DOCTOR WHO Star Billie Piper Reveals What Led To Her Leaving The BBC Series In 2006

DOCTOR WHO Star Billie Piper Reveals What Led To Her Leaving The BBC Series In 2006

Billie Piper's Rose Tyler remains one of the Doctor's most popular companions, and the actress has now opened up on what led to her deciding to leave Doctor Who after such a short stint on the BBC series.

By JoshWilding - May 12, 2021 07:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Doctor Who
Source: BBC Radio 4

During a recent appearance on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Billie Piper finally opened up about her Doctor Who departure back in 2006. She left the popular BBC series after just two seasons, which was a devastating loss to fans who loved what she brought to the table as Rose Tyler. 

Admitting that she "didn't know that it would be successful," the actress went on to discuss the impact the show had on her acting career.

"It made me really famous again in that sort of mainstream fame way that I find really uncomfortable." As for why she left, Piper added: "I think that played into it but also I was just at the beginning of my acting career."

"As much as I love that show, I love Rose Tyler, Russell T Davies and all the people that I continue to have a relationship with, I wanted to do different stuff. I didn’t like the responsibility of being a sort of role model."

Despite those reservations about where Doctor Who was taking her career, Piper admits that she enjoyed her time in that world, and acknowledged that it was "great in many ways." She would later return for a brief appearance in season four, but has otherwise worked on different UK TV shows like Secret Diary of a Call Girl and I Hate Suzie on Sky Atlantic. 

Something the actress didn't comment on here (no great surprise considering it was a BBC interview) are the recent allegations against her co-star Noel Clarke. 

You can read more about those accusations and how they relate to Doctor Who by clicking here

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MrDandy
MrDandy - 5/12/2021, 7:08 AM
One of my favorite companions.

She’s also great in penny dreadful
tugboy
tugboy - 5/12/2021, 7:16 AM

DalekCraigWasson
DalekCraigWasson - 5/12/2021, 4:10 PM
@tugboy - God, she is gorgeous. Reminds me of Hayley Atwell, that big British smile.
Blergh
Blergh - 5/12/2021, 7:52 AM
I always like companions most that rival the Doctor in terms of charisma. Generally companions paling next to the doctor and always just being there to state how brilliant he is.

That's why I loved Captain Jack the most, also enjoyed the idea of River Song (although execution wasn't necessarily my case).
Loved Amy and how she fired back all the time.
Blergh
Blergh - 5/12/2021, 7:53 AM
What is funny is that I liked Rory and Amy more than 11 himself.
Maybe because he wasn't my favourite
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 5/12/2021, 7:57 AM
I miss really caring about DW, it used to be one of my favorite shows but I fell off in the Capaldi Era and haven’t been able to get back into it
Polaris
Polaris - 5/12/2021, 8:12 AM
@Ha1frican - same here
TheDpool
TheDpool - 5/12/2021, 9:29 AM
@Ha1frican - I get you here. It was Smith for me though, I liked Eccleston and loved Tennant but Smith just didn't appeal to me so I lost interest.

Plus those last few Tennant episodes where he wasn't so carefree and fun because he knew his time was almost up always gave chill (The Waters on Mars)
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 5/12/2021, 10:05 AM
@TheDpool - I started with Eccleston, really got into it with Tennant, expected to lose interest with Matt Smith but ended up adoring him and I enjoyed Capaldi but it just lost momentum for me and then there was an issue with finding a reliable way to watch new episodes here in the states and it just sort of fell away. I keep meaning to catch up on HBO Max but every time I try I get distracted and put it off 🤷🏽‍♂️
TheDpool
TheDpool - 5/13/2021, 12:23 AM
@Ha1frican - I loved Tennants Doctor. So Smith was never gonna hold up for me.
4thMaster
4thMaster - 5/12/2021, 8:06 AM
I don't think I could have taken a 3rd Rose series, so I'm glad she made that choice. She's a good actress, but Rose herself was not a good character.

I want Romana back. 🥺
KelvTwelve
KelvTwelve - 5/12/2021, 10:33 AM
The first four seasons of the new Doctor Who really redefined the series and kind of made it prestige television. I mean it's still a family show and makes errors sometimes but as a whole RTD's team wrote a really tight 4 seasons that culminates in the most satisfying way possible. Rose's exit felt so completely natural to the show that I don't think anyone can deny being emotional when she finally returned in Series 4.

The Moffat era is definitely experimentation per season in comparison and you can see how fans reacted to that - it's good to have at least the next few years figured out rather than take the plot season by season. I'd say at the very least, Missy and 12's relationship was the best long running story that came out of Moffat's era.

Chibnall's era on the other hand flew by the seat of it's pants for the first season (teeth man is a horrible main villain), and just dived into bad fan fic territory in its second season.
AtakanKaratas
AtakanKaratas - 5/12/2021, 10:56 AM
Never really cared for Rose but the actress is great. RTD era was something special, man. I miss those times so much. Even the opening themes were fire as hell.
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