I cannot claim to be a Dr Who fan by any stretch of the imagination. Frankly, it strikes me as a kids program. But I find the announcement that the next doctor is to be played by a woman, Jodie Whittaker, really rather interesting. The beeb obviously want to take the show in a new direction: by diverging from what has been a norm for over fifty years, they are clearly making a statement. I suppose the Doctor is one of those characters, like James Bond, who acts as a kind of cultural cornerstone: something we can rely on, and know to be in the cultural agenda, even if we aren’t particularly fussed to watch it.

Now, if the producers of Bond decided to take such a turn, the fans would be up in arms. Bond, when you look at him, is quite a rigid character: white, heterosexual and male, as described by Ian Fleming. You can’t really deviate from that. Yet the Doctor has no such original; he’s also a supernatural timelord, capable of regeneration. That means he can be played with. Whether fans will accept such a deviation, though, remains to be seen. While the producers are trying something new, they are breaking from decades of tradition. Who fans could be as stubborn as Bond fans, and demand that the character still adhere to the ‘norm’. I suppose it all depends on how well Whittaker performs: if she does well and brings something new to the show, this could turn out to be a great move. It will be quite fascinating to see how this plays out – I might even watch it to see how she does.