During the panel after the press launch of the premiere episode of Doctor Who Series 11, The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Jodie Whittaker revealed that she performed all her own stunts for the episode:

“In episode one, that’s all me. I’m really proud of that. There are a couple of moments [during filming of the series] where it was not deemed appropriate that I chucked myself out of somewhere. And I think that we have a really amazing stunt coordinator and my stunt double Belinda is amazing and so there are moments [during filming of the series] where it needed a professional but, in this, it didn’t need a professional and needed someone who is daft enough to [perform the stunt] and absolutely bricked it! So you are going to see of lot of ‒ In the ‒ It was just like that three days in. So, this is like four o’clock in the morning, week one and I was trying to be very cool in front of all the crew so I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it, I’ll do it. (Ahhh!)’ And actually, it was amazing and the wonderful thing about the Doctor is that it’s all about self-belief in so many ways that you don’t have these outlandish, otherworldly skills, physically. You have a body like anyone else and it can and can’t do certain things. That kind of faith to just leap ‒ it was very euphoric.”

Details about what the stunt entailed are embargoed until the television premiere but it’s very clear the Doctor is a brave hero and a Time Lord, but doesn’t have comic book-style superpowers.

It’s also clear that Jodie Whittaker is an intrepid actress willing to take a giant leap for the sake of the new series.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth premieres on BBC One Sunday, October 7, at 6:45 p.m. and will enjoy a corresponding simulcast in participating countries.