FOR a megalomaniac wannabe master of the universe, evil time-traveller Davros seems surprisingly shy and retiring.

As the half-man, half-Dalek prepared for his latest battle with Doctor Who - an adventure exploding on to a TV screen near you this evening - I attempted to track down his alter-ego, Bournemouth-born actor Julian Bleach.

But though I made contact with this polite and quietly spoken man who has made a career from portraying the dark, twisted and malevolent on stage and screen, he was revealing absolutely nothing.

"Er, I'm afraid I don't really have time to go into this right now," said Bleach, who sounded an unlikely demonic dictator of the galaxies. "Could you possibly send me some questions by email?"

So I fired some searching enquiries off into cyberspace. Surprise, surprise the new Davros - strictly under wraps until tonight - has yet to reply.

Yes, I know a picture appeared in The Sun. But I'm told that someone has been sacked over that little indiscretion which effectively acted as a spoiler for next week's Radio Times cover.

Blimey, isn't this rather a lot of fuss to make about a bloke in a tin can? At this point it helps if one understands precisely what playing Davros means.

Make no mistake about it, Bleach is a serious actor who has won awards and garnered critical acclaim for his work in legitimate theatre.

A couple of years back critics found themselves running out of superlatives to describe his triumphant reading of Ariel in an RSC production of The Tempest.

But Davros takes him to a whole different level. The Sun, The Mirror, a dozen websites and an army of Doctor Who fans are suddenly seriously excited that this unspeakably evil character is back, Any one of these devoted fans could tell you that, originally created by screenwriter Terry Nation way back in the 1970s, Davros is a mad scientist from the planet Skaro. Hideously scarred and maimed in an unknown battle or accident, he has equipped himself with a cybernetic eye and mobile life-support chair.

It was this mobility aid, encasing what was left of his lower body, that inspired Davros - a brilliant metallurgist, chemist and robotics expert - to create his own private army of Daleks Bleach is the fourth actor to have played the evil one-armed genius and appears tonight and next weekend in the final two- part story of the current series.

He comes well prepared for the role - which at one point was thought to be going to Sir Ben Kingsley. In recent years he has played everything from the camp MC in Cabaret to the monster in Frankenstein and, perhaps most significantly, an evil circus master in a recent episode of the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.

While the Doctor's legion of fans went into hyperdrive over Davros' return, Bleach's parents seemed merely pleasantly surprised to hear that their son was playing a horribly disfigured madman intent on becoming the ruler of the universe.

When I called their Tuckton home earlier this week, mum Irene said: "Oh really, we had absolutely no idea, but I'm afraid that's typical of Julian."

Told that Doctor Who creator Russell T Davies has described Bleach's performance as being "incredibly expressive and muscular... a rightful successor to the throne, bringing elegance to the part, even a cruel playfulness," she exclaimed: "Oh my giddy aunt" which isn't quite what one might expect Davros' mum to say.

However, Irene and her husband Jim seem a delightful couple who talk fondly of how the quiet boy they thought might become an artist like his illustrator father blossomed into a young actor, first at Summerbe School and then the Jellico Theatre at Bournemouth and Poole College.

They're clearly proud of his achievements and philosophical about the fact that he often appears beneath an armour of make-up and prosthetics.

As for watching him battle to destroy good and exert a vicious tyrannical control over the universe? Jim simply sighs and says: "Oh, we're used to it."

Taking the edge off slightly is Irene's revelation that Julian's first public performance took place some 40 years ago when he regaled a privileged audience at a Bournemouth nursery school to a rendition of When Father Painted the Parlour.

Now if Doctor Who can just hang on to that image, maybe, just maybe, everything will be all right.

  • Doctor Who does battle with his arch-enemy Davros on BBC1 this evening at 7.10pm.