Sue Perkins would make a great Doctor Who, according to Neil Gaiman (Picture: BBC/Metro.co.uk)

Respected sci-fi and fantasy author Neil Gaiman has called for former Great British Bake Off host Sue Perkins to become Doctor Who’s next Time Lord.

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While Hollywood actress Tilda Swinton is currently favourite to land the BBC job, the author of Coraline clearly thinks Sue’s ‘sticky bun’ jokes would be even more enjoyable in space.

The Perkins-mooting comes amid the great debate over whether or not the Doctor, who will be played Peter Capaldi until Christmas this year, should become female.

Sue Perkins with comedy partner Mel Giedroyc on Bake Off (Picture: BBC)

‘Needless to say I’d love to see a woman Doctor,’ Gaiman told Radio 5Live, before dropping 47-year-old Sue’s name.




We’re sure if Sue was cast she wouldn’t be able to resist about 1,000 Sonic Screwdriver innuendos throughout a single episode.

Gaiman also suggested 71-year-old Helen Mirren and 48-year-old X-Files star Gillian Anderson, saying of the latter: ‘I don’t think there’s anything Gillian can’t do.’

Many Whovians now say it’s time for the Doctor to become a woman, but they’ve faced a backlash from fans who reckon the alien should remain the gender ‘he’ has been since 1963.

Yeah no. The idea of Tilda Swinton as The Doctor makes me want to vomit. — Matt Whelan? (@matthall1998) February 16, 2017

What are the odds on who'll play the next Doctor Who? Tilda Swinton – 7/2 Kris Marshall – 4/1 Olivia Colman – 5/1 Maxine Peake – 8/1 Ben Whishaw – 10/1 Richard Ayoade – 10/1 Andrew Buchan – 10/1 Reece Shearsmith – 12/1 Phoebe Waller-Bridge – 12/1 Rory Kinnear – 16/1 Andrew Scott – 16/1 Richard Madden – 16/1 David Harewood – 16/1 Paterson Joseph – 16/1 Idris Elba – 20/1 Chris Addison – 20/1 Gwendoline Christie – 20/1 James Norton – 20/1 Adrian Lester – 20/1 Alexander Vlahos – 20/1 Sacha Dhawan – 20/1 Robert Carlyle – 20/1 Laurie Kynaston – 20/1 Michelle Gomez – 33/1

After casting Capaldi as the Doctor four years ago, showrunner Steven Moffat gave a rather implausible explanation as to why he hadn’t gone for an actress.

He said in 2013: ‘It didn’t feel to me right now… I didn’t feel enough people wanted it.

‘Oddly enough the most people who said they were dead against it, and I know I’ll get in trouble for saying this, but most people who said they were most against it were women. They said no, no don’t make him a woman.

Current Doctor Capaldi is now in his last year on the show (Picture: BBC)

‘Not that I was influenced by that. I was influenced by nothing,’ he added, not very convincingly.

It sounds like a female Doctor is far more feasible now than Moffat might have ever imagined.

Tilda Swinton is favourite to nab the new job (Picture: Getty)

New Doctor Who boss Chris Chibnall recently said: ‘We’ll cast the role in the traditional way: write the script, then go and find the best person for that part in that script.

‘You couldn’t go out and cast an abstract idea. The creative possibilities are endless, but I have a very clear sense of what we’re going to do, without even knowing who’s going to play the part.’

Metro.co.uk contacted Sue’s reps for comment.

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