Patrick Troughton's Beard

quarante-deux

Hairy encounter for Time Lord Matt

The Doctor has been involved in dozens of close shaves - but now he's in a whole heap of stubble. The usually smooth-skinned actor Matt Smith sports a tatty beard for an episode of the next series of Doctor Who to be screened later this year. But the screen star has come clean and admitted he used a fake beard for the scenes because he did not have the time to grow one of his own during filming. Smith, 27, said: "It was a glued-on beard. I wouldn't be able to grow a full-on beard like that in time." The beard is seen briefly in a trailer for the series, in which he also appears to be chained and wearing a straitjacket. Scrubbing the false fur from his face proved to be a nasty business, he said. "They had to remove it with a substance smelling like white turps," said Smith.