Pearl Mackie has announced in an interview with the BBC that her character Bill, who will be one of two companions aboard the TARDIS when the show returns in TWO! WEEKS! along with Matt Lucas’ Nardole, is gay. We’ll find out pretty quickly too as her second line of dialogue confirms it.

We are so pleased about this.  The interview is well worth reading and watching too. Context in speech is much stronger than in prose and at least one thing she says has already caused a few people to bristle a little. That’s understandable, but we feel, not necessarily fair. So do press play on the video.

This is a massive step forward for the show. While gay supporting characters (Vastra, Jenny and of course Jack as well as others) have been a fixture since Doctor Who first returned, this is the first time a main character has been canonically gay. And we agree with Pearl. It really is about time.

Doctor Who is back on 15 April. And its okay, we have zero chill about that too.