Capaldi had to become ‘cheerful all the time’ while playing the Doctor so not to ‘disappoint anyone’
Former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi has revealed he rejected the opportunity to join The Celebrity Traitors because he did not want that “level of exposure” and wants to keep his level of fame “small”. In a discussion about the pressures of fame and his career, The Thick Of It actor told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme he was asked to take part in the all-star version of the BBC’s reality TV show, but said no.
Asked why, the 67-year-old Scottish actor said: “Because I think there’s a level of fame that… I think it propels you into the public eye, at a level of exposure that I don’t really want. I like doing, you know, it’s like doing my music things – it’s very difficult for people in that business to understand that you want to keep it small.”
He added: “People keep saying to me, why don’t you do a bigger tour, or why don’t you do a bigger release, or why don’t you promote this more? And I don’t… I’m not doing it to be famous.”
On his previous leading role as the Doctor, the Glasgow-born actor said he had “a little regret” when asked if he left the long-running BBC sci-fi show too early. He added: “It’s great fun being Doctor Who, but the pressure of it is quite intense.
“You’re sort of on all the time and you don’t want to disappoint anyone because even though I’m not Doctor Who, if people are meeting me they’d rather meet the version of me that is Doctor Who. So you try not to let them down, right?”
“Yeah, because I’m quite miserable and melancholic, really,” he joked, adding: “And that was, that was one of the big changes in my life, I guess, which happened quite late, was I’m quite miserable really, but I thought you can’t be miserable if you’re Doctor Who. You can’t because you would disappoint people so I have to become cheerful all the time.”
His revelation comes after Motherland actress Anna Maxwell Martin, 48, also shared she won’t go on The Celebrity Traitors. She appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday (April 11) when Jonathan asked his guests if anyone has been asked to be a part of it.
Anna explained: “Yeah, I would have been with you [Jonathan], darling, [but] I can see from the civilian one, how late it gets on that show. That’s a Scottish summer and they’re not leaving that castle until it gets dark that’s 11pm, 12am. If you’re a Traitor it’s 1am, 2am… I want to be in bed by 8pm.”
The first series of The Celebrity Traitors aired on the BBC last autumn, with its nail-biting finale hitting a peak of 15.4 million viewers, according to the broadcaster.
It featured a star-studded cast including actors Celia Imrie and Nick Mohammed, singer Paloma Faith, author and actor Stephen Fry, broadcaster Jonathan Ross and comedian Alan Carr, who went on to win as a Traitor.
The spin-off series, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, brought in an average audience of 14.9 million people during its run – the biggest TV audience of 2025.
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