DOCTOR Who star Peter Capaldi was honoured with a Scottish Bafta award for his outstanding contribution to film and television at a ceremony in Glasgow last night and paid tribute to Scots director Bill Forsyth who set him on his way.
Capaldi, 64, made his acting debut in Forsyth’s iconic Local Hero in 1983, going on to become one of Scotland’s biggest stars.
At the event, he said: “I think this is really an award for getting lucky – for being lucky enough to be born in Scotland into a family of immigrants from Ireland and Italy, lucky enough to meet so many people along the way who changed my life. Bill Forsyth – 40 years ago I was an art student... Bill scooped me up and put me in Local Hero, it was an act of kindness and confidence. I wouldn’t be here without him and nor would a lot of others.”
Capaldi also paid tribute to Armando Ianucci, who created The Thick of It, in which the Scots actor played foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, saying Ianucci was “fabulously gifted, wonderfully kind. He gave me the job and it changed my life”.
Capaldi won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film for his 1993 feature Franz Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life.
He was also the singer and lead guitarist for punk rock group The Dreamboys, which featured Craig Ferguson, future host of the Late, Late, Show, on drums.
But it was as Tucker that he entered into the public consciousness, becoming the breakout star of the show thanks to furious monologues filled with inventive swearing.
The word omnishambles was formally added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, four years after it was delivered by Capaldi on the BBC Comedy show.
His character tells MP Nicola Murray: “Jesus Christ, See you, you are a f****** omnishambles, that’s what you are. You’re like that coffee machine, you know: from bean to cup, you f*** up.”
The word was even used in parliament by then Labour leader Ed Miliband to describe the government’s 2012 budget.
Capaldi won a BAFTA for his performance as Tucker in 2010.
He became even more widely known when he was cast as the Doctor in Doctor Who in 2013, having been a lifelong fan. A lifelong fan of the show, Capaldi had previously had a guest role in ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ where he played a citizen whose family is saved from the fires of Vesuvius.
He replaced Matt Smith to become the 12th Doctor, with his first appearance in the programme’s 50th anniversary special.
For his final regular series episode Capaldi asked that the Doctor do battle with the Mondasian Cybermen and the resultant ‘World Enough and Time’, featuring the return of John Simm as The Master, was similarly lauded by critics.
He has starred in films including Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, The Suicide Squad and Paddington and this year is nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Award for his portrayal of Siegfried Sassoon in the critically acclaimed Benediction.
More recently Capaldi garnered critical acclaim in Amazon Prime Video’s six part psychological thriller The Devil’s Hour and next year will star in a new crime drama Criminal Record for Apple TV.
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