Roger Delgado (1973)

There aren’t really any in-depth interviews with Roger Delgado, so this small collection of quotes, originally from an old ‘Doctor Who Magazine’, is likely to be the best we can come up with.

“I love playing villains. I am chosen by directors to play wicked men because I have a beard, a menacing  chin and piercing eyes. I was thrilled to be offered the part of the Master as I had tried three times to break into ‘Doctor Who’ but the scope offered by the part was way above any other I had considered.

“I enjoyed this chap who was really more than just a Moriarty to the Doctor, and I could tell from fan letters that I was the man they loved to hate. There were even one or two kids who complained that I wasn’t wicked enough!”

Roger Delgado (1972)

I’ve yet to find a good, in-depth interview with Roger Delgado, so for now this very brief press cutting from 1972 (a scanner will be found eventually, I promise!) will have to do. No great revelations, but it’s still interesting to read the words of the man himself.

As Dr. Who’s arch nemesis, The Master gets to conjure up increasingly weird and wacky traps as he tries to take over the world each week.

For actor Roger Delgado, it’s a chance to do battle with his friend Jon Pertwee and to enjoy the wonderful array of monsters dreamed up by the Dr. Who writers. “Every week it’s something new,” he reckons. “Every time we get to the set, there’s some new beast lumbering about, with some poor fellow trapped inside, sweating buckets.”

Delgado promises The Master’s evil schemes aren’t coming to an end just yet, despite viewers seeing him vanquished at the end of the popular show’s most recent run. “It will take more than that to keep him down, I’m sure,” he says. “I don’t know if the Doctor will ever be able to rest, knowing I’m out there waiting to strike.”