“Doctor Who” actor, writer and Dalek operator Nicholas Pegg has reportedly been fired after hiding an offensive message inside the show’s official magazine. He allegedly included a coded message in the current edition of Doctor Who Magazine.
His work, entitled ‘A History of Doctor Who in 100 objects’ was featured in the magazine without any obvious hint of his foul language.
But keen-eyed fans took the last line, which read “if you look hard enough, there’s always something hidden in plain sight” to heart.
Circling the first letter of every sentence, one deductive reader realised the writer had spelt out “Panini and BBC worldwide are c****”.
While he did not make clear what the focus of his ire was, some of the show’s devotees believe it may be regarding a decision not to release a DVD of an unaired series of Doctor Who from the late 1970s.
Speaking to the Mirror, a BBC Worldwide spokesperson said: “The matter was raised with the publisher who has dismissed the writer.”
He is not believed to have been due to appear on the upcoming series of the hit BBC show.
It is not the first attack to be levied against the broadcaster in recent days.
Yesterday the BBC was accused of “sneering” at people of faith as the Archbishop of Canterbury backed an attack on leading presenters who criticised Thought for the Day.
Justin Welby was responding to comments from BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys, who claimed the three-minute daily slot on the Today programme was “deeply, deeply boring”.
The BBC man claimed in an increasingly secular society it was “inappropriate” for the show to broadcast “nearly three minutes of uninterrupted religion”.
And in return Church of England priest and journalist Giles Fraser wrote a scathing attack on the taxpayer-funded broadcaster, accusing the presenters of treating religion with “sniggering contempt”.
Endorsing the critical newspaper column which called on the BBC to “stop sneering and keep the faith”, the Archbishop tweeted: “Another typically excellent comment by Giles”.
