Matthew Waterhouse

Matthew Waterhouse (born 19 December 1961 in Hertford) played companion Adric in Doctor Who from "Full Circle" to "Earthshock," with cameo appearances in "Time-Flight" and "The Caves of Androzani." After leaving the series, he began a stage career.

Waterhouse began his career as a clerk in the BBC news department before securing a role in the television drama, To Serve Them All My Days, in 1980. Shortly afterward he auditioned for and won the role of Adric. He was a confirmed Doctor Who fan and had had, by that point, at least one letter printed in Doctor Who Weekly before he took up the role.

Adric was a companion of Tom Baker and Peter Davison's Doctors from 1980 to 1982. Waterhouse was the youngest male actor to play a companion (Jackie Lane, who played Dodo Chaplet, holds the distinction of being the youngest female actor to play a companion). Matthew Waterhouse is openly gay and is believed to be the first actor on Doctor Who to have been open about his sexuality while on the series. He also played the first companion to die in the series since Katarina in 1965 and Sara Kingdom in 1966.

Waterhouse's name was used, as an in-joke, by comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams for a character in their sketch show Little Britain. Waterhouse in the programme is an unsuccessful inventor of bizarre and ridiculous new versions of things such as board games and breakfast cereals. (Little Britain has also featured two other characters named after Doctor Who companion actors, Michael Craze and Mark Strickson.)

Waterhouse has lived in Connecticut, in the United States, since July 1998. He still appears occassionally at fan conventions and visits the UK. Most recently, he has contributed to the commentary for the DVD releases of "The Visitation" and "Earthshock."