Lizard woman got under my ove to bring her back from dead
aula, played by ars she’s made n she starts to played by Neve iends. e dismissed as might be. Then
ker as it goes on maybe she’s not
hink people are ably are. but it’s a really men who have because they y feel they lose ed for. It’s such
for a woman to ance and to not it. to leave to have a baby, it doesn’t mean you are bad at your job. That must get confused.”
Having recently starred in grisly Sky 1 medical drama Critical, Neve was delighted to be back in Glasgow, where she has previously filmed Lip Service, Case Histories and Single Father, and working on a project she believed in.
She said: “It’s one of those scripts you read and think, ‘I wish I was in more of it.’ Morven and Vicky were just wonderful, I can’t say enough about them, and it was great to work with Dougray again.
“I did a film with him in the Highlands years ago called One Last Chance.
“When you have such a good cast, everybody’s got to up their game and it makes it kind of easier. You get more out of the work. I loved working with them. It was lovely to do a good strong women’s story set in Glasgow.”
No woman, however, is as strong as Madame Vastra – and Neve loves going to Dr Who conventions to meet the fans.
She said: “I get into trouble sometimes at the conventions and get told to speed up because I just like to take a bit of time and speak to everyone. I am such a gabber but it’s lovely.”
Neve was on set when Capaldi made his debut as the 12th Doctor and, with the actor having recently announced his decision to leave the role, she will be sorry to see him go.
She said: “I feel like he has barely been doing it. I have not got to know his Doctor well enough for him to leave.
“It’s a bit sad but I will look forward to seeing what Peter Capaldi does next because everything he does is pretty much brilliant.
“The first scene he filmed as the Doctor was where he came out of the Tardis on the banks of the Thames, so we were all quite nervous. It was fantastic to see someone find his Doctor and watch him marking it out, that was quite amazing.
“I have worked with him a couple of times before and he is the loveliest of men. A brilliant actor and great fun.”
As Doctor Who looks set for another regeneration after the Christmas special, she hopes her Silurian lizard- woman will be somewhere in the mix.
Neve said: “I have not heard anything but that has happened before.
“They f i lm out of sequence and there have been times when I got a call saying, ‘ Can you make it to Cardiff (where it is filmed) in two days time?’
“There was one time we went down thinking we would be working for the week and ended up staying a month. So you don’t know sometimes.
“I would love to be back in it but if our characters don’t fit in the way they want to take the series, then that will be it, I imagine. But we live in hope.” Madame Vastra is no stranger to controversy thanks to her human wife Jenny Flint, played by Catrin Stewart. A brief kiss between the two of them was deemed too controversial for audiences in Asia and cut from broadcasts. But they struck a chord within the LGBT community. Neve said: “I have a big following of lesbian girls or girls who are about to come out, who see Vastra as a massive inspiration just for being yourself. I take a lot of pleasure and pride in that. “People feel they can come up and say, ‘You helped me come out to my parents’. To have someone burst into tears and say, ‘Thank you so much’, is very humbling.”