This is the BBC.

Hello, I'm Kristi Young. Welcome to Desert Island Discs, where every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, the book and the luxury item that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away on a desert island.

For rights reasons, the music on these podcast versions is shorter than in the original broadcast. You can find over 2,000 more editions to listen to and download on the Desert Island Discs website.

This is an extended edition of the original broadcast.

My cast away this week is the actor Matt Smith, depending on your viewing preferences. He's either the best time lord there's ever been or is close to a young Prince Philip as humanly posthumously.

He's played plenty of different parts on stage and screen, but without doubt the BBC smash hit Doctor Who and the hugely acclaimed Netflix series The Crown have to date provided him with his two defining roles.

The significant critical success of both making him an international star. Yet if everything had gone to plan, he should buy rights at the ripe old age of 35 be heading for retirement.

He was going to be a footballer and had signed a Lester City's youth team, but a devastating back problem put paid to a sporting career.

And so he'll have to make do with competing for BAFTAs rather than the FA Cup. He says, there are great disciplines from being a sportsman that you can transfer into being an artist, the preparation, the sacrifice, the constant desire to improve. Welcome, Matt Smith.

Thank you for having me. You're a ball of energy.

Oh god, I know what it's because I'm excited to be here.

Interesting that the preparation, the sacrifice, the constant desire to improve. I might add to that maybe the spotlight, the adulation.

I would agree with you. Yeah, there's a touch of the Eric Cantanar in every actor, I think.

I'm interested in the degree of preparation you do. I mentioned there as Royal Highness Prince Philip in your portrayal of him in the Crown, which you weren't obvious casting for that.

When I saw that you'd got the part, I thought, really?

Yeah, because I'm completely the wrong class, actually, for Prince Philip.

But you don't look like him and then yet somehow you do. How did you do that physical thing?

Great wig. And you know, you watch and you kind of pay attention to as much video footage and you read as much and you immerse yourself in history, in the context, in the world of those people.

For me, there's usually a physical thing, one physical thing and one vocal thing that I just repeat, repeat, repeat.

And for him, he had his hands behind his back so I would always walk in my hands behind my back.

And then the other thing which I've kept to this day, which makes Claire laugh, is I go, oh no, yes, absolutely.

Oh no, absolutely, fine. Or I'd say Olympic, because he says Olympic in a very sort of perfect way.

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