Blogtor Who: Doctor Who Series 9: Ingrid Oliver interview

Ingrid Oliver as Osgood (C) BBC

Earlier this year, Blogtor visited filming on The Zygon Invasion (when it was titled, Invasion of the Zygons) and chatted with Osgood herself, actress Ingrid Oliver. The episode airs this Saturday at 8.15pm on BBC One.

Like Peter Capaldi, Ingrid Oliver is a smiler and giggler. Often she gushes adorably about how lucky she is not only to be in Doctor Who, but to have returned. Self effacing at every turn, Ingrid mentioned just how upset she was to "die" in the Series 8 finale Death In Heaven and how lead writer Steven Moffat didn't let on about her rebirth.

Immediately, I get the elephant in the room out of the way - is she playing the REAL Osgood?
"Well… The Doctor asks me that question as well several times and I don’t tell him the answer to that either…

Invasion of the Zygons sees Oliver don a McCoy era tank-top, I ask if she gets input into referencing previous Doctors.
"It’s always in the script. Steven [Moffat, lead writer] knows what he wants. If I ever came back again, would we have to go through all the Doctors? And then thinking about Colin Baker’s outfit - what would THAT be like? I’d love that, to have a go at all of them at some point. It would get more difficult as it went back to the very beginning."

From what we've seen of the Zygon story, Osgood has a prominent role - I ask if she is playing more of a companion role in the adventure.

"I get to spend quite a lot of time with the Doctor, which is nice. So that’s good. It’s funny, because of having watched a lot of Who you know when filming to slot in behind, slightly to the right. [Laughs] That’s the classic look. You know that’s the natural order of things."

Ingrid Oliver as Osgood in The Zygon Invasion (C) BBC

Ingrid is asked if she would like to be the new companion.

"I wouldn’t answer a hypothetical question like that... [Laughs] She worships the man, so I’m pretty sure she’d follow him anywhere."

I ask if we can expect an Osgood action figure.

"Since day one, I’ve had the 360 photograph thing [a scan performed on actors for action figure production] but as far as I’m aware, I have no figure yet. I’ve not seen anything.

I know that I got a Top Trumps card, which was one of my career defining highlights ever. But it’s also one of the worst cards [laughs], the values are so poor! My terror value was zero! [Laughs]."

Finally, Ingrid discusses the popularity of Osgood.
"It’s bizarre and brilliant. I got sent a YouTube clip by my friends - you know when fans film reactions to them watching an episode - and there was this little kid watching this bit when Osgood got killed and he got really upset. No, NO! And he was really angry for quite a while. In the grand scheme of things I wasn’t in it for that long so it was lovely that people cared.

I got sent this photo from Gallifrey One [an annual North American Doctor Who convention] of twenty Osgoods. There was a 60 year old man dressed as Osgood, it was brilliant."