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Peter Capaldi: 'Doctor Who' failed to be scary because it was cheap

Peter Capaldi confirms he won't return to Doctor Who
Peter Capaldi has claimed the sets and costumes on Doctor Who were all held together with duct tape. (BBC)

Peter Capaldi has said the special effects on Doctor Who are too cheap to be scary.

The 63-year-old actor — who played the 12th incarnation of the Doctor — contrasted the BBC show's production values with those of new Hollywood movie The Suicide Squad, in which he stars as supervillain The Thinker.

Capaldi told Digital Spy: "With Doctor Who, we don't really have enough – everything on Doctor Who falls to pieces, all of the props fall to pieces and the costumes have to be stuck together with duct tape and Velcro and stuff.

Read more: Billie Piper tips Helena Bonham Carter to be the next 'Doctor Who' lead

"With [The Suicide Squad], everybody looked as good in real life as they look in the movies. They weren't all just held together with safety pins."

Peter Capaldi stars in The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.)
Peter Capaldi stars as The Thinker in The Suicide Squad. (Warner Bros.)

He added: "That's what I like, [about Doctor Who], I like the kind of B movie kind of cobbled together, quality of it. That it's really there's never really quite enough money, but the ideas are often very special, that's what I like – but it's also nice to be somewhere where they do have enough money to make the monsters look... scary."

The Thick Of It star said The Suicide Squad "was totally different because it was so much bigger... And also there was more money!"

Capaldi was replaced by Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor in 2018.

Peter Capaldi confirms he won't return to Doctor Who
Peter Capaldi said the special effects on Doctor Who are too cheap to be scary. (BBC)

He joins Margot Robbie, Idris Elba and John Cena and a host of other stars in the new DC Comics movie, a standalone sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad.

Director James Gunn recently told Yahoo: "I did it as a joke, man! I didn’t really do it as a joke but I didn’t know what to call the movie...

Read more: Olly Alexander issues fan-tastic response to rumours he will be next star of Doctor Who

“I didn’t want it to be something that was this long awkward title...

“But for my first draft, when I gave it to the studio I just [thought], ‘Ah screw it,’ I just put The Suicide Squad on there. I thought it was kind of funny. And they were like, ‘Yeah, we love this. This works. Let’s do this.’"

Watch: Peter Capaldi sings David Bowie's Starman at sci-fi convention