star-frank-skinner.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By David Craig Published: Thursday, 21 October 2021 at 12:00 am Comedian Frank Skinner was originally suggested to play the lead role in Doctor Who spin-off Class, before series creator Patrick Ness steered the show into a different direction. The short-lived BBC Three drama followed students at Coal Hill Academy, a recurring location in the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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