Jessica Hynes is a tentpole of British nerd culture. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are often touted as creating the geeky masterpiece known as Spaced, but Hynes served as co-creator and co-writer, as well as starring as Daisy, the wannabe writer who ends up faking a relationship with Pegg’s wannabe artist to get a deal on rent. Hynes’ work on the series, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last week, coincided with another project she was working on. “My son is 25 now,” she tells Inverse. “He was three months old when we were filming the first series.”
Spaced is still finding a new audience a quarter-century later, even if its then-timely references to The Phantom Menace and Babylon 5 haven’t always aged well. “I think nothing can ever really truly stand the test of time,” Hynes says, “but what I do enjoy so much is when young people come up to me and say, ‘Oh my God, it's you, my parents made me watch the show.’ One day, it'll be ‘my grandparents.’”
Hynes is returning to nerd space yet again with The Franchise, a new HBO comedy series about the making of a big-budget superhero movie. She plays Steph, the long-suffering assistant to director Eric (Daniel Brühl). But there’s another sci-fi role in her resume that won fans over in just two short episodes, and the time might be right for her to return.
In 2007, Hynes played Joan Redfern in a two-part Season 13 Doctor Who adventure that spanned the episodes “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood.” Redfern lived in 1913 and worked as a nurse and teacher at a boys’ school, where she met The Doctor, who’d undergone a process to turn himself into a human, John Smith, to avoid detection for reasons too dorky to get into here. Redfern fell in love with him, but when he regained his Time Lord identity, he left Redfern behind but gave her a “Journal of Impossible Things,” a collection of half-remembered adventures from John Smith’s dreams.
Three years later, in the Tenth Doctor’s last moments, he went to a book signing of Verity Newman, Joan Redfern’s great-granddaughter (also played by Hynes), who turned an old journal she found in her attic into a book. When she meets The Doctor, she realizes she’s looking at the man she wrote about.
Verity Newman only appeared in that one scene, but her connection to the Doctor spans generations. Joan Redfern was a fan-favorite character, and for a moment, it looked like we’d get to see her descendant carry on her story. But now there’s a new opportunity for her to return: Russell T. Davies, who was showrunner in 2007, is now back at the helm.
Hynes has a long history of working with Davies, from his 2001 drama series Bob and Rose through the 2019 dystopia Years and Years, and she has nothing but great things to say about him. “I think Russell T. Davies is one of the most incredible British writers,” she tells Inverse. “We're so lucky to have him in our cultural firmament, doing what he does, being as brilliant as he is. So the fact that I've got to work with him multiple times is an absolute highlight of my career for sure.”
But how would the series bring back Verity? What could she be up to, a decade after she met one of her novel’s characters face to face? “I think she's probably still writing books,” Hynes says. “She probably lives in a little homestead somewhere in the UK. I think she might have goats, she's trying to live a sustainable life. She's just trying to write her novels.” It sounds like an idyllic, quiet existence that would be perfect for interrupting with a chaotic Doctor Who adventure.
