Character
Graham O'Brien
Graham O'Brien in Doctor Who (2005), played by Bradley Walsh.
Graham O'Brien is a retired bus driver from Sheffield, newly remarried and newly widowed in almost the same breath, doing his awkward best to bond with his wife's grandson Ryan. Steady, unglamorous and quick with a dry joke, he gets swept into an alien mystery he never asked for and simply decides to help.
Bradley Walsh brings his easy comic timing, but the show uses him for something rarer: an older companion who's ordinary, grieving and completely unembarrassed about being scared. His warmth toward Ryan, his blunt common sense, and his genuine wonder at the universe give Doctor Who a grounded, adult heart.
Following the death of his wife, Graham chose to travel with the Doctor as a way of coping with his grief, rather than allowing it to consume him in a house filled with the memories she left behind. As part of Team TARDIS, Graham often served as a voice of common sense from the older era, while doubling as a proxy for the Doctor in times where women were not respected.
Played by
Appears in
Doctor Who2005