David Morrissey David Morrisey ( born 21 June 1964 ) is the English actor who played Jackson Lake in " The Next Doctor " . Early life . Morrissey was born in Liverpool to a family of four . He decided to become an actor after seeing the Ken Loach film " Kes " and appearing in a school production of " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz " . While a teenager , Morrissey trained at Liverpool ' s Everyman Youth Theatre , with Paul McGann ' s brothers Mark and Stephen . At the age of eighteen , he appeared in the Yorkshire Television / Channel 4 drama " One Summer " before moving to London to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . Acting career . After graduating from RADA , Morrissey worked on stage for four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre . In the early 1990s , Morrissey was typecast as policeman and soldiers ; he appeared in " Black and Blue " , " Framed " ( with Timothy Dalton ) , " Between the Lines " , " Out of the Blue " , " The One That Got Away " ( with Paul McGann ) and " The Knock " . Towards the end of the decade , Morrissey played several critically acclaimed roles , including a crooked tax inspector in " Holding On " , Bradley Headstone in the miniseries adaptation of Charles Dickens ' " Our Mutual Friend " , and pianist Kiffer Finzi in " Hillary and Jackie " . In the 2000s , he starred in the films " Some Voices " and " Captain Corelli ' s Mandolin " and the acclaimed miniseries " State of Play " ( with John Simm and Marc Warren ) . He also played Gordon Brown in the acclaimed TV movie " The Deal " . In 2004 , he starred with David Tennant and Sarah Parish in the musical thriller miniseries " Blackpool " as crooked gaming kingpin Ripley Holden . He reprised the role for the one - off " Viva Blackpool ! " in 2006 , though Tennant and Parish were not involved . The next few years saw Morrissey play the leading male roles in the film flops " Basic Instinct 2 " and " The Reaping " . He also appeared in the films " Derailed " , " Stoned " and " The Water Horse : The Legend of the Deep " , and the TV miniseries " Cape Wrath " and " Sense & Sensibility " . In 2008 , Morrissey was cast as Jackson Lake in " Doctor Who " s 2008 Christmas special " The Next Doctor " . Paparazzi photographs of the episode ' s location filming in April 2008 coupled with the cliffhanger ending to " The Stolen Earth " led to tabloid speculation that Morrissey had been cast as the Eleventh Doctor . The rumours intensified when David Tennant announced in October 2008 that he would be leaving the series . Russell T Davies was aware of the speculation , but asked Morrissey not to clarify the episode ' s plot so attention would be diverted away from the casting of Matt Smith as the real Eleventh Doctor . This caused problems in Morrissey ' s personal life . He had to reassure his children that the family would not be moving to Wales , where " Doctor Who " is produced , without revealing anything about the character that they might pass on to school friends . Despite the speculation , Morrissey ' s character Jackson Lake had only been led to believe he was the Doctor after Cybermen infostamp s implanted memories of the Doctor ' s past incarnations inside his head . As he was playing a character with certain Doctor mannerisms , Morrissey allowed himself to be influenced by the performances of William Hartnell , Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker . In 2009 and 2010 , Morrissey appeared in the crime drama miniseries " Red Riding " ( with Andrew Garfield ) , the John Lennon biopic " Nowhere Boy " , the crime drama " Five Days 2 " ( with Anne Reid and Penelope Wilton ) and the Roman - set film " Centurion " ( with Noel Clarke ) . In 2012 and 2013 , he played Philip Blake , also know as " the Governor " , the main antagonist of season 3 and 4 of in the American series [ { wi | The Walking Dead } } . Personal life . Morrissey has been married to Esther Freud since 2006 . They met at a dinner party hosted by Danny Webb and have since had three children . He remains good friends with Paul McGann .