How “Moon Man” Became Doctor Who to Defend the BBC

Richard Forbes is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Following Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Armando Iannucci’s lead, Peter Capaldi has come to the defense of the BBC, now perceived to be under threat by the government of the day after its most recent green paper from the Department of Culture, Media & Sport. In a recent interview, Peter “Moon Man” Capaldi (we’ll explain later…) argues that the BBC is an essential institution in British life and culture.

“I absolutely love the BBC,” Capaldi says. “I think it is a fabulous organisation. It is not perfect but it has given us so much more than it has taken.”

He continues, taking a cue from Iannucci’s recent MacTaggart lecture, by accusing the BBC’s enemies of practicing soulless business.

“The idea that we would cash it in, in order to have broadcasting services that are run for profit like you see on your cable stations? No! I think it is vital to have a public service broadcasting service of this scale. The opportunities it brings to the country are immense.

“I don’t get it. Do people think all these other TV services are these great shakes – because they are simply not. Nobody else does what the BBC does. And it is an ethos, a way of thinking, a way of conducting themselves and viewing the world that is not about profit – when did that become bad news? When did that become uncool? Oh, I guess, yeah, about 1982 that started. And it has grown. And that is wrong. The world needs a more complex response than the response of businessmen.”

Capaldi would go on to describe his own background as a modest one with “ordinary parents” where the government’s support for him enabled him to pursue higher education – Glasgow School of Art, in Capaldi’s case, as fate would have it. Speaking of fate: Capaldi’s school nickname? Moon Man. (As a former “Space Boy” – I share his pain.) The nickname, he muses, likely originated from his love of space and the space missions of the day, but he admits he was upset by the nickname at the time even if he’s now come to find it a great name – not to mention terribly ironic. Later Capaldi would even sell a script to Miramax called “Moon Man”.

While Miramax has never used the script, Capaldi jokes it paid for his house. Not bad for a Moon Man from Glasgow.

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