At the very least, it’s a turn of events. Doctor Who’s current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, has been doing the rounds this week, promoting the DVD of his recent, best, series from last year. A couple of surprising revelations have transpired.



He has said he will start filming the next series – the last he is contracted for – fairly imminently. This set fanpeople alight, with the realisation that Jenna Coleman’s replacement as companion must soon be announced. It also gave credibility to the press rumour that Rakhee Thakrar from EastEnders could be the new leading lady. Those stories described Thakrar as one of the “people currently in the frame”, though anyone who knows anything about actor contracts will know the casting decision must have been made months ago.



If true, Thakrar’s casting would be great news. As Shabnam Masood v2.0 in EastEnders, she was an undeniable star of the show, managing to play comic moments into her harrowing stillbirth storyline in a single beat. Her performance was funny, tragic and exceptional – even Danny Dyer declared on-stage, as he accepted his best soap actor National Television award, that it should have gone to her. The fact that Shabnam’s too-soon exit from ’Enders recently came out of the blue only lends weight to the conspiracy theories.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rakhee Thakrar as Shabnam Masood: could the actor be heading straight from Albert Square to the Tardis? Photograph: Jack Barnes/BBC

Capaldi’s next move was to reveal that he has been asked back for a fourth series. For those of us who pay far more attention to these things than is healthy, that was huge. Both David Tennant and Matt Smith served roughly the same number of years (three full seasons over four years, with the “gap year” placed as production demanded). Logic would put Capaldi on the same contract, priming him for an exit after the 2017 series. That would also allow the new show-runner Chris Chibnall a blank slate to create characters of his own.

And yet … there was some uncertainty about rebooting the show to the extent they did in 2010. Steven Moffat has admitted that starting out with a new show-runner, a new Doctor and a new companion is “absolutely” not how you are supposed to run things. He even suggested there were high-up conversations within the BBC about resting the show entirely after Russell T Davies’s exit.

Of course, Doctor Who is second only to Top Gear as the Beeb’s most profitable global property. It’s not going anywhere for a while. And so this “gap year” while Chibnall plans his vision of Who (knowing that Capaldi and Thakrar would be back on screen not long after) would make perfect sense. For viewers, familiarity is important.

Which makes Capaldi’s latest missive to Newsweek all the more noteworthy. “The BBC is an incredible organisation, but … sometimes people there think, ‘That’s looking after itself.’ And it’s not being looked after. I think maybe their eye was taken off the ball, or the show was seen as a thing they could just push around. It’s not. It’s a special thing.”



Capaldi is referring to the depleted overnight ratings of the 2015 series. It’s worth noting that the show almost made up its numbers after timeshift figures, but he is right to point out that scheduling Doctor Who at 8pm, opposite The X Factor and the rugby world cup, did damage. Even the BBC’s own news service joined the tabloid front pages in reporting a “desertion” of viewers for a show that averages 70 million internationally.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trouble ahead? Capaldi with Jenna Coleman as Clara and Joivan Wade as Rigsy. Photograph: Simon Ridgway/BBC

“It does frustrate me,” Capaldi continued. “If you’re going to have a family show, I think you have to build up a little ritual around it – and that ritual usually starts with having it on at the same time. Even I didn’t know what time it was on...”

Another thing worth underlining is that Capaldi was a lifelong Doctor Who fan before he played the lead, so he’s bankable enough to say his piece as a fan without worry about finding other work if this goes nuclear. But still: “I have to pay attention to ratings – I’d rather not – but it’s the way the business is. I think overnight ratings are a thing of the past. You can’t really measure the success of the show by its overnight ratings, which is what the papers do. But there’s still a place for families to sit down and watch the show – that’s still a great, fun, thing to do. That’s what the show’s success is based on. That has to be protected.”

Capaldi is right in all of that. He is also right in acknowledging that while the archaic overnight ratings system is no longer fit for purpose, it’s still the only one anybody hears about. This guy comes from an art-school, punk-rock background, so presumably he doesn’t come with much filter. But as a decades-long sober family man, he isn’t prone to loose lips either.

And in the context of the ham-fisted BBC charter renewal this government is currently trying to play out, it’s hard to view these comments about his employers as anything less than explosive. Things could get awkward on set. Is this the start of the actor’s long resignation letter?