Peter Hoar, the director of Season Two openerThe Robot Revolutionand the return of Ruby Sunday inLucky Day, talks to Lisa Gledhill about monsters, management and creating the moments that kids will remember.

P eter Hoar is happy to be back on Doctor Who. Since directing A Good Man Goes to War back in 2011 he’s worked on a string of TV hits including Daredevil and The Last Kingdom, as well as winning BAFTAs for his work on It’s a Sin and The Last of Us. But lifelong Who fans like Peter can never resist another chance to work on our favourite show (just ask Russell T Davies or Steven Moffat.)

“It was good to go back”, confirms Peter, “but it was quite different as well. I mean, I know it’s principally the same show but every episode [of Doctor Who] is so different that it never feels the same. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about it.”

There have been some pretty significant changes to the way the show is produced since Peter was last in the Director’s chair, so has that changed his approach to the work? “Well, I guess there is a difference in approach, because if I had directed it in 1980 or something, I would have had a different approach to the people in 1960. It almost feels like that, but at the same time it’s not different. You read the script and you react accordingly, and you’re as ambitious as you can be with what’s available to you. I think I had the same amount of days to shoot these episodes as I did back in 2011, so that part of it hasn’t changed. The set builds, the costumes, the prosthetics, and all of that, are definitely elevated to a much higher standard. I think previous Who would have probably gone, ‘right, we need a planet, but that’s going to take up most of the budget, so we’ll put the planet in two episodes to make it cost effective.’ There was always a lot of that going on. Whereas I think now, they’re kind of in a world where they can do whatever they need, but Russell is still being ambitious with it. A lot has happened in 10 years in terms of how we consume our media. I think people are more demanding, but ultimately stories are stories, and I think if the story works people will pay attention.”