Joy To The World, written by Steven Moffat, will air on BBC One on Christmas Day and guest stars Nicola Coughlan opposite The Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa
Joining the Christmas special, alongside Couglan and revealed in Doctor Who Magazine, are Peter Benedict and Julia Watson as Basil and Hilda. Niamh Marie Smith will play Sylvia, Phil Baxter is Edmund Hillary, Samuel Sherpa-Moore is Tenzing Norgay, Steph de Whalley is Anita and Jonathan Aris played Melnak the Silurian.
Galway born actress, Couglan, has made a huge impact in film and television having starred in standout roles such as the hilarious Clare Devlin in award-winning drama comedy series Derry Girls, Penelope Featherington in the regency-era international sensation Bridgerton, and not to forget one of the Barbies in mega-blockbuster Barbie, alongside the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.
Doctor Who will then return in 2025 with Season 2, which will see The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) reunite alongside new companion played by Varada Sethu. Sethu made a surprise appearence in Season 1 as part of the cast of Boom.
Varada joins the Whoniverse from a galaxy far, far away after starring in the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor. Now she straps in for another journey through time and space alongside Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday.
On joining Doctor Who, Nicola Coughlan says:
“I’m excited to join the Whoniverse under the leadership of the inimitable Russell T Davies. I’ve been a fan of Ncuti Gatwa for some time and getting to share the screen with him as the Doctor has been an absolute joy”.
Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat has revealed the first details about this year’s Christmas special.
Bridgerton‘s Nicola Coughlan will be starring in the title role of ‘Joy to the World’ as a traveler checking into a London hotel over the festive period.
Before long, Joy’s quiet holiday is interrupted by a Silurian wandering into her hotel room and the sudden arrival of The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) to take her on a time-travelling adventure.
During an interview with BBC South East, Moffat confirmed that the special will take place “in the far, far future” where a hotel comes up with an unexpected use of time travel.
“Imagine that a hotel chain got hold of the idea of time travel,” he teased. “What’s the first thing a hotel would do if they had time travel? They’d realise they have an opportunity to sell all the unsold nights in their old hotels [throughout] history.”
The plot has a typically Moffat-style wibbly wobbly, timey wimey twist that was first seen in a teaser clip released over the summer. The Doctor pops from the Orient Express to World War II-era London to the present day in search of someone special.
While Moffat couldn’t reveal any more plot information about ‘Joy to the World’, he did share how excited he was to be writing a new Christmas special so many years after his Doctor Who showrunner stint.
“The truth is, I actually love doing Doctor Who Christmas,” he explained. “I’m a big fan of Christmas. I absolutely adore Christmas.”
The writer confirmed that Davies initially reached out to ask for his help because he was struggling to fit in time to write a 2024 Christmas special before moving on to next year’s full season.
Earlier this year, Steven Moffat said he was conflicted while writing the 2024 Christmas special since it may be the final time he writes for Doctor Who.
“As I got to the end of ‘Boom’ and ‘Joy to the World’, I did think, ‘Is that it? Is that the final moment?’ I think they both have quite good final moments for the Doctor, [so] I was thinking, ‘Yeah, that could be goodbye’,” he told TV Choice.
BBC To Mark Doctor Who’s 61st Anniversary with Unseen Material
Previously unseen moments from the 2024 season of Doctor Who will be here on the 23rd of November.
The BBC have teased that Doctor Who’s 61st Anniversary celebration won’t go completely without new Who to mark the day. Or, at least, new-ish content. Previously unseen deleted scenes from the 2024 season will be available for the first time on Saturday the 23rd of November. It’s not exactly three brand new specials starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. But then, 61 is usually a modest home cooked meal and maybe a glass of wine for most people, rather than the giant cake and number shaped balloons of 60. In any event, it’s a fun surprise. Especially when it had previously looked like we’d get no new footage of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor until Christmas Day.
The team’s social media post also had fun tying into today’s date: the 9th of November 2024 being the date on which Ruby Sunday’s 40 year journey back to the Doctor begins and ends in 73 Yards. For now, we’ll have to wait and see which episodes the upcoming deleted scenes are from.
Bid for Jodie Whittaker’s TARDIS for BBC Children In Need 2024
Doctor Who fans have a chance to buy Jodie Whittaker’s TARDIS from Eve of the Daleks in an upcoming auction to benefit BBC Children in Need.
The episode finds the Thirteenth Doctor (Whittaker) and her companions Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop) as they attempt to escape a time loop on New Year’s Eve – while also avoiding a Dalek trapped there with them.
The auction starts on Friday 15th November at 5pm and goes on until the same time on Saturday 23rd November, (Doctor Who’s 61st anniversary) with the coveted item expected to reach between £10,000 and £20,000 for the annual fundraiser. Propstore is handling the sale.
Whittaker said:
“Doctor Who has always been about helping others and making the world a better place, so it’s wonderful that my TARDIS can go on to support BBC Children in Need and make a real difference in children’s lives.”
That’s not the only piece of Doctor Who history going under the hammer this year, with Kylie Minogue’s costume from 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned also up for grabs.
Donned by the pop icon for her memorable turn as Astrid Peth, the black and white outfit will be auctioned for a shorter seven-hour period between 5pm and midnight on Friday 15th November – the night of the Children in Need telecast.
Although valued lower than the TARDIS itself, the garment is still expected to reach between £3,000 and £6,000, meaning neither will be a budget-priced early Christmas gift.
But with the work of BBC Children in Need being just as important as ever before, it’s hoped that these sales could make a hefty contribution to this year’s grand fundraising total.
This year’s Children in Need telecast will be fronted by a six-person presenting team including Vernon Kay, Rochelle Humes, Lenny Rush, Chris Ramsey, Ade Adepitan and Mel Giedroyc.
It has also been announced that a sneak preview of this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special – Steven Moffat’s Joy to the World – will be featured during the broadcast.
The festive episode stars Ncuti Gatwa and Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan.
Doctor Who To Feature in BBC Children In Need 2024
Nicola Coughlan in Doctor Who: Joy to the World (2024)
Get ready for a night of heart and sparkle! BBC Children in Need is back and brighter than ever, a must-watch event that lights up the viewing calendar and warms the hearts of audiences everywhere. The three-hour extravaganza broadcast live from MediaCity UK in Salford promises to dazzle the nation whilst raising life-changing funds for children and young people across the UK. The need has never been greater as the charity is only able to fund 1 in 8 of the organisations who ask for money.
Ade Adepitan MBE, Mel Giedroyc, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay, Chris Ramsey and Lenny Rush will present a jam-packed evening of sketches and performances featuring well-known faces as you have never seen them before.
Highlights on the night include:
This year, for the first time ever, the BBC Children in Need Choir will feature children from across all parts of the UK who’ve been supported by BBC Children in Need funded projects. They’ll come together in the studio to sing the anthemic Take That classic ‘Never Forget’.
Graham Norton’s Red Chair is back with a twist as a group of children from BBC Children in Need projects decide the fate of some famous faces who attempt to make the children laugh. Fail and they and the chair will be tipped up.
The One Show’s Challenge Squad, which features young people who have been supported by BBC Children in Need projects, will culminate in two live performances in the BBC Children in Need Studio, alongside some very special guests including the multi-platinum selling artist Ella Henderson. The audience can also expect a special performance from the cast of COME ALIVE! The Greatest Showman, which is a brand-new Circus Spectacular.
There is an out-of-this-world treat for Doctor Who fans as BBC Children in Need launches a very special auction. Plus, the fifteenth Doctor himself – Ncuti Gatwa – introduces a world exclusive preview from the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special.
Paddy McGuinness will find out the total raised by his Radio 2 Ultra Endurance Cycle Challenge, which will see him cycle through three nations and eight countries in aid of BBC Children in Need’s 2024 Appeal.
Also viewers can look forward to a visit from the stars of BBC’s Gladiators, as you’ve never seen them before as well as a very special performance from Strictly Come Dancing as the professionals are joined by a Global Superstar. Other treats include an important pitch in Dragons’ Den and a very special CBeebies Bedtime Story.
Money raised during the 2024 appeal will help BBC Children in Need to continue working in communities across the four nations, funding amazing people in family centres, community spaces, youth clubs and refuges; homeless shelters, hospices and helplines. This year, BBC Children in Need is asking the public to make life lighter for children all across the UK.
Throughout the night, appeal films will feature some of the children and young people whose lives have been changed through the support of BBC Children in Need, and the project workers who work tirelessly to help them.
More highlights from the evening – including comedy sketches – will be announced in the coming weeks.
BBC Children in Need will air at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer on Friday 15 November
Terror of the Zygons and Seeds of Doom Removed From BBC iPlayer
Terror Of The Zygons and The Seeds Of Doom which opened and closed season 13 (1975/76) and starred Tom Baker as The Doctor have been removed from the BBC iPlayer as the BBC “do not have the rights to make them available.” [Ed: It is not yet clear the reasons behind this move, however both stories were written by Robert Banks Stewart!]
A BBC iPlayer spokesperson added:
“Our programmes are only available for a set amount of time and after this expires, they are removed from iPlayer. How long we can make content available for comes down to the rights agreements, or there could be legal or technical issues that affects it. We aim to make programmes available for as long as we possibly can.”
Both Terror Of The Zygons and The Seeds Of Doom are both still available on BritBox and ITVX (via Premium subscription). GNR has approached the BBC Media Centre for comment and further clarification.
These two classic adventures join Doctor Who’s first ever serial An Unearthly Child in not being available on iPlayer. An Unearthly Child is subject to a rights dispute. A BBC spokesperson said at the time:
“[The Whoniverse is] the biggest ever collection of Doctor Who programming in one place but will not include the first four episodes as we do not have all the rights to those.”
The BBC Didn’t Censor Ncuti Gatwa Over ‘Doctor Who’ Being Renewed ?
BBC Cuts Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who Comment “Confirming” a Third Series for the 15th Doctor | Doctor Who TV
When Ncuti Gatwa recorded The Graham Norton Show last Thursday, he delivered what appeared to be good news for Doctor Who fans: his third season as the Time Lord would shoot next year.
Gatwa’s comments were briefed to the press by The Graham Norton Show‘s publicity team on Friday morning, but his quote mysteriously changed when the chat show broadcast on BBC1 later that evening.
Speaking to Norton on the famous red sofa, Gatwa originally revealed:
“We did the second series this year, the Christmas special is coming up, and we are filming a third series next year.”
But when the show aired, this was edited to:
“We finished the second season earlier this year, we’ve got the Christmas episode coming out … at Christmas … But it’s been amazing.”
The Graham Norton Show warns journalists that it is not unusual for certain quotes fail to make the final cut, but the switch led some Whovians to question whether Gatwa’s remarks had been censored by the BBC amid uncertainty over Doctor Who’s future.
The truth is rather more mundane. Speaking with Deadline it was stated that The Graham Norton Show made the edit to liven up Gatwa’s answer and was not obeying a “sinister” request from BBC bosses.
Indeed, the Doctor Who team was not involved in brokering the interview, given the Sex Education star was promoting his appearance in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre.
The BBC has, however, distanced itself from Gatwa’s remarks, restating that Doctor Who will not be renewed until the actor’s second season has premiered next year on BBC1 and Disney+.
“As we’ve said previously, the decision on season three will be made after season two transmits and as always we don’t comment on speculation,” a spokesperson said. Season 2 will likely launch next spring.
There is said to be some confusion about why Gatwa made the comment, particularly given showrunner Russell T Davies has echoed the BBC’s position about future seasons.
“The decision to commission Season 3 won’t be made until after Season 2 has transmitted. And that’s always been the deal since the start,”
Davies said in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. The writer has previously said he has started work on Season 3 scripts and that he is “very confident” about a renewal.
The Graham Norton Show incident has provoked another round of questions about Doctor Who’s future, not least a front-page story in The Daily Mirror from Nicola Methven, who is well-sourced on the Bad Wolf and BBC Studios-produced franchise.
Deadline reported in July that Disney is uncertain about whether it will continue to co-produce Doctor Who beyond 2025. The Mouse House’s commitment is critical to budgets, storylines, and casting, meaning its withdrawal could mean major changes to the show.
Liam Keelan, Disney’s SVP of original productions in EMEA, declined to comment on a future greenlight at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August. He did, however, hail Doctor Who as a “really good fit” for Disney+.
Gatwa’s own future on the series is also up in the air. A source told Deadline that “he might not be long for the job” as he explores other roles. His rep has been contacted for comment.
What seems certain is that Doctor Who fans will have to wait until 2027 before a follow-up to next year’s season. It remains to be seen in what form the sci-fi franchise will regenerate.
NCuti Gatwa Indicates his involvement in Series 16?
Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa reveals ‘we’re filming third season’ on The Graham Norton Show.
Recent press reports are stating that Ncuti Gatwa is returning to film a third series of Doctor Who in 2025. However, it appears the situation is not quite so clear-cut.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Ncuti Gatwa was widely reported to have confirmed his future involvement, indicating at a third run for his Doctor. However, this part of his comment was notably edited out from the final BBC broadcast, raising questions about the certainty of these plans.
Originally, Ncuti Gatwa was reported as saying:
“It is all going well. We did the second series this year, the Christmas special is coming up, and we are filming a third series next year.”
But in the final broadcast version of the interview, Gatwa said:
“It’s all going well. We finished the second season earlier this year, we’ve got the Christmas episode coming out … at Christmas … But it’s been amazing.”
While fans took his original comment as a clear confirmation of a future series beyond next year, the decision to omit the part about the third series filming suggests that things are still very much up in the air.
Adding to that, Russell T Davies reiterated that no official commission for Series 16—or “Season 3,” as he referred to it—has been made (yet).
“The decision to commission Season 3 won’t be made until after Season 2 has aired,” Davies said in this month’s DWM (released last week). “And that’s always been the arrangement since the start.”
It is entirely likely that there are at least plans for filming and Gatwa is just getting a bit ahead of himself. This all will likely be dependent on the Disney+ deal and their plans with the show after their two seasons have aired as it is far from clear at the moment whether Disney will extend their involvement with Doctor Who beyond their initial two season deal or whether the BBC will look for another partner, perhaps even bringing it back fully in-house, only time will tell!
Ed: Were you in the studio audience for this recording of The Graham Norton Show, can you let us know exactly what was said, if so, we’d love to hear from you!
Ncuti Gatwa confirmed for Graham Norton Show appearance
Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has been confirmed for an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, with the actor part of a stacked line-up.
For the episode on Friday October 11, Gatwa will talk about his stint in the TARDIS and his upcoming role on the stage in The Importance of Being Earnest, which gets underway in November.
He’ll be joined on the famous red sofa by Zoe Saldaña, who has appeared in the Marvel, Avatar and Star Trek franchises.
The star, who played Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, will be joined by her Emilia Pérez co-star Selena Gomez, with the pair chatting about the upcoming musical.
The final celebrity in the line-up will be Miranda Hart, with the comedian set to discuss her life ahead of the release of her memoir, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honestwith You.
Gatwa, who has also starred in Sex Education and Barbie, had his first set of adventures as the iconic Time Lord earlier this year, with the series following his journey across space and time with companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).
One notable aspect of the newest series was the emphasis on costuming, which Gatwa spoke to Digital Spy about earlier this year.
“The Doctor’s travelled throughout time and space. He’s been to a few thrift shops. He’s got a large, large wardrobe. You will see a lot of outfits,” he said.
“Pam Downe is our costume designer. She is incredible. She is a force of nature and just amazing. She would just present us with the most incredible designs and then we get to talk to her and we can choose and obviously we would speak about the episode and what is going to be needed practically but also what makes us look hot. It’s an important part.”
David Graham, the actor who provided one of the original Dalek voices has died aged 99.
On-screen, Graham appeared in two episodes of the first series of Doctor Who as an actor, but became much better known as the unemotional, harsh voice of the Daleks.
“I created it with Peter Hawkins, another voice actor, we adopted this staccato style then they fed it through a synthesiser to make it more sinister.”
William Hartnell as Dr Who, Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman and three Daleks, in a black-and-white image from Doctor Who in 1963.
Graham was born in London on 11 July 1925. His sister had married a G.I. and had moved to the United States, and his uncle had run away there, and so he became an actor after leaving his Orthodox Jewish household. He trained in New York City, at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre with Sanford Meisner, following service in the Royal Air Force as a radar mechanic.
Graham returned to England and began his theatre career, his breakout role being as Givola in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, alongside Leonard Rossiter. A friend of his, actor Christopher Benjamin, recommended the role to him. He was then recommended by director Michael Blakemore to audition for Laurence Olivier’s theatre company, eventually appearing alongside him in Saturday Sunday Monday, using an Italian accent.
While playing characters in the TV series Private Investigator in 1958, Graham met writer and producer Gerry Anderson, who was planning his first puppet productions. Graham said that he could pull off accents well, which led to his first voiceover role in Four Feather Falls, as Grandpa Twink, who he based on Walter Brennan. He would subsequently voice Dr. Beaker, Zarin and Mitch the Monkey in Supercar, Mat Matic and Lieutenant Ninety in Fireball XL5 and various guest characters in Stingray. Graham would also play Johnny in Crossroads to Crime, a live-action film Anderson directed.
In 1963, he became the voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who, alongside Peter Hawkins, who devised the way they spoke. He believed Hawkins would always play superior and higher-pitched Daleks, while he voiced with a lower-pitch. He voiced the Daleks in all four of their major First Doctor era appearances, as well as two 1960s feature films: Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., departing due to other commitments, although he and Hawkins would remain lifelong friends. Graham also voiced the Mechonoids and played the onscreen role of Charlie in The Gunfighters. He returned to his role as the voice of the Daleks in 2023, when he recorded new lines for that year’s official colourised recut of the 1963 serial The Daleks for the show’s 60th anniversary.
In 1965, Graham became the voices of Gordon Tracy, Brains, Aloysius Parker and Kyrano in Thunderbirds, as well as its film sequels: Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6. He did not believe Brains had a stutter, claiming that he was instead trying to find the words to explain his latest ideas excitedly. He based the voice of Parker on a waiter at the King’s Arms pub in Cookham, and he and Ray Barrett shared many of the guest villains. Although he was not highly paid for production, the many repeats earned him a lot more, and Parker became Anderson’s favourite voice.
David Graham as Professor Kerensky in Doctor Who: City of Death (1979)
Between 1975 and 1977, Graham was part of the Radio Drama Company. In 1979, he played Professor Kerensky in the Doctor Who story City of Death. He, later, played the role of Big Brother in the “1984” television Super Bowl advert to introduce the Apple Macintosh computer before reuniting with Hawkins and his wife, Rosemary Miller, to provide voices together in the English dub of German animated film Stowaways on the Ark. In 2004, Graham became the voice of Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig, having known creator Mark Baker from when he was younger. The following year he played Albert Einstein in a Horizon docudrama, for which he was very proud that the BBC would select him to play the lead role.
In 2009, Graham began playing Edward Elgar in Stirring the Spirit, for which he thoroughly researched the composer, and would reprise the role many times over the next decade. From 2015 to 2020, he reprised his role as Parker in Thunderbirds Are Go, a reboot of the original series. Although Kayvan Novak took over as Brains, Graham had wanted to reprise that role as well. Most of his dialogue was recorded with Rosamund Pike, who played Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward.
In April 2021, Graham announced his retirement from his Thunderbirds characters. In December, actor George Layton, a long-time friend of Graham’s, announced on Twitter that Graham had suffered a stroke six months earlier and was unable to leave his home in London. However, Layton stated that Graham was recovering by performing voice-overs, and he has since conducted interviews from his home.
Graham died on 20 September 2024, at the age of 99.
