A scene from the Doctor Who Christmas Special.
After the serious end to the 2015 season of Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi is relieved the Christmas special has a few laughs to it.
In Auckland last month, Capaldi said the one-off, which brings back the character of Doctor Who's onetime missus, River Song (Alex Kingston), is "very light and
very funny".
"The character of River Song doesn't really believe I am the Doctor - the last Doctor she saw was Matt Smith. He was rather young and glamorous and hot, and now she has this grey, harried stick insect, which she can't really buy.
"So I have to try and persuade her that I am the Doctor. But there are also monsters and spaceships and flying saucers and the usual goodies we have at Christmas."
The hour-long seasonal show, titled "The Husbands of River Song", finds the Doctor busy avoiding carol singers, comedy antlers and Christmas generally, when there's a knock on his door from a bumbling, bobble-hatted messenger (Matt Lucas in a delightfully daft turn).
