The Working Angels: What is it Like to be A Doctor Who Monster?

Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

If you’ve ever looked at a Dalek, Morbius monster or Zygon and thought ‘Christ, I bet it’s hot in there’ then, my friend, you’re already fifty percent of the way there to understanding the pain of being a Doctor Who monster.

Someone who turns their personal discomfort into our personal pleasure is  Louise-Marie Bowen, who has been sharing with BBC News just what it’s like to bring the iconic monster to life. In her time on Doctor Who, Bowen played a number of different monsters and filmed in the TARDIS, spaceships and in caves in Monmouthshire.

Bowen played a Weeping Angel when they made an appearance in the 2013 Christmas Special, The Time of the Doctor, with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, and of all the monsters she has portrayed, they were her favourites.

“It’s a very believable monster and one that everyone can relate to because we see them in our lives,” she said. “As a child, we’ve probably thought ‘what if that statue comes alive?’

“If you look at statues in graveyards, their posture is very upright, so I think they wanted to portray very angelic, quite beautiful statues but which have menace. So the girls who were hired were all dancers.”

However, playing a Weeping Angel meant an arduous day for the performer charged with bringing stone to life.

“It was fantastic, don’t get me wrong…You’re in a skirt that doesn’t move and you can only move your upper body.

“You’re on your feet for the best part of 15 hours a day, it takes two-and-a-half hours to get ready and then about one-and-a-half hours to get it all off again. So the crew goes home and I’ve got to stay another hour-and-a-half. But it’s great, it’s really good.”

So good in fact, they outrank all the other monsters in term of a visceral fan reaction that she has played.

“I’ve been a Silurian, a peg doll and a handbot,” she said. “But Weeping Angels are my favourite as you get most reaction – although peg dolls are very scary and as a child I was afraid of peg dolls and rag dolls.

“I once did a Doctor Who convention and dressed up as a peg doll and had to jump out and scare people, which was fantastic – I couldn’t do that as a Weeping Angel and connect with the real-life audience.

“But when I tell people I was a Weeping Angel they don’t believe me until I show them a photo – or they joke that I’ve got the best Halloween costume.”

 You can read more about the origins of the Weeping Angels and Bowen’s Doctor Who experiences over at BBC News.

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