Peter Capaldi
Actor and musician Peter Capald joins Vernon Kay to choose ten songs that soundtrack his life, including The Beatles, Sex Pistols, Willie Nelson, David Bowie and Taylor Swift.
Star of Doctor Who, The Thick Of It and many more, actor and musician Peter Capaldi joins Vernon Kay to choose ten songs that soundtrack his life, including The Beatles, Sex Pistols, Willie Nelson, David Bowie and Taylor Swift.
Peter discusses his Glasgow childhood, his failure to get into drama school and the punk band he formed at art school. He gives insights into the musical references behind his beloved characters from The Thick Of It and Doctor Who, releasing his own music in his 60s and joining Franz Ferdinand on stage at Glastonbury. We find out popstar he and his grandson both love and which of his favourite artists he put his foot in it with when he met them!
Born in Glasgow in 1958, Peter first found drama and music whilst in school, performing with youth theatre groups and fronting a punk rock band called the Dreamboys. His professional career took off in the 80s with numerous roles on stage, television and film. His first starring role in television came in 1992 with the BBC series Mr Wakefield's Crusade and during the 90s he also began to occasionally write and direct as well. He created the short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, released in 1993, which won a Bafta and Oscar for Best Short Film. One of his best-known roles began in 2005 when he starred as political spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the acclaimed comedy The Thick Of It - for which we won a Bafta in 2010. Having been a fan of the show Doctor Who since a child, and having played a small role in the show before, he joined the show as the Doctor in 2013, playing the role in forty episodes across the next four years, before leaving in 2017. In that time he also appeared in Paddington and Paddington 2. Since leaving Doctor Who he has starred in films such as The Personal History of David Copperfield and The Suicide Squad, as well as the TV series The Devil's Hour. A keen musician, Peter released his debut solo studio album St Christopher in 2021, followed by a second, Sweet Illusions, in 2025. He also was a surprise guest at last year's Glastonbury festival, when he joined Franz Ferdinand on stage to play Take Me Out. Peter is currently starring in the second series of Criminal Record, on Apple TV.
