Before meeting Jodie Whittaker, I was concerned. Why, you may ask. I’ll tell you why. There was an impression, formed long ago, embedded in the back of my brain: isn’t she a bit of a meanie? When someone asked if I’d interview you, I begin to tell her… “You said no!” the Doctor Who star interrupts, gamely amused. Well, the thing is, I say, I did have a feeling you were mean. I need to explain: it was because her performance was so natural, so tangible as the cheating girlfriend in Jesse Armstrong’s superlative early Black Mirror episode, “The Entire History of You”, that my mind melded it with actual, real-life Whittaker. But the actor has already erupted into a room-filling, dirty roar. “I still might be!” The timer starts now, she quips, “to find out if you were correct in your prediction!”
Actually, I’m concerned Whittaker might have heard that I’m the mean one. Four publicists sit across from us – like a firing squad, except they give you nice biscuits when you go in. I don’t have an itemised list of 1,467 questions about Doctor Who, I promise. I look at Whittaker, who came bounding into the room in a bright green boilersuit, her blonde hair short and spiky, her handshake admirably firm. The 41-year-old from Skelmanthorpe is quick-witted, gregarious; her aitches are enthusiastically dropped, her cackles full-throated.
