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The West End's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Ncuti Gatwa when he was still on Doctor Who, is coming to YouTube for free.
Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: doctor who, Ncuti Gatwa, The Importance of Being Earnest
Check Out Doctor Who Star's The Importance of Being Earnest For Free
The West End's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Ncuti Gatwa when he was still on Doctor Who, is coming to YouTube for free.
Article Summary
- Ncuti Gatwa stars in The Importance of Being Earnest, free to stream on YouTube March 12–18, 2026.
- Fifteenth Doctor fans can catch Gatwa’s acclaimed stage performance from when he was on Doctor Who.
- Production features notable cast including Sharon D Clarke from previous Doctor Who seasons.
- Part of National Theatre's Take Your Seats, bringing West End plays to global Doctor Who audiences.
During the hiatus between seasons one and two of the Disney+ era of Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa starred in a sold-out production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. By that time, he had already finished filming the second season of Doctor Who and seemed hopeful that Disney would renew the series for a third season, which he hoped to begin filming. He even said this on The Graham Norton Show while promoting this play, but that moment was edited out of the eventual broadcast because Disney had not yet renewed the series, but eventually opted not to, which prompted Gatwa's departure from the show, since he had really only been contracted to star in the two seasons. Now that the West End play is going to stream for free on YouTube in March before going on the National Theatre Live streaming service.
It's Pretty Much Doctor Who: The Importance of Being Earnest
The National Theatre has announced it will stream Max Webster's production of The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Ncuti Gatwa, for free. The filmed performance, which was captured during its run at the National Theatre in winter 2024/25, will be available worldwide on YouTube from 12th March 2026 as part of the Take Your Seats initiative. There will also be a digital watch-along premiere at 7 pm GMT (2 pm Eastern Time in the US), during which viewers can interact via a chat function and participate in polls. If you squint, you could think it's the Fifteenth Doctor going off to cosplay Oscar Wilde's play for the lolz before the Doctor Who Christmas special "Joy to the World." We could call this Doctor Who: The Importance of Being Earnest.
Alongside Ncuti, who plays bachelor Algernon Moncrieff, the reimagining of the Oscar Wilde play stars Sharon D Clarke (who played Graham's wife and Ryan's mother in Jodie Whittaker's run of Doctor Who), Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Blues for an Alabama Sky), Eliza Scanlen (Little Women), and Hugh Skinner (Fleabag).
Following its run at the National Theatre, The Importance of Being Earnest was released in cinemas internationally through National Theatre Live, reaching over 175,000 people.
What next? A Target Books novelisation of Doctor Who and The Importance of Being Earnest, Being a Frivolous But Friendly Satire of The English Upper Class? That would be a hoot.
Doctor Who – The Importance of Being Earnest will premiere for free on March 12th on the National Theatre's YouTube Channel. The free stream will be available for free until 18th March, and will be released to National Theatre at Home subscribers on 19th March. Take Your Seats first launched in 2023, with previous free-streaming premieres including Othello and Nye, starring Michael Sheen.
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