In the run-up to the announcement of Jodie Whittaker’s casting in Doctor Who, it’s fair to say that pretty much the whole world was desperate to find out the identity of the Thirteenth Doctor.

And now it’s emerged that one particularly determined fan was none other than Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, who apparently called up every useful number in his phonebook to try and find out the truth before Whittaker was revealed.

“I was literally – I was phoning people high up at the BBC going, ‘You have to tell me who it is. There’s a week to go, I want to know,” Smith told the crowd at Boston Comic-Con.

And apparently his diligence paid off, with Smith learning the identity of Doctor 13 a full three days before the big announcement. The perks of being in the Doctor Who family, eh?

“[They told me] eventually, yeah, but only like three days before,” Smith said. “And [by that point] I was like ‘You have to tell me – who is it? I have a right to know, it’s essentially me!’”

He added: “It still generates that excitement because it can reinvent itself. And that’s what it’s done again – it’s gone ‘take that!’”

You heard it here first, folks – going forward, our first port of call for any and all Doctor Who spoilers should be the supremely well-connected Matt Smith, keeper of secrets and knower of Whittakers. Truly, the Doctor can do anything.

Doctor Who returns to BBC1 this Christmas