Julie Hesmondhalgh totally rubbishes talk of Doctor Who becoming politically correct

Julie Hesmondhalgh has said the idea of Doctor Who becoming politically correct is bollocks.

Series 11 has been heavily criticised for everything from the Doctor being a woman, to the diversity of the companions to storylines surrounding Rosa Parks and the Partition in India.

Some fans have threatened to switch off for good over the plots which highlight key moments in history.

But Hesmondhalgh, who is a guest star in this Sundays instalment Kerblam!, gave particular praise to the most-talked about ep so far, Rosa.

Asked about her thoughts on whether Who is too PC now, she told Metro.co.uk: Its such a load of bollocks. As soon as we get a little bit of diversity, which to me is exciting.

I watched the first episode, to see proper representation is absolutely brilliant to me. I was so buzzing off it, because thats the world we live in, and to see it reflected on screen is like, “finally, this is great”.

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Theres always gonna be naysayers, Ive seen a couple of things that are absolutely preposterous. I mean, slagging off the series for doing an episode with Rosa Parks, which I thought was the most powerful bit of young peoples telly that Ive seen ever, the conversations that would have sparked all over the country…

You know people might just have a functioning knowledge of Rosa Parks and civil rights, but to see Ryan in that situation. To land him in the middle of it, only Doctor Who could do that. Land him in that position, where he picks up a glove that a woman has just dropped and getting punched in the face, it was absolutely shocking.

Its like, “right heres where we are. This is reality. This is where we were a few centuries ago and this is where were heading again.” What an absolute perfect way to discuss those issues.

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The Partition episode. I knew barely anything about Partition and Im quite a political person, so to bring that into all these homes, and start that conversation, and to put Yaz in the middle of that story and see it from her eyes, a character that weve already grown to love and know, shes like one of our mates, its just brilliant.

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Its just everything I want in television. I mean, that term “political correctness”, for me is like, its just things are moving forward a little bit.

The former Coronation Street star also confessed that she was unsure if having three companions in the Tardis would work at first.

She said: I was a little bit confused about that when the made the announcement ages ago before it aired. I thought, “that seems like a lot to have all of them together in every episode”. But I love it. They work really really well.

I think they all bring something so unique to it and you see more of each character in certain episodes, like Mandip Gill in the Partition episode and Tosin Cole in the Rosa Parks episode. It just really works.

And theyre such a great little gang, theres great chemistry between them off screen. Its a big risk putting all four people together and hope that they get on. But I think it really works.

Doctor Who continues Sunday at 6.30pm on BBC One

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