As with all Doctor Who casting decisions, the unveiling of Jodie Whittaker as the newest (and first female!) Doctor was shrouded in secrecy. Even Peter Capaldi didn’t have a damn clue who would be replacing him until a few days before the announcement — but through some deductive reasoning and a well-timed shopping trip, he managed to get a jump on the news. And it all boiled down to a throwaway comments about … pants. “It was kept very secret and I didn’t know anything about it, but I had a vague thought that it might not be a man, which I thought was quite nice. But I wasn’t sure,†he explained at his New York Comic Con panel on Friday morning. “I went into Paul Smith, which is a very wonderful clothes shop in London where I buy my suits. Everybody knows me there. And they said, ‘We just got a call from the Doctor Who office, saying, can we have a pair of your trousers? But with a waist size 30?’â€
Here’s when Capaldi went full-on Hercule Poirot. “And I thought, I’m finished, I don’t need anymore trousers! Because the Doctor wears Paul Smith trousers, for all of the fashionistas in the room,†he continued. “So they were obviously looking for a pair of trousers for the new Doctor to wear, and I thought, that possibly can’t be a man. A 30-inch waist? No way. I thought it must be a lady then. And they called me a couple of days later to tell me before it was announced.†This is basic Inseam 101.