How the director of photography for the Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker reveal didn’t find out what the job was until very, very late in the day…

It seems quite a while ago now, but it was only over the summer that we got the news that Jodie Whittaker was to take over the keys to the TARDIS from Peter Capaldi. She’s now about to start filming Doctor Who series 11, and will debut her Doctor in this year’s Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time.

But cast your mind back to that reveal, the sequence of following the Doctor in the woods. It was filmed by director of photography Sam Heasman, and in an interview for the University For The Creative Arts magazine, he’s talked about the secrecy over the shoot.

Heasman told the magazine that he was asked by a director friend of his about a job, but that said unnamed director added “I can’t really tell you much about it, but we’ll have to go to Wales”.

“I agreed, but didn’t know what I was working on until the rec trip the week before the shoot… all I knew was that it was for the BBC and it was high-profile”.

Heasman, whose dad is “a big Doctor Who fan”, still didn’t find out what the exact job was until late in the day. “It wasn’t until I was with the new head writer Chris Chibnall walking through some woods that I was finally told”. Even then, “I didn’t know who the Doctor was going to be either until we were on set”.

The reveal has been watched subsequently by tens of millions of people around the world.

Ruther2, on Twitter, has found the full interview, and you can see it here. UCA itself can be found here.