My problem is that the audience is more fiction-literate than ever. In Shakespeare's day, you probably expected to see a play once or twice in your life; today you experience four or five different kinds of fiction every day. So staying ahead of the audience is impossible.

I wouldn't mind removing all the mistakes I have made. That would be exhausting and take forever. Honestly, it's one of the spells of my life that has been the most perfect. Not because I did the job perfectly, because of course I did it very imperfectly, but because I enjoyed it so much. What would I change? I complain a lot. I whinge, I more or less communicate in levels of complaint so I wish sometimes I didn't just spend all my time saying, 'I'm working so hard, what do I get in return for this?'.

So is this how it works Doctor? You never interfere with the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there are children crying?

I can say with pride verging on smugness that I've got two very successful shows that assume their audience is very smart.

Demons run when a good man goes to war. Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war. Friendship dies and true love lies. Night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war. Demons run but count the cost; the battle's won but the child is lost.

Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives.

Though the man above might say hello, expect no love from the beast below