Exclusive – Peter Capaldi reflects on his Doctor Who exit as “lovely and amazing” Jodie Whittaker’s departure is confirmed
The former Twelfth Doctor looks back on the “emotional turmoil” of saying goodbye to the Doctor – but says Whittaker “can handle all of that without any advice from me”.
With Jodie Whittaker now confirmed to be leaving Doctor Who, there are few people who can truly understand the media storm that she's likely to go through as fans speculate about the next Doctor.
But there's one man who knows about it only too well – Peter Capaldi, who preceded Whittaker as the Doctor and recently spoke to us all about the "emotional turmoil" of leaving.
Capaldi, who is currently starring in the DC movie The Suicide Squad, stopped short of giving Whittaker any specific advice but did say he knows all about what she will be going through.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com before news of Whittaker's departure was made official, Capaldi said: "Well, Jodie’s lovely and amazing. I’m sure she can handle all of that without any advice from me. She’s brilliant.
"It’s an odd thing that happens, that you don’t — I always remember when I took over from Matt. It was only when I left that I realised how gracious Matt had been to me, because I realised he was leaving... It was while he was leaving, he was being so kind to me. He was going through the emotional turmoil of leaving, and took the time to be gracious to me."
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He added: “It’s like, the whole Doctor Who experience, it’s not over until it’s over, you know? You don’t really see it clearly until you’ve been through it."
“Doctor Who is kind of a thing where you have a responsibility to it, and to the people who work on it, and to the people who love it, that is quite a heavy responsibility. So to have that lifted, means that you can relax a bit, and do things that are more esoteric and stranger and darker.
“And certainly, I think post-Doctor Who I’m more like the way I was pre-Doctor Who. The whole Doctor Who thing, you have to sort of become a different person, really, to do that. So it’s a relief to return to who I was before.”
Additional material by Huw Fullerton.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One this autumn. Want more? Check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
