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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 17 July 2017
Who’s next: Jodie Whittaker 1st female star of ‘Doctor Who’

LONDON (AP) — British ac- to be Whittaker — walking
tress Jodie Whittaker was through the woods.
announced Sunday as the “Doctor Who” ran from
next star of the long-run- 1963 to 1989, and was re-
ning science fiction series vived to acclaim in 2005. Its
“Doctor Who” — the first longevity is partly due to its
woman to take a role that flexible premise. The cen-
has been played by a doz- tral character, known only
en men over six decades. as the Doctor, can travel
Whittaker, best known for across space and time and
playing the mother of a can regenerate into new
murdered boy in detective bodies — allowing for end-
drama “Broadchurch,” will less recasting of the role.
replace Scottish actor Pe- Speculation had been
ter Capaldi at the end of mounting that a woman
the year, the BBC said. would get the role, gen-
Whittaker is the 13th official erating excitement from
incarnation of the Doctor, a some fans and opposition
galaxy-hopping Time Lord from others who feel that
from the planet Gallifrey the character has been es-
who travels in the Tardis, a tablished as male.
time machine shaped like Whittaker, 35, has worked
an old-fashioned British po- extensively in British televi-
lice telephone booth. sion and film. On the big
In a testament to the place screen, she played Anne
“Doctor Who” holds in Brit- Hathaway’s best friend In this file photo dated Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, British actress Jodie Whittaker, who starred in TV
series Broadchurch, arrives for South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2014, held at the Dorchester hotel in
ain’s cultural life, the revela- in romantic drama “One central London.
tion was made on live tele- Day” and battled aliens in Associated Press
vision after the Wimbledon “Attack the Block.”
men’s tennis final. A film She said that becoming the as a feminist, as a woman, to be scared by my gen- and ‘Doctor Who’ repre-
clip showed a mysterious first female Doctor “feels as an actor, as a human.” der,” she said. “Because sents everything that’s ex-
hooded figure — revealed completely overwhelming, “I want to tell the fans not this is a really exciting time, citing about change.q