Peter Capaldi says he was questioned in connection with a bombing in 1975

‘Doctor Who’ star called the mix-up ‘scary’

Peter Capaldi has recalled the “scary” time he was questioned in connection with a bomb explosion.

The star of The Thick of It and Doctor Who recounted the incident in a Q&A with The Guardian.

When asked what his closest brush with the law was, he said: “In 1975, in York, I must have been 17, there was a bomb explosion. It was 3am, I was with some pals and we were picked up by the police who, hearing our Scottish accents, seemed to connect us to the explosion.”

He added: “We were taken in for questioning, which was scary, but it didn’t take them long to suss out these youngsters were incapable of a bomb plot.”

It is not clear which explosion Capaldi was referring to. In 1975, there were numerous IRA bombings in the UK, including in Manchester, London and Caterham in Surrey.

In the same interview, Capaldi recalled the worst thing anyone has ever said to him. “In volleyball, my PE teacher would say, ‘The most important thing is to find the fault in the other team,’” said Capaldi. “And then he would throw the ball at me – I was the fault. That was teaching in the west of Scotland in the 1970s.”

Capaldi can next be seen in the play Constellations at the Vaudeville theatre in London.

He also has a role in the forthcoming movie The Suicide Squad, alongside Margot Robbie, and he will star as Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction, the biopic of the poet writer and soldier.