Billie on Parkinson

Saturday's Parkinson (19 Mar, ITV1, 10.15pm GMT) had Billie Piper as its second guest (yes, a major commercial channel was happily plugging a show that'll be on its main terrestrial rival!), following celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and preceding Ewan McGregor. For the benefit of Outpost Gallifrey readers who don't know the one-hour chat show's format, each interviewee stays on from arriving, which allows for a bit of interchange with one another as well as having their "exclusive" slot. Piper's main segment lasted 12 minutes, with just under five minutes of that specifically about the new series of Doctor Who, the rest focusing on her pop career and relationship/failed marriage to Chris Evans. As ever, she came across as bubbly, sparky and thoughtful. A clip (presumably from Rose) was shown - which actually revealed more of Christopher Eccleston's talents than Piper's; it's the one (also shown on Friday's Newsnight Review) in which the Doctor replies to Rose's question "Who are you?" - before Piper appeared on the Parkinson set.

She began by saying that she never used to watch Doctor Who, adding: "It's like one of those songs you hear at wedding receptions - you donÆt know how you know the words but you do and you sing along." She described the character of Rose as "contemporary", saying: "She's gutsy, she's ballsy and she goes with her instinct. She hardly ever applies logic and she's just a great girl." Asked by Parkinson what Rose was like with aliens, she said: "She's actually quite good in confrontation, because she'd rather kind of talk her way out of it as opposed to pulling any kind of crazy kick-boxing stunts - she's not too hot on those." Talking about the relationship between Rose and the Doctor, Piper said: "When they first set eyes on one another they fall in love with each other . . . She lives this very ordinary life. She gets up, she goes to work, she comes home. There's nobody really in her life that's challenging her ideas or broadening her horizons and then suddenly this 900-year-old bloke rocks up in a blue box and he's like 'Come with us' and she's like 'Yeah!' and she takes off! She's quite ruthless. She just ditches life as she knows it and hops in the old TARDIS."

Parkinson used the age-difference angle to move the interview on to talking about Piper's relationship with Chris Evans, noting "it's not the first time you've run away with a man older than yourself", which Piper took in good humour. She referred to how tough the 11-day-fortnight shooting schedule in Cardiff, which lasted almost a year, had been, keeping her and Evans apart when previously they had basically been living in each other's pockets, but reasoned that the split would have happened eventually anyway as they both wanted different things. Parkinson commented that Russell T Davies had said the next step for Piper would be Hollywood, and Piper, to her credit, gave a level-headed response of "Who knows what could happen?" She said she had no plans for the future right now and was just happy being in the moment. Describing herself as "a hopeless romantic", she said she hoped she would get married again sometime in the future, and that it might be in two months' time, maybe in five years. (Form an orderly queue, guys . . . ) (Thanks to John Bowman)