The Scottish actor, 68, played the Twelfth Doctor from 2014 to 2017. He was replaced in the role by Whittaker<\/a> and subsequently by Gatwa<\/a>, who became respectively the first female and Black actors to lead the series.<\/p>\n In a new interview with the Sunday Times<\/a>, Capaldi dismissed the publication\u2019s suggestion that the show had succumbed to \u201cexcessive wokeness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt reflects its times and it\u2019s a good thing in the world, though it\u2019s become a bit too big, too important for the BBC or whoever,\u201d said Capaldi.<\/p>\n The Thick of It star added: \u201cWhen I was a kid and watched it, it was just a monster show in the corner of the room. I dunno why people take it so seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in 2023, Whittaker told The Independent that taking the role of the Doctor had been \u201ca no brainer\u201d,<\/a> adding: \u201cI mean, it\u2019s scary because I just didn\u2019t want to be well known. Never wanted anything less!\u201d<\/p>\n She argued that a woman should have been able to play the role earlier, saying: \u201cI\u2019m the 13th \u2013 I mean, it should have been the seventh. You know, at some point it should have come earlier \u2013 but it didn\u2019t. And so for it to be me, I\u2019m forever riddled with pride.\u201d <\/p>\n She continued: \u201cSomeone said to me, \u2018Are you gonna play it as a woman?\u2019 You don\u2019t think about being a woman, do ya? I mean, I just don\u2019t walk around in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittaker played the Doctor from 2017 to 2022, with Gatwa taking over from 2023 to 2025.<\/p>\n After leaving the show, Gatwa revealed that the role had been taking a toll on his body, both mentally and physically.<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking on the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Gatwa said: \u201cI\u2019m getting old, and my body was tired\u2026 and I\u2019ve now just started doing some ballet, so I\u2019m making really great decisions.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIt\u2019s the most amazing job in the world, a job that any actor would dream of and \u2013 because it\u2019s so good \u2013 it\u2019s strenuous. It takes a lot out of you, physically, emotionally, mentally, and so it was time.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he would ever come back to the show, he said: \u201cNever say never.\u201d<\/p>\n During Gatwa\u2019s final episode, the Doctor regenerated<\/a> and appeared to be replaced by former Doctor Who companion Billie Piper.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-552846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/capaldi.jpg\")
Peter Capaldi played the Doctor from 2014 to 2017 (BBC)<\/p>\n