I didn't ask her about hygiene when we met at the Cadogan Hall in London in front of 850 Times subscribers, but my instinct is that Miranda Hart would agree with me. She is one of those famous nice people who is even nicer than she's famous for being. And she seemed to be very clean.
Anyway, the evening's most popular question to Miranda — applauded as soon as asked — unfortunately didn't come from me. Would she, if offered, take on the role of the next Doctor Who? (Important note. For those of you who have been stranded by a time slip in 10th-century Mexico, it has just been announced that Matt Smith has had his last ride in the Tardis.)
The significance of the question is, of course, that Miranda is a WOMAN, and all previous Doctor Whos have been MEN. Was the world ready, headlines inquired, fora woman Doctor?
Now, I can imagine that in the Doctor Who fanworld there are those who (as in other backward religious denominations) can find reasons why a female person will not somehow do. Is the Doctor not a Time Lord from the all-male planet of Gallifrey? Where there are NO Time Ladies. And in any case the Doctor is marked by his essential fatherliness— here one moment to help the kids, gone the next when it suits him.
Reading the above you can see, as I can, that the genie's out. The arguments against can't fly and a woman Doctor it must be. So it might useful to the BBC to know that, as far as I could tell from her modest reply, Miranda Hart wouldn't say no.
If that all comes to pass then remember you read it here first. And if it doesn't, what am I? Caitlin Moran?
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