James Delingpole James Delingpole

Get woke, go broke

The phrase 'get woke, go broke' captures well why Doctor Who was losing fans – and I'm not sure the writing in the new series dispenses with this problem

You won’t be aware of this because the BBC has been keeping it very quiet. But the new Doctor Who is — wait for it — a woman!

Let me say straight away that Jodie Whittaker is a delight. Opening as the new Doctor is never easy — all that tiresome establishing rigmarole you have to go through along the lines of ‘I’m feeling all funny. Almost like I’m a completely different actor but in the same body. What can it be? Who am I? Has anyone watching at home worked it out yet?’ But already we like her. Yes, at the moment she’s still a bit of a mishmash of previous Doctors but this will change as she grows into the role. Definitely, though, she’s a personality that we’ll be more than happy to explore the galaxy and fight monsters with every Sunday and her casting was a much-needed fillip to a flagging brand.

Here’s the irony, though. One of the main reasons that the brand was flagging was the rationale that insisted on the necessity of converting a time-honoured male character into a female one. The phrase ‘get woke, go broke’ captures well why Doctor Who was losing fans: it had got so relentlessly worthy that its sense of fun and mischievous escapism were being suffocated by its political correctness and important social messages.

I’m not sure the writing in the new series quite dispenses with this problem. Doctor Who’s team of sidekicks, for example, appears to have been put together by a Committee for Diversity, Inclusion and Bolt-On-Issue-Driven-Characteristics headed by Polly Toynbee: strapping black Ryan (Tosin Cole) has dyspraxia; his cowardly step-grandfather Graham (Bradley Walsh) is recovering from cancer; I’m not sure yet what Yaz’s (Mandip Gill) affliction is, but presumably it will be something incredibly relevant like gender dysphoria or advanced #MeToo syndrome.

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