He may have travelled to the furthest reaches of the universe, but Geordies won’t be surprised to learn that The Doctor loves the Toon.

Appearing at Newcastle’s Film and Comic Con this weekend, Sylvester McCoy, the actor who played the seventh incarnation of the time-travelling hero in the BBC TV series Doctor Who, spoke about his love for the city.

He told us he was visiting to “celebrate science fiction and fantasy” at the annual festival, but he was happy to be here because “I love Newcastle , anyway”.

What is it the actor, who also appeared in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films, likes so much about our city?

Pretty much everything, by the sounds of it.

“I love the bridges, I love the architecture, the food, people.”

Though some aspects of the city did seem to baffle him.

Possibly displaying some of the slightly wacky humour that marked his earlier appearances in the beloved show, he said: “I’m here in the Metro Radio… Centre – weird name, anyway, I don’t know why it’s called ‘Metro’ because there’s not even a Metro near it, but hey ho.”

(For the record, Sylvester, the Metro Radio Arena is sponsored by Metro Radio, our local radio station – but we’re sure you knew that anyway.)