Doctor Who’s new companion Pearl Mackie has revealed the extreme lengths her new bosses went to, to keep secret the nature of her audition for the sci-fi phenomenon.
Pearl tells Radio Times that, when she first got the casting call, her agent told her about a new show called ‘Mean Town’.
She explains: “It transpired it was an anagram for Woman Ten, the companion in the tenth series, because if agents had known it was a ‘Doctor Who’ casting, they’d have put every client up for it.”
Pearl’s co-star Peter Capaldi was a lifelong fan of the show when he became the Doctor, but for her it’s different. She explains that her knowledge consisted of the Doctor’s biggest Nemesis:
“I’d seen bits – I’d seen the Daleks on the hundred scariest moments on TV and stuff like that. But I didn’t really know the show like a fan would.”
The Doctor’s new companion is called Bill, she’s quirky, uneducated but super-bright and works as a canteen assistant at St Luke’s University in Bristol, where the Doctor has taught for decades.
Peter Capaldi describes the latest pairing as “almost an Educating Rita element. The Doctor decides to take her on as a pupil and there’s a lot of jousting between them. They banter, for want of a better word. I mean they do have squabbles or quarrels, but nothing ever too serious because we’ve got monsters and stuff to beat up.”
Read the full interview with Pearl Mackie in next week’s Radio Times, on sale now.
