Ncuti Gatwa will play Doctor Who
Ncuti Gatwa (Photo: BBC)

Sex Education and Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has been in Venice in recent days, enjoying the sights and some of the Italian city’s famed film festival.

Over the weekend, he took time out to post some photos and videos, including some topless footage from his hotel room. Gatwa’s toned body is gleaming, either with sweat or some sort of moisturizer.

Check it out below, with a video on the third slide. Gatwa, 31, is in the city with a makeup artist and friend, Bella Arghiros.

In a second posting, he dropped images of himself dressed head to toe in Armani to attend a film festival event.

However, it was the first set of photos that seemed to provoke a bigger internet reaction, unsurprisingly!

“Wtffffff 🤤” said Joel Kim Booster in the replies to Gatwa’s torso shot.

Some applauded Gatwa for other reasons. It was widely noted that one of Gatwa’s Venice photos showed ‘Free Palestine’ graffiti scrawled on a wall. This prompted further praise but also some backlash on social media.

​​From Rwanda to the UK and ‘Doctor Who’

Gatwa was born in Rwanda in 1992 before moving to Scotland as an infant when his family relocated to escape the 1994 genocide.

He relocated to London aged 21 and landed his first acting role in 2014. However, he struggled to make headway in the industry.

In 2020, he talked movingly about finding himself homeless for a short while at the age of 25, just before landing his breakthrough role in Sex Education.

He was announced as the new Doctor in Doctor Who in 2022. He also had a role in last year’s blockbuster, Barbie.

‘Doctor Who’ complaints and third season

Gatwa’s first series as the Doctor aired earlier this year. In an episode entitled ‘Rogue’, the doctor kisses a character played by Jonathan Groff. The brief kiss led to a handful of complaints to the BBC (it airs on Disney+ elsewhere in the world) about inappropriate “sexual innuendo”.

Ncuti Gatwa and Jonathan Groff in Doctor Who
Ncuti Gatwa and Jonathan Groff in Doctor Who (Photo: BBC)

The BBC investigated the complaints but last week dismissed them.

In a statement, the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) said, “The ECU considered the sexual innuendo to be towards the mildest end of the spectrum and in any case likely to go over the heads of children.

“The development of the relationship served the needs of a fast-moving plot and was unlikely to strike viewers of any age as a model for interpersonal relationships outside this particular fictional context.”

In more news for Doctor Who fans, showrunner Russell T Davies has said he can’t yet say whether Gatwa will be back for a third season. Davies says it’s simply because Gatwa’s second season won’t air until early next year and nothing has been commissioned beyond that.

“It’s an industry decision, it’s like any business – these things take time,” Davies told SFX magazine, reports GamesRadar. “I think the decision will come after the transmission of season two. That’s what we’re expecting, that’s what we’ve always been heading towards.”

Before the next season of Doctor Who arrives, Gatwa will be treading the boards again. This winter he appears at London’s National Theatre in the Oscar Wilde classic, The Importance of Being Earnest.

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