The Twelfth Doctor tells RadioTimes.com that the next companion “has to be somebody I’m happy with,” while also offering his thoughts on the subject of male companions…

Jenna Coleman’s Clara is yet to officially leave Doctor Who, but that hasn’t stopped fans speculating on what they want from the next companion. And that includes the biggest fan of them all – the Twelfth Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi.

“I think it’s nice to have someone who’s light-hearted, and fun,” he told RadioTimes.com. “And I think it’s good that the Doctor can be quite dark, sometimes, but you need someone to draw him out of that, and also to throw that into contrast. So someone who can run, scream and be quite glamorous – glamorous in any demanding situation.’

In particular, Capaldi expressed a desire to go back to the roots of the show’s revival, which starred Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, a frustrated, working class 19-year-old who longed to escape life on a council estate.

“I’ve always loved what Russell did with Billie Piper,” he said. “Because you hadn’t really had in Doctor Who a very clear, working-class voice. And I liked how Billie was very clearly someone who lived on an estate, and was a normal person.

“Which in a way the show hadn’t really done that before. It was of its time, in the sense that everyone spoke standard English, and it didn’t always reflect the real world. So I always like it when they have companions who reflect the real world – which Jenna does, because she’s from Blackpool. You can’t get more real-world than Blackpool!”

There is, of course, a possibility that the next companion could be a twist on the norm – a male companion. What does Capaldi think of Doctor Who turning into an intergalactic lads on tour?
“I quite like the idea of classic Doctor Who, which I must probably identify as Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker. Which is Jon Pertwee with Katy Manning and Elisabeth Sladen; and Tom Baker with Elisabeth Sladen – I just think that combo of the slightly strange and alien Time Lord with the intelligent, enthusiastic and inquisitive girl is a good combo. I don’t know why – but it just seems to work.

“And also [the male-female partnership in Doctor Who] has no romantic component, so I think it allows both characters to operate to their full extent. They’re never taken into a cul-de-sac of romance.”

Whoever the companion ends up being, it’ll have to be someone who gets Capaldi’s approval – which makes a male companion pretty unlikely. But has he been asked to give his fateful opinion yet?

“Not so far. I will be [asked] at some point. I’m not quite sure where we are at the moment. But obviously at the end of the day it has to be somebody I’m happy with. Happy to work with. That will have to be looked to.”