SCOTS actor Peter Capaldi says he expects to get very emotional when his time as Doctor Who comes to an end.

The 58-year-old will finish his three-year stint as the BBC Doctor following filming of the show’s Christmas special in July.

He said he would “possibly” cry on the final day, and added: “They’re such a nice group of people here, I’ll miss them terribly. I’ve never done anything for three years before. Also, it’s a kind of magical thing, Doctor Who.

“It’s connected to my childhood and it brings this very warm response from people, children and fans of all different stripes. But then it’s over.”

Capaldi said he feels “very blessed” to have been able to stay in the role for so long, unlike many actors who have to “go from job to job”, but thinks he has held the role for long enough.

He said: “I was not sure how long you could keep doing this and be doing your best. My fear was that if I went on, I’d end up phoning it in.

“Because there is so little preparation time, you’re mostly flying by the seat of your pants, which is exciting but I worry I might not be able to keep on doing it as well as I’d like to.”

When his time on the show comes to an end, he plans to take his wife, actor Elaine Collins, for a holiday as he has spent a long time seeing her only at weekends.

He made the comments during an interview with a Sunday magazine, discussing his life growing up in Glasgow and his acting career.

Having been rejected from drama school as a youngster, a teacher suggested he apply to study art as he had a talent for drawing.

Despite going to the Glasgow School of Art, Capaldi said he had a lot of opportunities to act in students’ films and said: “If I’d gone to drama school, I think I would have become a very dull actor. Their idea was to sort of blank out the person you were and make you a new person, and that would not have been good.”

The actor said his life changed when he got a bit of “pure luck” and was offered a starring role in The Thick Of It in 2004.

Prior to playing volatile spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, Capaldi said he had spent most of that year “miserable, and thinking it was so bad we might have to sell the house.”

He added he learned most about acting from a fellow Glaswegian, director Armando Iannucci, “because he creates a whole way of working that is radical.”

Iannucci, according to Capaldi, works in a distinct way as he focuses more on the script and the way it is written than camera angles and shots.

Capaldi explained that once he had worked with Iannucci, like many actors he found it “difficult to go back”.

Following his role as Doctor Who, Capaldi said he is unsure of what he will go on to next but he’d “done enough of being a man in a suit”.

He said: “I want to do something different, with a big wig. I want to get dressed up.

“I don’t really want to do another political thing. I’ve done enough of that, being a man in a suit shouting at other men in suits.”