6 things we learnt from the Doctor Who special with Peter Capaldi

Jo Whiley caught up with Peter Capaldi for an exclusive chat in his trailer, during his last ever day filming Doctor Who.

Peter chose music music by the likes of James and LCD Soundsytem, and spoke movingly and fascinatingly about his time as The Doctor. Here are six amazing things we learnt from his conversation with Jo during the Radio 2 Doctor Who special...

Peter is an unapologetic, huge fan of 'rockney' duo Chas & Dave, and picked their 1979 hit Gertcha to play during the interview.

"I think they're clever," he told Jo. "I think they’re funny, they’re sharp, they play brilliantly, they’re smart and they’re witty. It’s hard to be funny. Steven (Dr Who writer Steven Moffat) is really funny, because he’s so clever. So these guys are so clever."

Peter is known for being a massive music fan, and he frequently plays particular songs to get him into the right state for a role. Before acting as "evil government spin doctor of a monstrous nature" Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It, for example, he would play Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by David Bowie.

When he was getting ready to be The Doctor, he would play Human by The Killers. "I think there’s something otherwordly about that," he revealed. "I’ve never really figured out what the lyrics mean, but it’s certainly some kind of discourse about human beings – which an alien could be making."

We're not sure if we'd ever have had Peter down as the karaoke type. Turns out he's SO much the karaoke type that he actually has a machine at home, which he uses all the time.

"My wife bought me a karaoke machine for my birthday and it’s never off really," he enthused. "I always feel that little bit uptight about it, because you can turn it up really loud - but then the whole neighbourhood can hear. I think it’s just the sequel to singing in the shower, just a more technical version of that. The alarming thing is that when you sing into a microphone you realise how difficult it is to sing!"

Peter revealed, rather magically, that he sticks pictures and inspirations onto all his Doctor Who scripts, and that he has made a different 'mood board' folder for every season. (We would do anything to have a flick through those!)

"They have things in them that reflect the issues of that season," he explained. "So I had Picasso’s Guernica for Season 2 because there was a lot of churning in the doctor there, as he tried to deal with a lot of hard things. There’s a wonderful Rembrant self portrait, in which he’s painted himself largely in shadow. It’s a reminder that The Doctor has to be mysterious. I also have pictures of W.C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy to remind me that he’s supposed to be funny, and Maybe Edward Scissorhands or something to remind me that he’s supposed to be magical as well."

During his time as Doctor Who, Peter's hair has grown from a close cropped cut to what he calls "the full mullet." But while the hair on top of his head has been getting longer, the hair on his eyebrows has been getting shorter - they had to be trimmed for the role.

"Some of the large branches have been removed," said Peter. "But men of a certain age have to attend to their hairiness, otherwise the world would be full of hair." Quite!

He's renowned for being a bona fide Doctor Who obsessive, and Peter admitted that his parents - as well as buying him the Doctor Who annual every year - also got him a Dalek costume when he was a little boy. Surely we need to see a photo of this?

"I was slightly disappointed," he said, "I didn’t want to tell my parents, because it didn’t look like it did on the box. It didn’t really look like a Dalek. Oh my god, isn’t that terrible? I’ve just actually realised how embarrassing that is."

Not embarassing, we say - just very sweet.