Peter Capaldi struggles to believe his wild Glastonbury stage cameo wasn’t ‘a dream’

Glastonbury Festival for most punters is a bit of a blur, but for Peter Capaldi he’s convinced the whole thing was ‘in his head’.

The Doctor Who legend shocked fans in 2025 when he walked out on stage, joining 00s icons Franz Ferdinand on the Other Stage.

At the time, frontman Alex Kapranos teased fans that ‘a fellow Glaswegian’ would be joining them after surprise set ‘rumours’ and ‘gossip’.

He then called Peter, 68, ‘the original Capaldi’ in a nod to Lewis Capaldi’s return to the Pyramid Stage to finish off his cut-short set from two years before.

While on The One Show, the Thick of It star chatted to host Roman Kemp, who witnessed the surprise cameo first-hand.

‘That’s incredible, you were actually physically there, because I feel as if it’s a dream,’ Peter quipped. ‘I feel as if it was in my head.’

‘You can tell me that it did actually happen. There I am, shades and everything.’

The actor had walked out in a bright red shirt under his black suit, with matching shoes and some sunglasses, looking every bit the rock star.

The surprise collaboration was branded by many as a highlight of the weekend, with Peter confessing he’s a big Franz Ferdinand fan.

Peter revealed the bass guitarist from his own band – which he noted is just for ‘fun’ – knew Franz Ferdinand’s drummer, Audrey Tait.

He’d been telling his band to play like the Do You Want To singers, which made her realise he was a massive fan.

Next thing the star knew, frontman and fellow Scot Alex was calling him up and asking him to play with them at Glastonbury.

Initially, Peter was a little reluctant, sharing: ‘What do you want me to sing? I’d seen on their new album they’d got a song called The Doctor.

‘I thought oh, it’s going to be one of those things, there’s going to be a tardis at the back, daleks will come out, I’ll bring my own [screw]driver.

‘But he said no, it’s Take Me Out. I said what your biggest hit? I’m there’.

Penned by Alex and former bandmate Nick McCarthy, the 00s anthem smashed through the 1,000,000,000 stream mark on Spotify last January.

The band told Metro at the time they still enjoy ‘watching the crowd go mental’ when they bring out those huge hits.

Franz Ferdinand are well accustomed to Glasto crowds by now, having played way back in 2009 as well as this latest Other Stage gig.

Peter admitted he hadn’t actually visited Worthy Farm up until that point, with a really specific reason for avoiding.

He explained: ‘I don’t like the idea, that you come and see a band and there’s some guy with a rock chick on his shoulders and you can’t see the band that you’ve paid to come see.

Cool as anything, he said he stayed for the afternoon but didn’t camp, adding the whole experience was ‘like a dream’.

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