CUTTING edge

ARIYON BAKARE on why playing an enigmatic barber is a shear delight

- STEVEN PERKINS

DOCTOR WHO SATURDAY, 7.10PM, BBC1 SCI-FI

Mystery and mythology are at the heart of the latest instalment of BBC1's sci-fi adventure Doctor Who when the TARDIS touches down in Nigeria's most-populous city, Lagos.

In The Story & the Engine, written by Nigeria-born playwright Inua Ellams, the Fifteenth Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa) and companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) have an encounter with the mysterious Barber (His Dark Materials and Mr Loverman star Ariyon Bakare). They discover that he holds a lot of influence in a place where stories are immensely powerful, but an entity known as the Spider is posing a sinister threat.

Here, Ariyon, who previously portrayed alien Leandro in 2015 episode The Woman Who Lived alongside Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, reveals why the role of The Barber is a cut above...

You previously appeared in the Whoniverse almost 10 years ago. How does it feel to be back?