Young Luke does the time warpdoes thetime warp (From Barry And District News)

Young Luke does the time warpdoes thetime warp

A BARRY boy has been drafted in to play a part in the new Dr Who series.

Eight-year-old Luke Perry was chosen to play the non-speaking part of a character in episode called The Empty Child on the cult TV show.

His mum Lisa, of Harbour Road, is proud of her son, who played young Hercules in a recent production at Anita's Theatre School in Barry.

The theatre group sent a few photographs to Kim Astone's Televison and Film Agency in Cardiff and they chose Luke.

Lisa said: "It happened so quickly. We were told he might be the character's double in the episode as well.

"The filming took place over 11 days. He had 16 hours of acting time to fulfil."

Luke's theatrical family members have been in various amateur dramatic productions. His mum, aunty and grandma have all been in shows.

"Luke says he wants to be an actor sometimes - but then he changes his mind," added Lisa.

"He has only been acting for a year so to get this part is really good.

"It may only be for ten minutes - but he will be famous for a while!"

The new Dr Who series, which started three weeks ago on Saturday evenings on BBC1, was partly filmed in the Vale of Glamorgan, with some of the scenes taking place in Penarth.

The famous Daleks are back in the show - and this time they can levitate upstairs.

Dr Who is played by Christopher Ecclestone and his assistant is Billie Piper.

The show has a long history and the first actor to play the Doctor was William Hartnell in 1963.

The last TV episode was shown in 1989 with Sylvester McCoy playing Dr Who, and the final time viewers saw the Doctor was in a special film with Paul McGann as the cult figure in 1996.