Doctor Who has got his first openly gay companion.
Pearl Mackie’s character Bill Potts will have her sexuality revealed near enough straight away when the science fiction television show – which also stars Peter Capaldi in the titular role – returns to BBC One next month.
She said: "It shouldn’t be a big deal in the 21st Century. It’s about time, isn’t it? That representation is important, especially on a mainstream show. It’s important to say people are gay, people are black – there are also aliens in the world as well so watch out for them.
"I remember watching TV as a young mixed race girl not seeing many people who looked like me, so I think being able to visually recognise yourself on screen is important.
"[Being gay] is not the main thing that defines her character – it’s something that’s part of her and something that she’s very happy and very comfortable with."
Pearl was announced as the new companion back in April 2016 and has likened her appointment in the role to being "welcomed into a family".
She told the BBC: "My Twitter follower count went from 400-and-something to 16,500 in about two hours, so that was pretty mental. But it’s been really nice, everyone seems to be really excited. It’s sort of like being welcomed into a family and all the fans have been really welcoming.
"Looking at previous alumni, it’s only done wonderful things for their careers – Matt Smith is phenomenal in ‘The Crown’, Jenna Coleman has just gone on to do ‘Victoria’ and Billie Piper is doing incredible things.
"For me, if I even get to do [a small amount] of those kind of things it would be incredible. It’s an amazing platform for me and it opens a lot of doors that wouldn’t necessarily have been open before – it’s very exciting."
‘Doctor Who’ returns to BBC One on April 15, 2017.
Doctor Who gets his first openly gay companion
