Item: Neil Gaiman knew that a black actor turned down being the Doctor, as we mentioned. Item: Lenny Henry and Neil Gaiman created "Neverwhere" together, and therefore very well might have been chatting in confidence about further exciting BBC offers. Item: Lenny Henry has played the Doctor before. Or a very amusing parody, at any rate (ignore the Wikipedia writeup saying that this dates to 1986, as on the one hand part of this involves a topical joke about the Suspension, and on the other it says "MCMLXXXV" at the end of the video. Quite clearly).