10 Most British Doctor Who Moments

7. British Pop-Culture References

Doctor Who Army Of Ghosts Barbara Windsor as Peggy Mitchell
BBC

Though the Doctor Who universe is different from our own in many ways, it still has loads of the same pop-culture touchstones.

Over the years the show has featured specially-shot segments of other television programmes (usually those owned by the BBC) starring real-world actors and presenters.

In the early years of NuWho we had children's educational show Blue Peter showing viewers how to make a Slitheen spaceship-inspired cake, soap opera icon Peggy Mitchell coming face to face with a "ghost", and Alan Sugar firing someone for failing to sell Shakri cubes on The Apprentice.

More recently we’ve had cameos from presenters such as Emily Maitlis, Amol Rajan and Davina McCall, all playing versions of themselves.

Doctor Who The Church on Ruby Road Davina McCall
BBC Studios

These moments became a staple of the show during RTD's grounded and relatable revival, intended to give that bit more credibility to the Whoniverse by making it feel like it takes place in our world.

And if the aim was to make the people of Britain do that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme, then they succeeded in that too.

There are also those less-obvious references, like Graham revealing that he’s seen every episode of Call the Midwife, or the Thirteenth Doctor revealing herself as a Great British Bake-Off fan by giving Joseph Williamson a Hollywood handshake.

What next? A cameo from Louis Theroux? The Doctor becoming the new host of Strictly?! Stranger things have happened.

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Doctor Who fan/YouTuber and writer of GO FIGURE, the unofficial guide to Character Options' 5.5" Doctor Who action figures!