The starring role in BBC1’s Doctor Who was offered to a black actor but it “didn’t work out” according to the series showrunner, Steven Moffat. Moffat said it would be “amazing” to have two non-white leads after Pearl Mackie, whose father is from the West Indies, was cast as the Doctor’s companion earlier this year.

He said the producers took a conscious decision to cast a non-white actor as the companion “because we need to do better on that. We just have to”. Moffat said the show had tried to go one further by casting the first non-white Doctor, but the choice later fell through.

With Peter Capaldi signed up to do at least one more series, Moffat said it would be refreshing if the next Doctor wasn’t white. “Absolutely it would [be refreshing],” he told the new issue of Doctor Who magazine. “Two non-white leads in Doctor Who would be amazing. In fact, a lot of people would barely notice … I certainly don’t think there’s ever been a problem with making the Doctor black, which is why it should happen one day.

“I mean, we’ve tried. The part has been offered to a black actor. But for various reasons, it didn’t work out.”

Before Capaldi landed the job three years ago, there was speculation that a black star might land the role, with Idris Elba, David Harewood, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Paterson Joseph said to have been in the running. It is a debate that will run and run, with Elba also touted as the first black James Bond.

There have also been mounting calls for each of the roles to be given to a woman for the first time. With Daniel Craig expected to quit the 007 role after last year’s Spectre, The Fall and X-Files star Gillian Anderson hinted that she might like to pick up the Walther PPK as “Jane Bond”.

On Mackie’s casting as the Doctor’s companion Bill, unveiled last month, Moffat said: “We decided that the new companion was going to be non-white, and that was an absolute decision, because we need to do better on that. We just have to. I don’t mean that we’ve done terribly – our guest casts are among the most diverse on television – but I feel as though I could have done better overall.”

Moffat, the show’s executive producer and lead writer, will step down as showrunner at the end of next year’s series, when he will hand over to Chris Chibnall, a Doctor Who fan and writer best known for ITV’s hit murder mystery Broadchurch.

Moffat said Doctor Who had “no excuse” not to feature a diverse cast of black, Asian and minority ethnic actors. “Sometimes the nature of a particular show – historical dramas, for instance – makes diversity more of a challenge, but Doctor Who has absolutely nowhere to hide on this,” he said. “Young people watching have to know that they have a place in the future. That really matters. You have to care profoundly what children’s shows in particular say about where you’re going to be.

“And we’ve kind of got to tell a lie: we’ll go back into history and there will be black people where, historically, there wouldn’t have been, and we won’t dwell on that. We’ll say, ‘To hell with it, this is the imaginary, better version of the world. By believing in it, we’ll summon it forth.’

“And, outside of the fiction, it’s about anyone feeling that they can be involved in this industry as an actor, a director, a writer … It’s hugely important, and it’s not good when we fail on that. We must do better.”

His comments come after actor and comedian Lenny Henry put diversity at the top of the industry’s agenda, leading a campaign to increase the number of BAME stars on screen and more diverse industry talent behind it.

One of Doctor Who’s best-known writers, Neil Gaiman, said three years ago that the Doctor role had been offered to a black actor. “Would I like a person of colour as the Doctor? Absolutely. I have no doubt there will be,” he wrote on his blog. “I know one black actor who was already offered the part of the Doctor, and who turned it down,” he added. “You can ask [who it is], but seeing that it was something I was told in confidence by the actor in question, you won’t get an answer.”



The BBC declined to comment.