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River Song returns: Alex Kingston on her Doctor Who role, making Matt Smith cry and her Bond ambition

<p>Alex Kingston as River Song and Matt Smith as Doctor Who</p> (BBC)

Alex Kingston as River Song and Matt Smith as Doctor Who

(BBC)

“Everyone says they want to forget 2020 but for me, it is a year I can never erase from my memory,” says Alex Kingston, speaking to me from her London home via Zoom. The 57-year-old actress looks a picture of health, her familiar auburn ringlets framing her striking face, but this last year has been one of huge emotional upheaval, she tells me.

“My dear mother who suffers from dementia had two strokes during the Covid pandemic, so in the first lockdown she came to live with us and I became her carer,” Kingston explains. “It was a very worrying time." At the same time her 19 year-old daughter, Salome, came back home from where she had been staying in New York, "so there were all three generations under one roof. It was very special we have had this time together.”

It’s been a painfully quiet year for many actors, but Kingston spent part of it at least recording solo in a studio for a series of four new audio adventures, to be released this month, based around her Doctor Who character River Song. This is the eighth series of The Diary of River Song, a popular spin-off focusing on the Doctor’s brilliant wife that started in 2015.

As the intrepid River SongBBC/Steve Brown
As the intrepid River SongBBC/Steve Brown

“It was something I really had so much fun doing. It’s all about River and robots!” Kingston says. “River Song is an expert in many things, but her tech skills are tested in these encounters with robotic friends and foes." Over the course of four episodes, River battles Mechonoids on an ice world, and helps a treasured android friend discover her destiny in the stars. Amid swirling rumours that the character will be reunited with her Timelord spouse in the forthcoming next series of the TV drama, and that Jodie Whittaker may be leaving the role to make way for a 14th Doctor (both the notion that she is, and the notion that she isn’t, have apparently been posited by ‘series insiders’ over the last few weeks), it should keep hardcore Doctor Who fans happy as they await the next season.

Also appearing in the audio drama is Salome. She is Kingston’s only child and goes by the surname of her father, German writer and freelance journalist Florian Haertel, to whom the actress was married from 1998 to 2013. The couple were introduced on a blind date following the ending of Kingston’s four-year marriage to English actor Ralph Fiennes.

Kingston with her actress daughter Salome HaertelBig Finish
Kingston with her actress daughter Salome HaertelBig Finish

This is not the first time the mother and daughter have worked together. An actor from childhood, Salome played the part of her mother’s on screen baby, Ella Greene, in the NBC hospital drama ER in which Kingston played Dr Elizabeth Corday from 1997 to 2004. It’s still many people’s touchstone role as far as Kingston is concerned.

“People ask me if I get recognised in the street from my role in Doctor Who but it’s funny as yes, the younger generation know me for my River Song character, whereas the older ones tend to know me from ER. Two very different worlds.”

With a career spanning nearly four decades, Kingston believes her success is “down to sheer luck", but also, “having a good solid background in theatre training,” she adds. “The best thing about theatre is that it is all age-embracing,” but, she stresses, an actor needs to stay “as versatile as ever”. “And it is important to always be nice," she adds. "I’d like to say in all the acting jobs I have taken, I have never been difficult to work with.”

Although Kingston, who is married to television producer Jonathan Stamp, has embraced being at home with her family over lockdown, having time to “clean out the garden shed and mow the lawn”, it is only too obvious when she speaks about her love of theatre that she cannot wait for the doors to open again.

“Theatres have to open!" she cries. "It is so cruel for the industry. I see younger actors who are so resilient in finding other creative outlets, but the show must go on.”

On the subject of the show, Kingston has loved playing River Song and being part of the Doctor Who family despite the huge pressure on the series from devoted fans. “You know what, nothing ever fazed me playing River Song,” she says. “I am always up for any challenge thrown at me, plus filming is quite long and time is short so we try to do things as quickly and best as possible.”

Sometimes things happen a bit too quickly though. The 11th Doctor got a run for his money when he was reunited with River in one episode, Kingston tells me. “One of the most memorable parts of filming was when I flew through the universe, got caught in the Tardis and by mistake kneed Matt Smith, who was playing the Doctor at the time, in the nuts,” she recalls. “There were a few tears of laughter from me and cries of pain from him.”

With Karen Gillen and Matt SmithBBC
With Karen Gillen and Matt SmithBBC

As by now a seasoned time travel expert, Kingston is often asked by fans what she would do if she could really go back in time. Her response is “to go back to when I gave birth to my daughter. Well, not the birth part exactly, but the moment she entered the world and I was able to hold this warm small bundle of joy in my arms.” Other than that, no biggie - just to meet Jesus. “If I could time travel I would go so far back in time to meet the real man. Not the myth.”

So what does the future hold for Kingston? When she was first offered the role of River Song, she thought it would be a one-off, but was delighted to find that it would recur. “It goes without saying, my Tardis door is always open," she says, "but my goal is to be a villain in a James Bond movie. They have never had an evil woman so I’d like to play that part. And one that doesn’t fall for Bond’s charms.”

The Diary of River Song series eight is out on 27 January at bigfinish.com