Doctor Who: Steven Moffat and Pearl Mackie drop playful hints about next week’s finale

And at a Facebook Live Q and A after a special Cardiff screening of Saturday night’s first instalment of the finale, showrunner Steven Moffat and Bill Potts actress Pearl Mackie tanatalised fans about what the future may have in store – especially where Bill is concerned.

“She’s a Cyberman from now on,” said Moffat, who was clearly joking. "She’s one of those ones in the trailer actually. She was just killing people. That’s the way it is sometimes.”

Asked by a fan from the audience if it was "emotional filming the death of your character in these last episodes” Mackie replied: “I mean, I’m quite an emotional person, so it was pretty emotional, I mean even just reading any of it and at the read through it was quite emotional because there’s a lot of endings.

“I think that’s credit to Steven’s writing that you can get that kind of emotion from it when you read it that you’re supposed to get when you watch it.”

A lot of endings? We know Peter Capaldi is stepping down – but is Pearl? Wasn't she answering a question about a "death".

A production source on the show assured RadioTimes.com that Mackie’s answer to the question was not a confirmation that her character would die.

“Pearl was answering about the scene where Bill appeared to die before being taken away for 'treatment' at the hospital, where viewers later discovered that she was eventually converted into a Mondasian Cyberman. This is not confirmation either way.”

In an interview with Graham Norton yesterday Mackie did her best not to give any clues, but she hinted that she would be keen to continue playing the character under new showrunner Chris Chibnall.

As for Moffat’s plans he discussed his new drama project Dracula which he is writing with Mark Gatiss and said: “I’ve got a few ideas I’d like to do that are as far away from Doctor Who and Sherlock as I can manage. Not that I don’t love those things more than anything because I do.

“I have other plans [before Dracula] mostly involving a balcony and a gin and tonic."

Moffat had to be prompted by the audience to give the start time of next week’s episode, prompting laughs from the audience. But he joked that he could be excused the slip because he was still working on the episode.

“We haven’t actually, finished episode 12 yet! We haven’t’ seen the finished version so I have got things to worry about before we worry about when we put it out. It could be Sunday it could be the following Thursday."

And it allowed him a chance to pay tribute to the best TV magazine in the world.

“I always check the Radio Times myself, a very popular listings magazine.”

Quite right too.

The Doctor Who series 10 finale is on BBC1 next week at 6.45pm