Bayo Gbadamosi

Bayo Gbadamosi played Vincey in the Doctor Who television story Empress of Mars. Vincey is a member of the British Army in 1881.

Mark Gatiss' objections
Writer Mark Gatiss protested against Gbadamosi's casting, as he believed that "there weren't any black soldiers in Victoria's army". He put historical accuracy over ethnic representation, and "mak[ing] everything less homogeneously white", as he put the BBC's general mission. He claimed an email he wrote to a colleague on the matter was "very difficult". Gatiss eventually backed down when he discovered, on doing some research, that there was one African soldier in the army at the time: Jimmy Durham.

"I got kind of obsessed with this great story," Gatiss recounted. "This boy, when he was 18 years old, was rescued [from the Nile] by the Durham Light Infantry. And they made him their mascot - they called him Jimmy Durham. And he became what was called a listed officer, by special dispensation of Queen Victoria. He retired to the North East, married a white girl, and his descendants still live there. It's an amazing story."