Alan Cumming was asked to play the Doctor – but there was one crucial requirement that put him off

Speaking at Listowel Writer's Week in Ireland, the Huffington Post reports how Cumming regaled the two times he had been approached, initially by "that lovely Welshman" (who we can only presume is Russell T Davies, who rebooted the show back in 2005), and then again by writer Mark Gatiss in recent years.

On the first occasion, he was very keen on the idea from the outset. He recalled that he was told: "You'll have to come back to Britain."

“I said, ‘Sure, I still have a flat in London, it’d be perfect.’ Then he said, ‘It’s eight months of the year in Cardiff…' And I said, ‘What?’ And I think that might have been what blew it," Cumming said. “Nothing against Cardiff, but…”

The same hurdle reared its head when the Scotsman was approached by Gatiss.

He says of his encounter with the writer: “He had heard of this [previous discussion], and he said, ‘Would you like to be Doctor Who now?’

“I said, ‘Fine, I’d love to, but they [previously] told me I’d have to go to Cardiff for eight months of the year ‘ and he said, ‘Oh no, you’d still have to do that.’

He then referenced Meatloaf's popular refrain: “I’d do anything for Doctor Who, but I won’t do that.”

Poor old Cardiff...