How would you describe Yas and the Doctor’s relationship?

Jodie and me get on so well. Our relationship didn’t need to develop like on some shows that I’ve done, where you need to go in the green room and figure out how you’re going to play at being friends: that chemistry was already there. So I think the relationship that you see between Yas and the Doctor is Mandip and Jodie. Because underneath, underlying the story, is just us two, doing this journey together.

Obviously you can’t give me spoilers, but I already know there won’t be any Daleks or Cybermen or classic villains this time around. With that in mind, how do you feel they’re going to add that ‘fear factor’ to the show?

Doctor Who is meant to be scary, but it shouldn’t be that the only thing you’re scared of is the Daleks and Cybermen. We need to top that, evolve it, and what you’ve seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. All the baddies to come are that scary and the quality of them is brilliant.

The show seems to focus a lot more on the emotional build-up this time around…

I think that’s what intrigued me most about the series. Chris just has this natural ability to write really truthful characters that are really complex. These are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and anyone can relate to them.

With Yas, are there any little details that you hope people will pick up on as you go on throughout the series?

Her connection to her family, because that’s so like me. Also, because Yas is a police officer, people might think that hardly anything scares or affects her – but she is still young, and emotional, and quite sensitive. So I hope people don’t go, “Oh, why’s she crying at X, Y and Z?” and are more like, “Oh my god, she’s genuinely just seen an alien and she’s petrified.”

Also, she’s only a young police officer. In fact, it’s a younger and more diverse cast than any Doctor Who series to date. What impact do you hope that this will have on people watching at home?

I can’t make people feel a certain way, but I hope we create characters that are a true reflection of society. TV is a form of escapism, so the people watching it have to be able to see themselves in it, and there has to be a place where they can go, “That’s me, that is.” They need to see someone who looks like them playing a doctor, or a vet, or an astronaut, or whatever, to show them that they can be anything.

Particularly for little girls watching at home.

Yeah. I just think it’s just so strange that it’s 2018 and now there’s still an uproar about the Doctor being a woman. People have female figures that they look up to in their life anyway, you know, so this is no different.

Doctor Who’s Mandip Gill recalls the moment she was asked to lose her Northern accent