As cultural events go, the choosing of a new Doctor Who has to be up there for a certain segment of the population as more important than the potential selection of a spouse, however unlikely that might be.
So a few eyebrows were probably raised when Scotsman Peter Capaldi was selected.
Moving away from the younger Doctors of recent times, he is best known in the UK for his brilliant turn playing spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in political satire The Thick of It, possibly the most sweary character ever created for television.
The Networker is struggling to imagine Capaldi, who won an Oscar in 1994 for Best Short Film, taking on the role of the family favourite as the 12th incarnation of the Doctor. Unsurprisingly Peter Capaldi, Malcolm Tucker and #Doctorwho were all trending worldwide on Twitter.
But, he finds it even harder to believe the leaky halls of Aussie TV networks could have kept such a huge announcement a secret in the way the BBC managed to, with only 10 people knowing who it was going to be before the announcement, made in a primetime show on BBC 1 last night.
We just hope his knowledge of Doctor Who is better than his description of another Sci-fi classic in this classic clip (language warning on this).
