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Doctor Who Star Peter Capaldi at Glastonbury: So Fans Love Him Again?

A real-life Doctor Who-like moment happened at Glastonbury when Peter Capaldi made a surprise cameo on stage to perform with Franz Ferdinand.

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Glastonbury is in full force in the UK this weekend, and somehow Doctor Who has become a part of it, intentionally or not. Somehow, apart from Kneecap performing after the manufactured storm-in-a-teacup "controversy" over their remarks, the most buzzed-about moment at Glastonbury was Franz Ferdinand's set, where Peter Capaldi made a surprise cameo on stage to perform "Take Me Out" with the band. Now, Capaldi is best known for playing a foul-mouthed political fixer in The Thick of It, and of course, the Twelfth Doctor.

Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi at Glastonbury, So Fans Love Him Now?
Image: BBC

This might as well be Capaldi's second season of Doctor Who melting into real life in that timey-wimey, reality-breaking way. That was the season when The Doctor seemed to embody Steven Moffat's midlife crisis and Capaldi went full Rock & Roll as The Doctor, bringing his own rock band guitarist past into the role. Much of the crowd may have watched him as the Doctor as kids, so they knew who he was. However, Capaldi's run was also when ratings for the show began to drop. Many young fans dropped the show because they didn't have a "young internet boyfriend" like David Tennant or Matt Smith to project their feelings on anymore. This was despite Capaldi's three seasons featuring some of Moffat's best and tightest writing on Doctor Who ever, as his new Doctor rejuvenated him. Capaldi was also the last "classic" Doctor – a white male… not only that, but an older white male – before the haters' accusations of "wokeness" dominated the casting of the series after he left.

Yet the fans love Capaldi now? Many fans, both male and female, said they stopped watching Doctor Who when Capaldi came along. Maybe many of them were already growing up and growing past the show, but it still didn't stop them from talking about it and talking about how they stopped watching after Smith left. This might say something about how Doctor Who is regarded by non-British fans. Those tend to skew older, usually in their teens, when they want a younger lead to relate to rather than the older father figure the character used to be considered.

Still, it's nice to have an unexpected Doctor Who moment again. There's always a twist at the end, and this is one that was welcome.

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Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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