Alan Cumming joins Doctor Who as King James I

Alan Cumming will appear in the upcoming season of Doctor Who as King James I, the actor has revealed.

In an appearance on Will Young and Chris Sweeney’s podcast Homo Sapiens, the bisexual actor revealed that he will be making an appearance on the upcoming season of the BBC sci-fi series, which will feature Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor.

He said: “I’m  about to go and do an episode of Doctor Who, I’m so excited.”

Asked if he was playing a villain, he said: “I’m a nice baddie – I’m James I. I’m like a kind of dandy, foppy coward who comes alright in the end. And they’ve said he might come back!”

The monarch was known as King James VI of Scotland, and was crowned in 1567. In 1603 he was also crowned as King of England and Ireland, ruling as James I until his death in 1625.

The king is one of several British monarchs who is now believed to have had a same-sex lover, though Cumming did not mention if the romance will be featured on Doctor Who.

During his rule, King James handed a string of honours to his rumoured lover George Villiers, who he named a Knight, an Earl, and later Duke of Buckingham.

Plenty of evidence exists to support a relationship between the King and Villiers, though it was long airbrushed from historic record.

During the restoration of James’ favourite royal residence Apethorpe Palace in 2008, a secret passage was even discovered that linked the King’s bedchamber to George’s.

There are many textual records of the pair’s affections for one another.