Bradley Walsh is Doctor Who’s unsung hero

Doctor Who has a secret weapon in Bradley Walsh, and the sci-fi series is giving him a whole new spotlight. Learn more about him in this Deeper Cut.

Doctor Who has garnered a lot of attention this season, with the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor and Chris Chibnall taking over as showrunner. But what isn’t being talked about enough is the magic of Bradley Walsh.

Walsh stepped into the TARDIS this fall as Graham O’Brien, one of three companions for the new Doctor. For American fans, Doctor Who might be the first time they’ve seen him. But if you know anything about British TV, you understand he’s a national treasure — as we’ll explore in this week’s Deeper Cut.

Graham is introduced in “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” as the husband of Grace (played by the also fabulous Sharon D. Clarke). He struggles to bond with Grace’s grandson Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), whom she had raised since Ryan was young.

But when an alien descends on Sheffield, the family and Ryan’s school friend Yasmin “Yaz” Khan (Mandip Gill) find themselves collaborating with the Doctor to save the planet—and, following an accident, traveling through space and time in the TARDIS.

Companions support the Doctor, and the new trio have served as more than able assistants in the new adventures; they’re some of the best companions in Doctor Who history. But Graham’s story, and Bradley Walsh’s performance, have particularly resonated and created a very human subplot running through the whole season.

Grace gives her life to stop the alien threat, and the series has taken the time to explore how much her death affects both Graham and Ryan. Viewers learn that Graham met Grace, a nurse, when he was battling cancer; though that was just a few years before and audiences only see them in one episode together, their love for one another is obvious and poignant.

After she’s gone, the rest of Doctor Who season 11 explores how Graham deals with her loss and how he changes in her absence, as well as how he tries to build a relationship with Ryan given that they’re all each other has left. It’s a joy to watch Graham and Ryan grow closer to one another, and it’s heartbreaking to see them both grieve.

Graham is a character whom audiences would want to watch even if he’d never met the Doctor, and Walsh fits seamlessly into the Doctor Who universe (perhaps due in part to the fact that he previously played a villain in a two-part installment of The Sarah Jane Adventures years earlier).

He’s remarkable at playing every facet of Graham’s story as it unfolds, whether he gets a large amount of screen time or is working in support of someone else. He’s the slightly perplexed retired bus driver who’s game for anything; he’s the man who’s just lost the love of his life; he’s the father figure who’s damned determined that not even the universe is going to come between him and his family.

Bradley Walsh is the glue that holds Doctor Who together. As wonderful as Jodie Whittaker is as the Doctor, Graham provides the human counter-balance to her alien exuberance. His personal arc has become a through-line for Doctor Who series 11.

He’s gone from losing Grace to being confronted with a false version of her in “It Takes You Away,” to deciding whether or not to get revenge for her death in “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos,” and most recently confronting Ryan’s absent father in the New Year’s special “Resolution.” Graham is on his own journey of growth and self-reflection that just happens to be in a spiffy police box.

But all that adventuring isn’t far off the mark from Walsh’s last long-running role. BBC America’s audience should also remember him as Ronnie Brooks in Law & Order: UK, the British version of the NBC procedural. Ronnie seemed to be based on Law & Order‘s best-known and most beloved character Lennie Briscoe, and if anyone could hold a candle to the legendary Jerry Orbach, it was Bradley Walsh.

Like his predecessor, Ronnie was quick-witted and a little jaded, the veteran police officer who had seen it all and loved his job more than almost anything on Earth. But underneath his charming and jovial exterior was someone flawed and hurt: a recovering alcoholic, twice divorced and estranged from his children. He was trying to make amends, and the mentoring of his partners was a way for him to deal with the absence of his family.

Walsh played both sides of Ronnie Brooks beautifully. He was funny and charismatic, projecting a warmth that made the audience feel like they knew him and could trust him to catch the bad guys in even the toughest episodes. But he also showed us what made Ronnie tick, and how he had his own battles to fight—his performance in the sixth season opener “Survivor’s Guilt” was stunning in how deeply it cut the character open.

This is what Bradley Walsh does; he’s a blue-collar hero, a natural at putting people at ease and making them laugh, at bringing them into the proverbial family. He’s someone that the audience can instantly warm to and feel safe with. Yet he’s also a brilliant actor, who can go to some deep and difficult places. And believe it or not, that’s just one aspect of his multi-faceted career.

When he’s not acting, Walsh has an equally lengthy resume as a TV presenter, particularly in the game show realm. He’s best known as the host of the original UK edition of The Chase. 2019 will be his tenth year on the show, with over 1,300 episodes to his credit.

Hosting any game show is no easy feat, as you’re essentially the master of ceremonies for a TV circus, and Walsh makes it look easy. His personality shines through in every respect, and what really helps is he gets into the game and the banter just as much as the players or anyone who’s watching at home.

Several of The Chase‘s funniest moments are because Bradley Walsh has had another meltdown, laughing at something that deserves to be laughed at! In fact, he’s responsible for what may be the most hilarious scene in all of game show history.

And wait, there’s more: Walsh is also a singer who’s released two studio albums. His debut record even made chart history, as the highest-selling first album by a British artist in 2016. He is truly a Renaissance man—an actor, a presenter, and a musical performer. Whatever he’s doing, his key to success is the same: how genuine he is.

It’s Bradley Walsh’s personality that comes through when he’s hosting and pulls the audience into the TV show. It’s Bradley Walsh’s down-to-earth attitude that made his character on Law & Order: UK so relatable. And it’s Bradley Walsh’s warmth and compassion that rests at the core of Graham O’Brien.

Graham cares about Grace, about Ryan, about Yaz and The Doctor and total strangers that he has just met. In “Resolution” he even spends time having a sit-down with Ryan’s father to try and get through to him. Doctor Who makes a hero out of a man who never expected to be one—his whole aim was to be a loving husband, step-grandfather, and just have a good life.

And yet, that’s why he is a hero and a great companion, because he’s an ordinary man rising to an extraordinary occasion. The same can be said of Bradley Walsh. He’s an extraordinary talent, but what makes him worth our admiration is that he’s still an ordinary bloke who we can welcome into our homes every week. He’s an old friend with whom we want to go on that next great adventure.

So while Doctor Who continues to soar, if it finally shines a brighter spotlight on the talent and the greatness of Bradley Walsh, that’ll be its most awesome happening yet.

Doctor Who returns in 2020, but fans can stream the entire latest season on demand through BBC America. Find the latest Deeper Cut every Wednesday in the Entertainment category at FanSided.