Doctor Who: Sex Education actor Ncuti Gatwa to be the new incarnation of Time Lord

The BBC announced on Sunday that Ncuti Gatwa will be the first Black actor to portray the lead role in the British science fiction programme Doctor Who, taking over from Jodie Whittaker as the 14th incarnation of the Time Lord next year. Before the news was confirmed by the broadcaster, the 29-year-old Scot, who stars in Netflix's Sex Education, posted two hearts and a blue square on his Instagram account, depicting the Doctor's Tardis, a time-travelling police telephone box.

Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda, said he had kept the casting announcement secret since February. He said on the red carpet for the BAFTA TV awards, where he was competing for best male comedy performance for Sex Education, that it's a tremendously iconic part of an enormously iconic series, and he just hopes he does it justice. The actor is just aiming to fill in some pretty huge shoes.

Since the series premiered in 1963, the Doctor has been able to regenerate, allowing several actors to assume the role. Gatwa described the show as the most beautiful form of escapism, in which viewers could forget about their problems and travel into space to fight aliens.

Whittaker was the first woman to play the Doctor, and she announced her departure from the series last year. Later this year, she will appear in a special episode to commemorate the BBC's centennial.

Russell T. Davies, who left Doctor Who in 2009 but is returning, described Gatwa's talent as bright, daring, and magnificent. On the red carpet, when followed Gatwa, he told Reuters that he could imagine him exploring the part for years and taking it somewhere new. That was his impression. The actor had the feeling that we could go far with this.