John Barrowman: 'I don't regret anything, everyone on set was having a laugh'

John Barrowman says he “doesn’t regret anything” about his past behaviour and hopes to rebuild his career.

Speaking exclusively to Scotland Tonight, the actor and presenter said he had been left “completely blacklisted” in the entertainment industry following allegations of misconduct by him on the sets of Doctor Who and Torchwood.

In a wide-ranging interview, airing on STV and STV Player at 8.30pm on Thursday, Barrowman defends the behaviour that allegedly took place when he appeared as Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and its sister show Torchwood between 2005 and 2011.

Accusations that he had repeatedly exposed himself on the sets of the shows came to light in 2021.

Asked by Scotland Tonight presenter Rona Dougall if his colleagues agreed that his behaviour was simply “silliness and a bit of a carry on”, Barrowman responded: “Nobody complained.”

He added: “On Doctor Who, I was not the star. David [Tennant] was the star; I was one of the companions.

“But everybody was doing outrageous, silly things. It’s just that they weren’t dragged into this situation by a piece of lazy journalism.”

After Dougall asked if his alleged misconduct on set was “basically flashing”, Barrowman said: “No, no, no, no, no. This is where it gets a little misconstrued. I was not walking around flashing people randomly and doing things like that.

“If I were doing a nude scene, they would say, ‘Do you want to go back to the trailer?’ I would say, ‘No just leave me here’.

“It was meant to be a closed set – and I would say, ‘Leave me here and let’s save time, I’ll just stand here and it’ll save time that I don’t have to go back, have to change, then you have to bring me back and we have to start all over again’.

“So I would stand there, if I was in a nude scene, completely naked, and if somebody walked on set, which they weren’t supposed to or they were, I might just do something like that [jiggles] and it was nothing outrageous. I didn’t see it as outrageous.

“It was a different time.

“I don’t regret anything. It’s not so much regret; it was something that was stupid and silly and it was done. I don’t look back and go… because at the time, everybody was laughing. Everybody on set was having a laugh.”

Later in the interview, Barrowman discusses the toll the allegations have had on his mental health.

“I’ve contemplated taking my life a couple of times,” he said.

“I’ve driven out to the desert in Palm Springs and sat there for hours upon hours thinking of different ways to do it that would be quick and easy.

“But then I talk myself out of it. I can’t do it because of my mum and dad and all that kind of stuff. Then I also go in my head that others are winning if I do that kind of thing. But I’ve been in therapy for it. I’ve seen people about it.

“I don’t know if it’s anger but it’s tough to talk about. I mean, I feel myself getting nervous talking about it.”

Watch the full interview Scotland Tonight: A Conversation with John Barrowman on Thursday, March 13 at 8:30pm on STV and STV Player.

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