Advertisement
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Just £9.99 for the next 8 weeks
SUBSCRIBE
TV

Jodie Whittaker’s New Year message as Doctor Who returns: “Don't lose hope"

Jodie Whittaker takes inspiration from young climate change protestors and asks us to open our ears and hearts as Doctor Who kicks off the new decade on BBC One

Doctor Who

Doctor Who returns to our screens on the first day of the 2020s and Jodie Whittaker has spoken exclusively to The Big Issue about her hopes and dreams for the new year and new decade.

“What we should do going forward, and what I feel I need reminding to do, is take huge inspiration from the groups of young people who are putting their voices out there and articulating what we grown-ups can’t,” she says in our New Year edition of the magazine.

“We have Greta [Thunberg] putting herself at risk of criticism to say what needs to be said to move us forward – and we as grown-ups can take inspiration from a united massing of non-violent protest and voice. It’s inspiring.”

As someone who time-travels on television for a living – and does it better than ever judging by the electrifying New Year’s Day episode, Spyfall (Part I) – Whittaker offers a unique perspective on the new year.

She says: “However deflated we feel, throughout history, people have come together and got over massive hurdles. But the one we potentially can’t get over is climate change. So how can our generation think we shouldn’t be listening to the next one? I mean, they’re the ones that have to deal with all this.

“You are never too old or too young to give advice. So you need to be able to receive it from any age group. The new year needs to be open ears and open hearts. Don’t lose hope.”

Advertisement
Advertisement

Whittaker also explains how she takes inspiration from her television alter-ego, and how she feels fully at home in the Tardis as her second full series begins.

“What’s so incredible about playing the Doctor is that fearlessness,” she says. “Knowing the outcome could be devastating but doing it anyway, swimming out and not saving anything for the swim back. That is really extraordinary…

“I feel like I’ve been accepted as the Doctor,” Whittaker continues. “There was a pressure. If I’d have been a guy in this role I’d have only been representing my own casting as an individual. But it felt like I could hold people back if nobody liked what I brought to the Doctor.

“The gender question is now going away. Hopefully it won’t make the news next time.”

In a wide-ranging interview, the 37-year-old star reveals that there may be dark times ahead for The Doctor as she experiences more horrors and further heartbreaks…

“Some of those things take a particular toll,” says Whittaker.

“The new series is a huge learning curve… but I can’t tell you how. And this isn’t my last season so there’s no point cramming every single side of the entire character into every episode. We’re not in a rush because we hand these shoes on. For me it’s a transition through this universe. And it’s an epic journey.”

Read the full interview in The Big Issue magazine, on sale from 27 December across the UK

Doctor Who returns on New Year’s Day then continues on Sunday evenings from 5 January on BBC One

Advertisement

Buy a Big Issue Vendor Support Kit

This Christmas, give a Big Issue vendor the tools to keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing.

Recommended for you

View all
Drag Race star Tia Kofi: 'We need to stand side-by-side with trans people more than ever'
Tia Kofi
Drag

Drag Race star Tia Kofi: 'We need to stand side-by-side with trans people more than ever'

Doctor Who star Nicola Coughlan: 'What a privilege to be part of people's Christmases'
TV

Doctor Who star Nicola Coughlan: 'What a privilege to be part of people's Christmases'

Chris McCausland: 'I'd tell my younger self he's going to sit on the same toilets as his heroes'
Letter To My Younger Self

Chris McCausland: 'I'd tell my younger self he's going to sit on the same toilets as his heroes'

Ruth Jones and James Corden: 'Gavin & Stacey finale might not be what you're expecting...'
Gavin & Stacey stars ahead of the final episode
Exclusive

Ruth Jones and James Corden: 'Gavin & Stacey finale might not be what you're expecting...'

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know