John Barrowman, the gorgeous out actor and singer has joined the cast of Doctor Who as Captain Jack Harkness, a bi-sexual inter-galactic time-travelling con-artist! who has a taste for both the ladies and gentlemen! Rumour has it that after flirting with Rose, the Doctor’s sidekick, Captain Jack turns his amorous attentions to the good Doctor himself!

Could our mysterious Time Lord really be a Gay Lord? Gaydar Radio’s Neil Sexton spoke to the man himself to find out more about Doctor Who and about playing a blonde Nazi in the film version of The Producers!

The new series of Doctor Who has been a tremendous success. How have you found the series so far; are you enjoying it?
It’s been great, but it’s about to get much better! The thing is, is that I know what’s going to happen, so I’m not watching it with the same baited breath that everybody else is. I know all the little secrets and storylines, but I am enjoying it; I think it’s one of the better things on Saturday evening television.

It’s great TV and I have to say I think it’s better than the original series.
I’m not gonna say who’s better and who’s not, but it’s a little more modern; things have changed.  We couldn’t do a series like the old one for today’s audience because they wouldn’t accept it. On the mainstream BBC we have to have something competitive with the likes of Buffy and Smallville.

The thing I love the most is that it’s very character driven.
Yes. Where before it was more driven by the places they would go to or the monsters, this time it’s character driven. The other things are added in order to develop the characters more. You have to watch out for Captain Jack!

Tell me about him, he sounds like quite a flamboyant character.
Flamboyant, yes but to a certain extent he’s not as flamboyant as the Doctor sometimes! He’s a time agent from the future who hooks up with Rose and the Doctor and tries to con them when they first meet. Through the course of that first episode and the second episode that he’s in they become, shall we say, a threesome – no pun intended! But things do develop…

What sort of things develop?
I can’t tell you - I don’t want to give it away. All I’ll say is that John Barrowman changes the face of Doctor Who history for the BBC!

Really? This is sounding exciting! How many episodes are you in it for?
I’m in it until the end of this series, which is a cliff-hanger, and then we’ll to wait and see what happens in the second and third series.

The episode that introduces your character is set in London during the height of the blitz. Was that fun, filming retro?
It was actually, although all the stuff we did was on blue screen, so none of it was there when we were working. We all had to pretend basically, like my invisible spaceship that we stand on and the scenes of London being bombed during the blitz. It’s an epic, it’s absolutely stunning.

Well you’ve sold it to me, I can’t wait.
It’s freaky too because the villain is a child, and it’s very weird because we have to basically kill a child.

Do you think this series is as scary as it could be?
The one coming up is actually very frightening. It’s gonna get scarier as we get nearer to episode thirteen because the stakes are higher and with Jack, Rose and the Doctor all going at it together - excuse me(!) - there’s a lot more at stake. It’s kind of like the brains the beauty and the brawn.

And you’re the brawn?
I’m the beauty baby! How dare you! I’m a bit of both!

I’m just teasing! What was it like working with Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston?
It was just fantastic. When I initially started, which was just before Christmas 2004, I went into a series that had been filming since July. Everyone knew I was joining the team because I was hired at the same time as they were, but it was weird to walk into a situation where they’d been working together for a while. However, after we shot the first couple of scenes things just clicked and we had a great time together.

Is it a pressurised filming environment?
No, absolutely not. It’s a high turnover and we had to get the episodes out quickly, but it was a lot of fun and everybody on the set from the camera man down to catering had a good laugh. I think that’s what made it so exciting and what made the series so successful, because everyone involved wanted to be there and knew that they were part of making a new, iconic British TV series which had already come from an iconic background.

So what else is going on with you at the moment John?
I just flew back from New York; I’m in the new movie version of Mel Brooks’ The Producers. You’ll get to see me blonde and dressed up as a Nazi SS Storm trooper doing ‘Springtime For Hitler’! I front the entire number and sing it with my dulcet tones. I filmed that with Uma Thurman; it took us about a week and a half to do an eight minute slot, but it’s going to look absolutely spectacular.

Did you get to meet Mel Brooks?
I did. It was actually Mel and Susan Stroman who rang my agent to contact me while I was filming Doctor Who and they said, ‘we’d love you to do this, but this has no dialogue it’s just singing,’ and I thought, ‘the whole movie culminates to this point. Who are they going to be watching at that point? I think I’ll say yes.’

Have you ever worn a Nazi uniform before?
Not that I’d like to talk about! Harry and I don’t usually go out together when we’ve got the outfits on!

What was Mel Brooks like?
Mel Brooks was spectacular. He was very down-to-earth - in fact the first time I met him was when I was recording the soundtrack prior to the week and a half of filming. He and I actually put the schedule behind three-and-a-half hours because we sat and talked about Florida the whole time! They kept coming up to us and saying, ‘Mr Brooks, we’re ready for Mr Barrowman,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah yeah, just a minute, just a minute!’

After the filming he said, ‘We watched the dailies of the stuff you did yesterday and everyone cheered and applauded when the face of this Nazi came up on the camera.’ It must have been the first time a room full of Jews has applauded a Nazi!

But that’s the genius of the fact that he’s managed to make a musical and a huge hit out of such a desperate moment in history.
Absolutely. Some people get defensive about what happened, it was a terrible thing but he’s poking fun at the people who caused that horror and it’s time to make fun of them.

Plus, it keeps it in the minds of people who weren’t around when that was going on; I think that’s a good thing.
Exactly. I think my favourite bit is when Hitler comes walking down like Judy Garland and does this whole Judy Garland bit at the bottom of the stage! The guy who plays Hitler in the movie makes me wet myself every time I see him!!

I can’t wait! When’s the movie out?
It should be out over Christmas, but prior to that I’ll be doing my cabaret show at Pizza on the Park over the summer for about a week, and then taking it on to other places around Europe.

What do you do?
I like the people seeing the show to feel like they’re sitting in my living room as if I’m sitting by my piano and just singing songs that I enjoy. The songs that I sing let them get to know me a bit better - like the fact that I was born and raised in Scotland and moved to America - so it’s basically a retrospective through song of my life where you’ll get to know me a little more intimately…

Read our article about Doctor Who And The Gay Fans and Queer As (Doctor) Who and our interviews with Russell T Davies and Christopher Eccleston.

Listen to the lovely John Barrowman by buying his great CDs Reflections From Broadway and Swings Cole Porter. Buy them online and save some money to put towards the DVD release of the new Doctor Who series - Doctor Who: Series 1 Volume 1