Daily Inspiration Quote by John Leeson

Acting lore loves a clean myth: the best person got the role, destiny did its tasteful little tap dance, and everyone applauds. John Leeson punctures that with a throwaway shrug that’s funnier than it looks. “Martin Jarvis was to have played the part originally” sets up the familiar alternate-history anecdote, the kind fans dine out on. Then Leeson swerves into the anticlimax: “but I think I had longer hair or something, I know not.” The joke is the deflation. In one breath he reduces what audiences treat as sacred casting fate to the petty, accidental physics of TV production.

The intent reads like a performer politely refusing to canonize himself. He’s not denying talent; he’s denying the flattering narrative that talent is always the deciding factor. “Or something” and “I know not” are doing heavy lifting: they signal distance, modesty, and a sly skepticism about the industry’s supposed logic. It’s also a subtle nod to how actors often learn about their own career turns secondhand, after decisions have already been made in rooms they weren’t in.

Context matters because Leeson is best known for voicing K-9 on Doctor Who, a role steeped in fandom, trivia, and speculation. By framing the casting switch as basically hair-length-level arbitrariness, he undercuts the cult of inside baseball without being bitter. The subtext is almost an industry PSA: the machine runs on contingencies, optics, availability, and vibes. Sometimes the “right” choice is just the one who showed up with the right look on the right day.