‘Doctor Who’ Announces Two Of The Guest Stars For Ncuti Gatwa’s First Season
The BBC has announced two of the guest stars joining Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor – one familiar face, and one new face.
Jemma Redgrave reprises her role as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of UNIT, last seen in the finale of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor late last year. Also joining is Aneurin Barnard, as a character called “Roger ap Gwilliam”…
“Jemma Redgrave returns as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in Ncuti & Millie’s first series,” commented showrunner Russel T Davies on social media. “Also starring Aneurin Barnard as the mysterious Roger ap Gwilliam (ap is Welsh for ‘son of’, he’s not an app. OR IS HE??) Such great actors, we’re so lucky.”
Barnard has a number of credits to his name. On tv, he played Richard III in ‘The White Queen’, Robert “Bobby” Willis Jr. in ‘Cilla’, and popped up as Doctor Holford in ‘Peaky Blinders’. He most recently appeared in the Netflix drama ‘1899’. On the movie side, he appeared in films such as ‘Dunkirk’, ‘The Goldfinch’, and ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’.
Redgrave first appeared as Lethbridge-Stewart in the 2012 episode “The Power of Three” with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. The character also worked with Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor and Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor. She is the daughter of the legendary Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (played by Nicholas Courtney), who worked with a number of the earlier incarnations of The Doctor.
During a recent (hilariously fun!) panel at Wales Comic-Con (you can watch it here), Redgrave was lobbying hard for a UNIT spin-off series, so it’s nice to see that RTD had brought the character of Lethbridge-Stewart back again on the main show. Maybe Jemma will get her wish…
The Fifteenth Doctor won’t be alone in the TARDIS when Gatwa takes over the role later this year. He will be joined by Millie Gibson (‘Coronation Street’) who plays new companion “Ruby Sunday”. However, before we get to all of this, we have David Tennant starring as the Fourteenth Doctor in three specials to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the series in late 2023. Ncuti Gatwa will fully take over the role in the Christmas 2023 episode.
2023 is set to be a big year for ‘Doctor Who’, both in front of and behind the camera. On-screen we have the 60th anniversary and Tennant’s return, along with Gatwa’s new Doctor and Gibson’s new companion. Behind the camera, Russel T Davies is back at the TARDIS controls, and is joined on the show by Bad Wolf, the production company set up by former Who execs, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter. In addition to that, the BBC and Disney Branded Television have joined forces to make Disney+ the new global home, outside of the UK and Ireland, securing a nice chunk of cash for future seasons of ‘Doctor Who’.
‘Doctor Who‘ returns to screens in November 2023 with Tennant starring in three specials to coincide with the 60th-anniversary which will premiere exclusively on the BBC for the UK and Ireland. Ncuti Gatwa then takes over in Christmas 2023 as the Fifteenth Doctor. Disney+ will air the series internationally.
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