Parenting & Family Quote by Simon Pegg

Pegg’s line is doing two jobs at once: it’s fan confession and industry diplomacy, delivered in the plainspoken register of someone who knows sincerity plays better than swagger. “Doctor Who was a big part of my childhood” isn’t just nostalgia; it’s a credential. In British pop culture, Doctor Who functions like a shared mythos - a show you don’t merely watch, you inherit. Pegg signals he’s not dropping in as a hired gun or a celebrity stunt-cast. He’s presenting himself as someone formed by the same messy, wobbly, low-budget imagination that made the series endure.

The second clause - “so it was a great honour to be in it” - smooths over the power dynamics of fame. By the time Pegg appears, he’s already a recognizable comic brand, but he flips the hierarchy: the show isn’t lucky to have him; he’s lucky to enter its world. That reversal matters because Doctor Who runs on a peculiar economy of legitimacy. It’s not “prestige TV” in the HBO sense; its authority comes from continuity, fandom, and national memory. Calling it an honour is a nod to that older kind of cultural capital.

There’s also a subtle bit of self-protection. For comedians especially, genre work risks looking like cosplay or kitsch. Pegg frames his participation as reverence rather than irony, pre-empting the wink. It’s a line aimed less at critics than at the fanbase: I’m one of you, and I’m treating your sacred text with care.