Peter Capaldi

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Peter Dougan Capaldi (born 14 April 1958[1]) played the Twelfth Doctor from 2013 to 2017, beginning with a cameo appearances in The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor, continuing from Deep Breath to Twice Upon a Time.

He also played the Doctor in the Class episode For Tonight We Might Die, as well as a virtual version of the character in Extremis, Lobus Caecilius in the Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompeii, and John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth.

At 55 years of age at both the time of his casting and the time of filming his first scenes as the Doctor in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, Capaldi was the same age as William Hartnell had been in his place, and the oldest actor since Hartnell to begin playing the Doctor on a regular basis (John Hurt was older by almost 20 years when he first appeared in the role, but his War Doctor incarnation was never intended to be ongoing).

Capaldi is the third Scottish actor to be cast as the Doctor, after Sylvester McCoy and David Tennant. Like McCoy, but unlike Tennant, he played the part with his natural Scottish accent. He is also the first actor to play the Doctor to have the same first name as one of his predecessors (Peter Davison).

Profile[[edit] | [edit source]]

Relationship with Doctor Who[[edit] | [edit source]]

During the Jon Pertwee years of Doctor Who, young Capaldi sent scripts to the production office. Barry Letts began a correspondence with Capaldi, which eventually resulted in an invitation for the youngster to visit BBC Television Centre. Capaldi met Letts, Terrance Dicks and Pertwee. He later cited the incident as formative to his career as a professional actor, writer and director.[2]

Capaldi was announced as the Twelfth Doctor in a live show broadcast worldwide on 4 August 2013. His appearance on the programme was notable for his striking a pose identified with William Hartnell's First Doctor — adjusting his lapels — as he took the stage.

Some years before he was cast as the Twelfth Doctor, Steven Moffat had considered him for the Eleventh Doctor.[3] Almost 20 years earlier, he was considered for the Eighth Doctor, but turned down the audition[4].

His debut appearance during the climax of The Day of the Doctor was kept a surprise from viewers as the BBC had indicated he would debut at Christmas. His initial appearance, lasting only one and a half seconds, revealed little other than his hand pulling a lever in his TARDIS and an extreme close-up on his eyes.

According to interviews with David Bradley and Mark Gatiss, Capaldi visited the set of the 50th-anniversary docudrama, An Adventure in Space and Time, prior to his being cast as the Doctor.

In November 2015, he appeared with Peter Jackson in a spoof video called Home Invasion in which he, as the Twelfth Doctor, attempts to get Jackson to sign a contract to direct an episode of Doctor Who. He also starred as the Twelfth Doctor in Sprout Boy meets a Galaxy of Stars.

Other notable work[[edit] | [edit source]]

Capaldi is the first Academy Award-winner to be cast as the Doctor. He received the award in the Live Action Short Film category for Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life starring Richard E Grant and Crispin Letts (son of Barry Letts), which he wrote and directed.

Capaldi began his acting career in 1983 with a supporting role in the film Local Hero. Prior to this, he attended art school in Glasgow and fronted several musical groups, including one featuring Craig Ferguson, who later became the host of an American talk show, as well as an avid promoter of Doctor Who.

Outside Doctor Who, he is perhaps best known to audiences as the foul-mouthed Director of Communications, Malcolm Tucker, throughout the entire run of the BBC sitcom The Thick Of It, which inspired an American series titled Veep. He also played this role in the Oscar-nominated spin-off feature film, In The Loop. He appeared as Tucker for the last time before taking on the role of the Doctor in 2013.

Capaldi was cast as the Doctor while in the midst of filming the first series of The Musketeers, a BBC One series in which he played antagonist Cardinal Richelieu, broadcast in 2014. Capaldi did not return to the role for The Musketeers' second series.

Around the time of the casting announcement, Capaldi appeared in a small role in the Hollywood disaster movie World War Z as a doctor from the World Health Organisation (WHO). After he was cast as the Doctor, media attention was given to the fact that he was billed in the film's credits as "WHO Doctor."

Prior to the broadcast of series 8, Capaldi was to appear in the Angelina Jolie film Maleficent, but his scenes were cut during editing. Subsequent film credits have included Paddington (and its sequel), The Personal History of David Copperfield and The Suicide Squad.[5]

Outside of acting, Capaldi is also known for presenting a number of arts-related documentaries, including A Portrait of Scotland, and the 2013 production Inside the Mind of Leonardo.

In music, he released his first solo album, St. Christopher, in 2021.[5]

Being both an actor and an Academy Award-winning director, Capaldi is the only actor to play the Doctor to have significant above the line credits on both sides of the camera prior to taking on the job.

Interviews[[edit] | [edit source]]

Peter Capaldi was interviewed in DWM 469 and DWM 477. In issue 477, he talked about his previous connections with the TV series as a child.

In the DWU[[edit] | [edit source]]

Peter Capaldi existed in the Doctor's universe as a near 1:1 of the real world actor. He was shown as a visual easter egg on the side of a bus in TV: In the Forest of the Night, and he was most explicitly featured in A Letter from the Doctor (DWM 464) and (DWM 500).

Peter Capaldi also exists within the Doctor Who universe, as the Eleventh Doctor said in the comic story The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who that he rescued the actor from a Mandrel. Later in the story, during a visit to a parallel universe where the Doctor is a character in a TV series, the Doctor tells actor Matt Smith that Capaldi would be a good choice to play him on TV.

Credits[[edit] | [edit source]]

Television[[edit] | [edit source]]

Doctor Who[[edit] | [edit source]]

Mini-episodes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Torchwood[[edit] | [edit source]]

Class[[edit] | [edit source]]

Video Games[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ McAlpine, Fraser. ‘Doctor Who’s Day Roundup: Happy Birthday, Peter Capaldi!. BBC America. Retrieved on 6 November 2016.
  2. ↑ BBC DVD: The Monster of Peladon
  3. ↑ DCOM: Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor
  4. ↑ Digital Spy
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Guardian
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