Sir John Hurt

Celestial Toyroom Remembers John Hurt, 1940 - 2017

Although his time on Doctor Who was brief, John Hurt certainly left his mark on the programme and its fandom. When an actor is given the role of the Doctor they usually have time to settle in, move around and discover how they want to play the part. John Hurt had to appear on screen as a fully formed ‘forgotten’ incarnation. The fact he did that so well, cementing the War Doctor as a concept and notion we accepted instantly, is a testament to his talent. When news of his death broke on 27th January 2017, our world, our Whoniverse, became a darker place as we realised it truly was a case of War Doctor…no more.

It is only fitting, therefore, that Celestial Toyroom is dedicating an upcoming future issue to John Hurt and looking for contributions. Although Celestial Toyroom is a Doctor Who-based magazine, and the War Doctor should be used as starting point for anything written, we are welcoming discussion and celebration of his other works as well. Word count should be anything up to 1,000 words but if your insight is shorter, that’s fine. The more voices we can have, the better. Deadline for submissions, which should be sent to the usual email address (ct@dwasonline.co.uk) as a Word or text file attachment, is currently 31st March 2017.

If you don’t want to write anything, but have a photograph of yourself with John Hurt you would like to see as part of the magazine, please feel free to send those, together with a name to credit.

Doctor Who News today carries an excellent piece on John Hurt which you can read here: http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2017/01/sir-john-hurt-1940-2017.html