Itās worth saying, because I donāt think itās ever said enough⦠the reason Doctor Who is as successful ā I mean humanly successful ā for so long in such an enduring way ā and Iām just gonna say it because I donāt ever say it, but now Iām leaving Iāll say it ā it is actually the greatest television show ever made. Iām gonna prove it to you. There are probably press here who are āNo, itās The Wireā. Itās not The Wire. Itās not I Claudius. Itās not The Office. Itās not even Blue Planet. Itās Doctor Who and Iām gonna prove to whoever is doubting me the hardest that theyāre wrong to doubt me. How do you measure greatness? Do you measure it by ratings? Do you measure it by reviews? Christ no, of course you donāt. Do you measure it by perfection? Is Doctor Who perfect every week? No, itās not. It really isnāt. It canāt be. Because every episode of Doctor Who is an experiment, and if you experiment every single week, sometimes you get a faceful of soot and youāre blinking the smoke away and you look a bit ridiculous. That happens. Perfection is the refinement of boredom, itās doing the same thing all the time perfectly. Doctor Who, by always being different, can never be perfect. But yes, how do we measure its greatness? There are people who became writers because of Doctor Who. Loads of them. There are people who became artists because of Doctor Who. There are people who became actors because of Doctor Who. Two of them have played the Doctor. There are people, believe it or not, who become scientists because of Doctor Who. That seems improbable given we said the moon was an egg, youād think theyād have a problem with it. But people become scientists, people change their view of the world and what theyāre capable of, because of a silly show about a man who travels around in time and space in a police box. So, never mind the reviews. Never mind anything. Never mind the ratings. Never mind any of that. Count the scientists, the musicians, the scholars, the writers, the directors, the actors, who became what they are because of this show. Count, as you might say, the hearts that beat a little faster because of Doctor Who. I do not even know what is in second place, but without doubt, and by that most important measure, Doctor Who is the greatest television show ever made.